Diabetic Dramas
Date & Time:
02/07/2009 - 13:00 - 16:00
Co-sponsor:
CANCELLED
Description:
Award-winning actress Robbie McCauley returns to the Brecht Forum to lead
a series of workshops called "Diabetic Dramas" based on subject matter
from her performance piece, Sugar, which looks at everything there is to
see about sugar, from slavery to colonialism to American mythologies to
diabetes. An ongoing work-in-progress, Sugar, which will be presented again
at the Brecht Forum in June, will incorporate some of the story exchanges
by participants in the "Diabetic Dramas" workshops facilitated by Ms.
McCauley. Through the interweaving of stories, images, facts and lore we
will see that diabetes is not only a medical issue but also one of race
and class, and we will also see how sugar is sometimes something that is
very bittersweet.
The workshops will be held on:
Friday, January 23, 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Saturday, February 7, 1:00 - 4:00 pm
Saturday, March 21, 1:00 - 4:00 pm
Saturday, April 25, 1:00 - 4:00 pm
Bios:
Robbie McCauley has been an active presence in the American avant-garde
theater for three decades. One of the early cast members of Ntozake
Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is
enuf, Ms. McCauley went on to write and perform regularly in cities across
the country, striving to facilitate dialogs on race between local whites
and blacks.
In the 1990s, she received both an OBIE Award (Best Play) and a New York
Dance and Performance (BESSIE) Award for Sally's Rape, which she wrote,
directed and performed.
A core member of the American Festival Project, she has practiced and
taught theater in several communities throughout the US and abroad. She is
anthologized in several books, including Extreme Exposure; Moon Marked and
Touched by Sun; and Performance and Cultural Politics, edited respectively
by Jo Bonney, Sydne Mahone, and Elin Diamond.
In 1998, her Buffalo Project was highlighted as one of the "the 51 (or so)
Greatest Avant-Garde Moments" by the Village Voice, a roster that included
work by artists such as Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, and John Cage. Her
recent piece, Sugar, a work in progress, was presented at Ohio State
University in collaboration with several institutional departments and
organizations, and with members of Columbus' Near East community.
Robbie McCauley is on the Performing Arts Department faculty at Emerson
College in Boston.
Fee:
CANCELLED
OUR SPECIAL THANKS! The Brecht Forum owes its existence to a broad network of support. Our modest fees cover only a fraction of our costs and we rely on the progressive community for our financial survival. Hundreds of valued subscribers and donors provide steady contributions to all of our activities. Our programs are made possible with support from Manhattan Neighborhood Network, The Surdna Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.
