SOULOGRAPHIE: OUR GENOCIDES 17-Play Cycle Set for La MaMa, 11/11-18

Soulographie: Our Genocides, a cycle of 17 plays ranging in length from 20 minutes to two hours, all by Erik Ehn, each theatrically exploring the causes, effects, and various forms that genocide has taken in the 20th century, will be presented by La MaMa at the Ellen Stewart Theater, November 11-18. Over 80 theater artists from across the globe will participate.

The plays, currently in production at theaters across the United States, Poland and Uganda, take range in forms: from Bunraku to Noh to docudrama to dreamscapes. Erik Ehn, who heads the playwriting department at Brown, has spent over 20 years travelling the world to explore the subject and the varied ways genocide is enacted: from the wholesale killings in Rwanda to Hitler’s extermination of the Jews to parental cruelty of children to the impact of the traumatized imagination to the race riots in Tulsa. Inspired by the works of Goya and Picasso’s “Guernica,” for Ehn, our daily acts of innocent or conscious cruelty prepare us to accept or ignore the potential–and at times, invisible–infiltration of genocide within our society.

Commemorating victims of genocide throughout the world, the series of 17 plays is introduced by “Every Man Jack of You” in which Jack, a recurring figure in the cycle, takes off for a drunken spree in Las Vegas. The series concludes with “Forgiveness,” a play exploring a couple’s journey of transformation from blame to loving acceptance of each other after their son’s death in a car crash. In between are 15 plays that conflate historic events, and real and invented characters to reveal the effects of genocide through the perspectives of survivors, perpetrators and other witnesses to the horror.

Each of the plays will be performed twice over the seven days, culminating in marathon sessions on the final weekend, Saturday and Sunday, November 17 & 18. These marathons will include discussion sessions designed to add additional dimensions to the cultural, political, emotional, psychological and spiritual issues raised by the plays.

In addition to his academic work at Brown University, Cal Arts, and other schools, Erik Ehn’s plays have been produced in San Francisco at the Intersection, Thick Description and Yugen; in Seattle at the Annex and Empty Space; in Austin at Frontera; the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland; RedCat in Los Angeles, Kolonus Theater in Lithuania and Meteor Festival in Norway, among others.

La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre is located at 66 East 4th Street, on the second floor. Tickets available by calling the La MaMa box office at 212-475-7710 or online at lamama.org. November 11-16: Tickets are $18; seniors and student tickets are $15 each. November 17-18: Afternoon/evening performances, tickets are $15 for each show; $27 for a half day and $54 for the full day marathon of plays.

In addition to the performances at La MaMa, there will be a free DramaTalk with Erik Ehn and participating Soulographie artists at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts on Monday November 5th, at 6:30 p.m. at the Reise Student Lounge at 721 Broadway.

Sunday, November 18, 2012 (marathon schedule)

10:00 AM: DISCUSSION SESSIONS
Pauline Ross (The Playhouse, Northern Ireland) & Dijana Milosevic (Dah Theatre, Belgrade, Serbia)

2:00 PM: AFTERNOON SHOWS

Shape
Director: John Moletress
Place of Origin: Force/Collision, Washington, DC

Cordelia
Director: Jubilith Moore
Place of Origin: Theater of Yugen, San Francisco, CA

Double Aspect, Bright & Fair
Director: Dan Hurlin
Place of Origin: Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY

Hidebound
Director: Alison Heimstead
Place of Origin: Heart of the Beast, Minneapolis, MN

6:30 PM: DINNER BREAK

7:30 PM: EVENING SHOWS

The Architecture Of Great Cathedrals
Director: Laurie O’Brien
Place of Origin: New York, NY

Una Corro?a
Director: Orlando Pabotoy
Place of Origin: New York, NY

Star
Director: Katie Shook
Place of Origin: Los Angeles, CA

Dogsbody
Director: Rebecca Novick
Place of Origin: San Francisco, CA

Forgiveness
Directors: Krzysztof Garbaczewski & Marcin Cecko
Place of Origin: Teatr im. Jana Kochanowskiego, Ople, Poland