Clarence, in a Pause: A Listening Party at The Ancram Center for the Arts

Clarence, in a Pause: A Listening Party is a work-in-progress Play Lab showing created by MacArthur Fellows Heather Christian (composer) and Taylor Mac (librettist). The piece is a tongue-in-cheek quasi-baroque oratorio in which a concerned citizen confronts an imagined version of Clarence Thomas, reaching for radical empathy in the face of political polarization. Following the concert, Christian and Mac will lead a conversation about the ideas raised in the piece and teach a song from the show, with the goal of de-escalating polarizing rhetoric through song. The showings are free to the public and are supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as part of Defying Boundaries: MacArthur Fellows at 45.