JACK Presents THE PANELS, a New Play by OBIE-Winner Rick Burkhardt

OBIE-winner Rick Burkhardt (Three Pianos, The Great Hymn of Thanksgiving) conjures an America in which the government sends its teenagers to camps to undergo rigorous education in sexual experience. The Panels is a public discussion featuring campers and counselors sharing memories and dispelling myths around this successful (some would say controversial) public health initiative. By showing us what we aren't, Burkhardt - in the great tradition of Wallace Shawn, Caryl Churchill and others - shines a light on what we are, tickling at other possibility.

"I wanted to write a play about human progress and social change, for better and for worse," Burkhardt explains. "The play is about utopian thinking, about fantasy, about dreaming up a picture and then trying to squeeze reality into that picture."

The cast includes Matt Butterfield, Zina Ellis, Jermaine Golden, Elisha Mudly, Christin Eve Cato, Omar Perez, Patrick Johnnie, Jing Xu, Rick Burkhardt, Jeremy Rafal, Dennis Kozee, Taylor Llanon and Beth Griffiths.

Director: Skylar Fox
Set Design: Andreea Mincic and Nicholas Trimper
Lighting Design: Mike McGee
Costume Design: Seth Bodie

PLEASE NOTE: The nonchalance with which characters in this play describe the most sexually-explicit activity imaginable may send a shock through an audience member's mind and body.

DATES/TIMES

Thursday - Saturday, March 30 - April 1 at 8 pm
Thursday - Saturday, April 6 - 8 at 8 pm
Sunday, April 9 at 7 pm
Wednesday - Saturday, April 12 - April 15 at 8 pm
Sunday, April 16 at 7 pm

LOCATION: JACK | 505 ½ Waverly Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238 | C or G train to Clinton-Washington

TICKETS: $18, advance at www.jackny.org or cash only at the door

Rick Burkhardt (Playwright) is an Obie-award-winning playwright, performer, composer and songwriter whose original chamber music, theater and text pieces have been performed in over 40 US cities, as well as in Europe, Mexico, Canada, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand. He is a founding member of the Nonsense Company, a touring experimental music/theater trio, and songwriter/accordionist for the Prince Myshkins, a political cabaret/folk duo. In 2011 he was listed as an "Off Off Broadway Innovator to Watch" by Time Out New York.

JACK's programming is made possible by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, The DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, the Mental Insight Foundation and The Lida Foundation.

Photo Credit: Ted Roeder