James Scruggs's "Disposable Men" at HERE

HERE Arts Center is proud to present the premiere of James Scruggs's African-American odyssey Disposable Men, directed by HERE's co-founder and Executive Director Kristin Marting, beginning Friday, February 4 and running through Saturday, February 12. Performances are Fri–Sun, Tues–Sat, at 8:30 PM (post-performance discussions on Feb. 9 & 10 with Dr. Carlyle Van Thompson, Woodrow Wilson Fellow on Humanities at Medgar Evers College). Tickets are $20: Call SmartTix at 212.868.4444 or visit www.here.org. Disposable Men is part of HERE's 2004–05 Season featuring six original multidisciplinary productions developed by their resident artists, four festivals, three visual art exhibitions and the anticipated purchase of their space.

Old-fashioned storytelling pairs with new media in Disposable Men. This humorous solo work presents a series of interactive monologues demonstrating the flippant irreverence with which the popular media treats the disposability of African-American men. With a witty sardonicism, Scruggs plays characters as varied as a waiter at a theme restaurant that features customized lynchings, a modern day minstrel performing at kid's parties, and more. This is all performed with an underlying motif of the shockingly close relationship that Hollywood monsters and African American men share. Especially the imaginative, over-the-top ways both are feared, killed, and ultimately, disposed of.

For this richly interactive environment, creator/performer James Scruggs uses a robotic video projector that makes roving images of King Kong and the men of Tuskeegee leap off the screen and fill the stage as well as laser sensors that allow the audience to determine a character's fate. Scruggs has designed video for Division 13's version of Ionesco's Journey's Among the Dead and Kristin Marting's Orpheus (both at HERE). In development since May of 2000, segments of Disposable Men were shown at the AM Foundation in DUMBO, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and at the 2004 CULTUREMART Festival at HERE, where he is a resident artist. He was also one of seven writers chosen to be a part of the Naked Angels Writers' Lab, where his ten-minute play Thuggish was performed in February of 2003.

The MediaBeam robotic projector is a one-of a kind, state-of-art piece of technology that is so sophisticated it is rarely used in any medium. Hal Eagar, the Technology Director for Disposable Men, has been a trailblazing and leading innovator in live performance technology and digital media since 1995. The MediaBeam robotic projector opens up the entire space as a possible projection surface allowing artists to take images off the screen and out of the rectangular box. The roving images multiply the types of effects an artist can invent with video and animations, even allowing the media to interact with the physical world. This has been made possible here through the generous support from the Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Foundation, and the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art (which James Scruggs was awarded in 2002)—supported by Jerome Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Director Kristin Marting has constructed 17 works for the stage, including seven dance-theatre pieces, five adaptations of novels and five classic plays. Most recently at HERE, she directed Orpheus, a 21st-century version of the popular Greek myth as an alt-rock musical developed collaboratively with writer Stephanie Fleischmann and composer Nikos Brisco and the design team of Juliet Chia, David Morris, Liz Bourgeois and Scruggs. The rest of the creative team for Disposable Men includes Philip Pares (Composer), Patrice Busnel (Costumes), and Chris Brown (Lighting).

Since opening in 1993, the OBIE-award winning HERE Arts Center has housed New York's most daring and unique theatre, visual art, puppetry, music and dance in its three theatres, two art galleries and café. Previous works originally produced by HERE include Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique, Camryn Manheim's Wake Up! I'm Fat, and original musical and dance works created and directed by Executive Director Kristin Marting. In 2003, HERE launched its Secure HERE's Future campaign to purchase its space and secure a permanent position as one of the city's preeminent presenters of multidisciplinary art.

HERE Arts Center supports the work of artists at all stages in their careers through full productions, artist residency programs, festivals and subsidized performance and rehearsal space. All work at HERE is curated based on the strength and uniqueness of the artist's vision. Disposable Men is being presented through HERE's Artist Residency Program (HARP), which provides development, commissions and full production support. This production has also received support from the Busy Beaver Button Company, HERE's season liquor sponsor Boru Vodka and HERE's season media sponsor, The Village Voice.

HERE Arts Center is located at 145 Sixth Avenue (one block below Spring Street) in SoHo. Tickets for Disposable Men are $20. Purchases can be made online at www.here.org, by calling SmartTix at (212) 868-4444 or by visiting the HERE Box Office from 4 p.m. until curtain. For more information, visit HERE online at www.here.org.

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