'Year One of the Empire' Presents Talkback Series

Metropolitan Playhouse will present the New York Premiere of Year One of the Empire by award-winning theater critic Elinor Fuchs and historian Joyce Antler. Directed by Alex Roe, performances begin February 29 at The Metropolitan Playhouse. Opening night is set for March 7th.

"Year One of the Empire presents in bracing, yet often comic detail the exact moment when America became an imperial power – the little known Philippine-American War at the turn of the last century.  Its  brew of U.S. belligerence, election politics, and public outrage offers shocking parallels to American wars in Vietnam (which inspired the play) and Iraq (which made the play "contemporary" again)," describe press notes.

A series of talkbacks and a free panel discussion will also be presented in conjunction with the premiere of Year One of the Empire:

Sunday, March 9:
Post-show talkback with Marilyn Young, Professor of History at NYU and a Vietman scholar whose books include The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990; Vietnam and America; Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism, 1959-1975; The New American Empire: A 21st Century Teach-in On US Foreign Policy; and Vietnam: A History in Documents.

Monday, March 10 at 6:30pm:
Martin E. Segal Theatre at CUNY ( 365 Fifth Avenue) hosts a FREE panel discussion and a performance of scenes from Year One of the Empire. In addition to Fuchs, Antler, and Roe, panelists will include renowned scholars David Nasaw, Arthur M. Schlesinger Professor of American History, and Neil Smith, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography. Alisa Solomon, Director of the Arts and Culture Program at Columbia School of Journalism, will moderate.

Sunday, March 16:
Post-show talkback with Martin Duberman, American historian, playwright, and gay-rights activist whose play In White America won the Drama Desk Award for Best Off-Broadway Production in 1963.

Sunday, March 23:
Post-show talkback with Randy Gener, senior editor of American Theatre magazine, playwright, director and winner  2007 Arts & Culture Award in the 10th annual Filipinas Magazine Achievement Awards.

Sunday, March 30:
Post-show talkback with Paul Kramer, Associate Professor of History at the University of Iowa and author of The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, & the Philippines, which received the 2006 Bernath Book Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the 2006 James A. Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians.  Carol Martin, Associate Professor of Drama at NYU and author of the forthcoming book Documentary Theatre on the World Stage, will moderate.

Year One of the Empire runs February 29 - March 30, Thursday - Saturday at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm. There will be a special, Pay-What-You-Can performance on Monday, March 3 at 7:30 pm. Talk-backs follow every Sunday matinee, featuring guest artists, historians, and veterans of American wars. (Schedule to come.)

The Metropolitan Playhouse is located at 220 East Fourth Street between Avenues A & B -- accessible from the F train at 2nd Ave. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors and preview performances, $12 Students, $10 for Children under 12. Call 212-995-5302 to purchase tickets, or for more information visit www.metropolitanplayhouse.org.  

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