The Grappler Presents 'GATEKEEPERS' Panel at The Healy Theatre Tonight

Where does art belong and who gets to make it? Acclaimed playwright Idris Goodwin and Louder Than a Bomb creator Kevin Coval asked these questions in Steppenwolf for Young Adult's recent production of This is Modern Art (Based on True Events). This is Modern Art represents the true story of Chicago graffiti crew MUL, depicting the events leading up to and following their decision to carry out the biggest graffiti bomb of their career on the modern wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. This is Modern Art asked audiences to start a revolution, and the Chicago theatre community did- more than anyone expected.

Critical response from Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune and Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times incited unprecedented dialogue surrounding the creation, criticism, and responsibilities of creating theatre for young people. Conversation around the show grew into a national debate. The very questions of artistic agency the show featured played out in real life through heated facebook and twitter exchanges, radio spots on NPR and Vocalo, a TV spot on Chicago Tonight, and articles in DNAinfo, HowlRound, American Theatre Magazine, The Huffington Post, and The Washington Post.

Dramaturgy and Criticism Blog The Grappler, along with producers Dylan Fahoome and Morgan Greene, bring together the leading voices in this debate for a public forum. Kevin Coval, Ricardo Gamboa, Hallie Gordon, Chris Jones, and Lisa Portes will be joined by moderator Dylan Fahoome at The Theatre School at DePaul University to discuss the implications of creating, criticizing, and taking responsibility for our modern art.

"GATEKEEPERS: #Grappling with Creation, Criticism, and Responsibilities of Modern Art", produced by Dylan Fahoome and Morgan Greene is set for The Healy Theatre, 2350 N. Racine, tonight, April 7th, 5-6 pm moderated discussion, 6-7pm audience Q & A. For further information: Visit The Grappler's Facebook.

Watch a promo below!

About the Panelists:

Kevin Coval: Kevin Coval is the author of everyday people and slingshots (a hip-hop poetica), named Book of the Year-finalist by The American Library Association. Coval has performed at hundreds of universities, high schools and theaters in seven countries on four continents including; The Parliament of the World's Religions in Capetown, South Africa, The African Hip-Hop Festival: Battle Cry, Poetry Society of London, University of the West Indies in Jamaica, St. Xavier's College in Bombay, India, and four seasons of Russell Simmons' HBO Def Poetry Jam, for which he also served as artistic consultant.

Coval's writing has appeared in The Spoken Word Revolution and The Spoken Word Revolution: Redux (Source Books), Total Chaos (Basic Civitas), I Speak of the City: New York City Poems (Columbia University Press), The Bandana Republic (Soft Skull Press), Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reporter, Cross Currents, Crab Orchard Review, seen on C-Span, WGN, and can be heard regularly on Chicago Public Radio, where is resident poet and hip-hop correspondent. Founder of Louder Than A Bomb: The Chicago Teen Poetry Festival, the largest youth poetry festival in the world, Coval is poet-in-residence at The Jane Addams' Hull House Museum, faculty at The School of the Art Institute and University of Illinois-Chicago and Minister of Hip-Hop Poetics at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. For over ten years, Kevin has been teaching hip-hop poetics in high schools and colleges around the country.

Ricardo Gamboa: Ricardo Gamboa is an artist, activist, and academic working in his native Chicago and New York City. In Chicago, Gamboa was a Company Member of Barrel of Monkeys and Artistic Director of Teatro Americano. Most recently, he was an Artist-in-Residence at Free Street Theater and the National Museum of Mexican Art's Yollocalli Artsreach. He performs with the Southside Ignoramus Quartet and helped found the Young Fugitives, an independent teen performance ensemble creating challenging work about issues affecting their lives. Gamboa has received several awards for his writing, performance and film work and has worked with over 1,000 young people in Chicago.

Hallie Gordon: Hallie Gordon serves as Director of Steppenwolf for Young Adults. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the New School for Social Research in New York City where she studied theater and theater in education. She served as Managing Director for the Atrium Theater in New York City and as Artistic Director for the Pillar Studio in Chicago. As Program Specialist with the Chicago Park District, she served as Managing Director of Theater on the Lake, as well as implementing a wide array of cultural programming throughout the city. As a theater artist, with Curious Theatre Branch she has co-directed and directed several critically acclaimed productions. Her recent directing credits for Steppenwolf for Young Adults include the world premiere of World Set Free by Bryn Magnus, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye adapted by Lydia R. Diamond and produced for Steppenwolf in 2005 and in 2006 the production transferred Off-Broadway to The New Victory. She is currently serving as Artistic Director for The Chicago Park District's Theater on the Lake and is on the board of ASSITEJ/USA- The United States Center for the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People.

Chris Jones: Chris Jones is the chief theater critic and a Sunday culture columnist for the Chicago Tribune. His reviews of theater, performance, circus and comedy for the newspaper now number in the thousands and his weekly, wide-ranging Sunday column explores all aspects of culture and its relationship with American life and ideas.

He also serves as a critic for CBS-2 Chicago, appearing live each week, and, in 2014, he became the new director of the National Critics' Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Connecticut. He also is the author of "Bigger, Brighter, Louder: 150 years of Chicago Theater," published in 2013 by the University of Chicago Press.

Lisa Portes: Lisa Portes serves as the head of directing and the artistic director of Chicago Playworks for Young Audiences for The Theatre School. Primarily a director of new American work, her recent projects include: the world premieres of Ghostwritten by Naomi Iizuka (Goodman Theatre), After 100 Years by Naomi Iizuka (Guthrie Theatre), and Ski Dubai by Laura Jacqmin (Steppenwolf Theatre, First Look Repertory of New Work). Other Chicago credits include: the world premiere of Night Over Erzinga by Adriana Sevahn-Nichols (Silk Road Rising), Elliot: A Soldier's Fugue by Quiara Alegría Hudes (Steppenwolf Garage with Teatro Vista and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble), Spare Change by Mia McCullough (Steppenwolf, First Look Rep), Permanent Collection by Thomas Gibbons (Northlight Theatre), The Piano Teacher by Julia Cho, In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks and Far Away by Caryl Churchill (NextTheatre), and Offspring of the Cold War by Carlos Murillo (Walkabout Theatre). New York credits include: Wilder by Erin Cressida Wilson and the Red Clay Ramblers (Playwrights Horizons), How to Write While You Sleep by Madeleine Olnek, Hurricane by Erin Wilson and Fur by Migdalia Cruz (Soho Rep).

A director of new American plays and musicals, Lisa has directed numerous readings and workshops in such development programs as Sundance Summer Theatre Lab, Vineyard Arts Project, Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference, New Stages at Goodman Theatre, New Work Now at the Public Theatre, Mondays@3 at New York Theatre Workshop, the Cherry Lane Alternative, Hispanic Playwrights Project at South Coast Repertory Theatre, the McCarter Theatre Lab, and the Cape Cod Theatre Project. Lisa served as the associate director for the Tony Award-winning musical, The Who's Tommy mounting its international productions in Canada, the U.K., and Germany. Lisa is an artistic associate at Next Theatre and Chicago Children's Theatre. Awards include the NEA/TCG Career Development Grant, the Drama League Directing Fellowship and a Fulbright/Hays award. She received her M.F.A. in directing from the University of California, San Diego.

About The Grappler: We are a collective of 20somethings grappling with the ideas shaping the theatre of our generation. We want to talk about the theatre of the here and now in Chicago. "The Grappler" is our stomping ground to feature issues, artists, and productions that matter to us in ways that place the practice of dramaturgy and criticism into the present moment.

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