UNDESIRABLE ELEMENTS FESTIVAL Begins 10/18 at La MaMa

By: Kelsey Denette Jul. 26, 2012

Since 1992, under the rubric of its Undesirable Elements series, the beloved Ping Chong + Company has created nearly 50 deeply moving Theater Productions that give voice to specific communities. In the creation of each piece, local participants testify to their real lives and experiences, often for the first time. Scripts are based on interviews with these participants, who then tell their stories in the final production. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the initiative, the company will offer a festival of these works—including Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo; Secret Survivors, featuring adult survivors of child sexual abuse; and Inside/Out…voices from the disability community—October 18 through November 4 at La Mama E.T.C. The programming will also include panel discussions, live streams of performances, and the screening of a new documentary entitled Secret Survivors:
Using Theater to Break the Silence.

Performances of Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo will take place October 18, 19 and 20 at 7:30 P.M., and October 21 at 2:30 P.M. Performances of Secret Survivors will be held October 25, 26 and 27 at 7:30 P.M., and October 28 at 2:30 P.M. Inside/Out… voices from the disability community will play November 1, 2 and 3 at 7:30 P.M., and November 4 at 2:30 P.M.

All shows will take place at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 East 4th Street). Tickets are $20 and can be purchased by calling 212.475.7710 or visiting www.lamama.org.

Conceived by Ping Chong, who has for decades garnered international acclaim for theater and installations exploring intersections of race, culture, history, art, media and technology, Undesirable Elements is an open framework that can be brought to any community and tailored to suit the needs and issues facing that community. Each production is made with a host organization based in the local community, with local participants testifying to their real lives and experiences.

The development process includes an extended community residency during which Ping Chong and Associate Director Sara Zatz conduct intensive interviews with potential participants and get to know the issues and concerns facing that community. Typically, Ping Chong + Company will interview up to twenty-five individuals and select five to seven of them, assembling a group that represents a diversity of voices on the issues facing that particular community.

Ping Chong, with Zatz or another collaborator, writes a script that adapts and theatricalizes the interviews, weaving cast members’ individual experiences together in a chronological narrative touching on both political and personal experiences. The interviewees themselves, many of whom have never before spoken publicly, perform the script. The resulting production is a chamber piece of personal testimonies.

When audience members come together to experience an Undesirable Elements production, they form a community through an exchange with the performers and with each other. They bring their experiences into their respective communities, broadening the dialogue and understanding generated by the theatrical event.

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