PRELUDE 2020 Festival Begins This Week

This week marks the first week of the 2020 Prelude Festival: Sites of Revolution, which runs until October 30.

All events are free and take place completely online. Take a look at www.preludenyc2020.com or follow us on Instagram @preludenyc for more information. We hope to see you in our virtual theatre!

TUESDAY, OCT 20

6:30 pm EST, Franky Award: Tonya Pinkins

Join us in honoring Tonya Pinkins for her long-term, extraordinary impact on contemporary theater and performance in New York City. Expect virtual toasts by special guests!

8:00 pm EST, social disDANCE

social disDANCE is a live-streamed invitation to dance together, apart, in line with "Flatten the Curve" directives. In a spirit of solidarity, wellbeing, and uplifting play, we invite you to a new kind of dance party...

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 21

8:30 am EST, hold

Created by Mei Ann Teo, composed by Orion S. Johnstone, with collaborators You-Shin Chen, Troy Anthony, and Matthias Neckermann

hold is an invitation to contemplative practice in queer resistance to capitalist conditioning of time, via collective gathering and recurring durational space. hold cultivates the body as site of revolution with seeds of intention sown in the morning and the rain of prayers at night.

5:30 pm EST, you niggas in trouble

Co-created by Nile Harris and Trevor Bazile

you niggas in trouble is a meme essay/lecture created by Nile Harris and Trevor Bazile that utilizes a Google Document file as a site of liveness. Examining the online formations of self under the reign of neoliberal identity politics, you niggas in trouble asks "will the revolution have 501c3 status?" And occasions an experiment in 'internet choreography' or (a hyperlink opera) as a mode of hybrid,digital storytelling. This work is presented in partnership with YAH World.

6:30 pm EST, Revolutionary Partnerships

A panel featuring Jordana De La Cruz (JACK), Zafi Dimitropoulou Del Angel (People's Theatre Project), Sam Johnson (We Keep Us Safe Abolitionist Network), Alexander Santiago-Jirau (New York Theatre Workshop), and Gaven D. Trinidad (New York Theatre Workshop)

8:00 pm EST, Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge

Elevator Repair Service. Directed by John Collins, stage management by Maurina Lioce, featuring Gavin Price, Greig Sargeant, Christopher-Rashee Stevenson, and Ben Williams.

In 1965 James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, Jr. were invited to The Cambridge University Union to debate the resolution "The American Dream is at the Expense of The American Negro." ERS re-creates their profoundly relevant confrontation in a work-in-progress showing of Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge. Special thanks to Aaron Landsman and April Matthis for dramaturgical support.

10:00 pm EST, hold

Created by Mei Ann Teo, composed by Orion S. Johnstone, with collaborators You-Shin Chen, Troy Anthony, and Matthias Neckermann

THURSDAY, OCT. 22

8:30 am EST, hold

Created by Mei Ann Teo, composed by Orion S. Johnstone, with collaborators You-Shin Chen, Troy Anthony, and Matthias Neckermann

8:00 pm EST, Cut Woman

Written, produced, and performed by Dena Igusti, directed by Ray Jordan Achan

A choreopoem based on Dena Igusti's poetry about an Indonesian Muslim survivor of female genital mutilation navigating the loss of her people, body, and inevitable demise. She uses her body's ghost, the internet, and webcams to realize what stays in a world shaped by what is and will be lost.

10:00 pm EST, hold

Created by Mei Ann Teo, composed by Orion S. Johnstone, with collaborators You-Shin Chen, Troy Anthony, and Matthias Neckermann

FRIDAY, OCT. 23

8:30 am EST, hold

Created by Mei Ann Teo, composed by Orion S. Johnstone, with collaborators You-Shin Chen, Troy Anthony, and Matthias Neckermann

5:30 pm EST, Speedrun

Written, edited, and sound/projection design by Zachariah Ezer, directed by Dominique Rider, with performances by Imani Russell, Namakula, Brandon Bogle, Ethan Fox, and camerawork by Elizaveta Kravchenko.

In a fantasy kingdom, a princess and her captor's magical lackey dream of social change, the overthrow of the local crime boss, and rescue from an overall-clad hero. Speedrun explores the idea that social movements are built on Black bodies who are then excluded when those movements reach the mainstream.

8:00 pm EST, Vichitra

Created, directed, and produced by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, art direction and video by Kameron Neal, sound design by Jeremy S. Bloom

Vichitra is an experiment in queer South Asian imagination. In the first episode, An Anthology of Queer Dreams, we eavesdrop on LGBTQ+ South Asian folx across the world through anonymous, intimate, intricate recollections of their dreams. The second episode, Englandbashi, is a contemporary ghost story about taking reincarnation (too?) seriously.

10:00 pm EST hold

Created by Mei Ann Teo, composed by Orion S. Johnstone, with collaborators You-Shin Chen, Troy Anthony, and Matthias Neckermann

Additional panels and auxiliary events are still to be announced. Visit www.preludenyc2020.com for more information.