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Livestreamed on this page Monday 30 April at 7:30 p.m. EDT (New York) / 6:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 4:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco).

New York City, NY, United States
Monday 30 April 2018

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Re-Reading Oppression

One-act plays by Amiri Baraka, Harold Pinter, and Salah Abdul-Saboor

Monday 30 April 2018
photo of political mural street art
Photo by Salma S. Zohdi

 

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented Re-Reading Oppression: One-act plays by Amiri Baraka, Harold Pinter, and Salah Abdul-Saboor livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 30 April at 7:30 p.m. EDT (New York) / 6:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 4:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco). Follow @HowlRound on Twitter for updates, and use #howlround.

With oppressive regimes regenerating themselves by applying practices commonly undertaken by dictatorships, the power of art remains an essential force that motivates the masses to resist and fight against the normalization of such abusive practices. Join us for a mini-festival that aims to analyze and track the dynamics of oppression, discrimination, and abuse when portrayed by three significant playwrights from the U.S., England, and Egypt. All readings will be followed by a brief conversation, and the event will conclude with a panel discussion and a Q&A with the directors, Frank HentschkerMarvin Carlson, and more. Concept and dramaturgy by Salma S. Zohdi.

Salah Abdul-Saboor’s Night Traveller (1969)
7:30 p.m. EDT (New York) / 5:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 4:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco)
Directed by Robin A. Eriksen & translated by M.M. Enani.

A black comedy set in a train heading to an unknown destination with three main characters: Narrator, Passenger, and Conductor. Throughout this absurdist narrative, the Conductor manipulates the Passenger’s identity by playing mind games and exerting oppressive practices.

Roles in all three plays are performed by Jordan Bellow, Ali Nasser, and Vanessa Vache.

This event is curated by dramaturg and Segal Center’s 2017/18 Next Generation Fellow Salma S. Zohdi, in collaboration with director Robin A. Eriksen.

Special thanks to Ira Dworkin, Walid El Hamamsy, M.M. Enani, and Moataza Salah Abdel Sabour.

 

Salah Abdul-Saboor
Salah Abdul-Saboor
 is a pioneer of modern Arabic poetry, he and other Arab poets laid the foundation of a new school of Arabic poetry. They formulated their own experience in new authentic, creative patterns. In his early youth, he tried to find a new significance beyond rhetoric eloquent expression, attending to approach other realms of arts such as music and painting. In 1957, his first collection of poems People in my Country was published, shooting the poet into fame. Abdul-Saboor’s literature was not confined to poetry, but rather extended to poetic drama. Within a period of ten years, he had five poetic plays published. The first was The Tragedy of Al-Hallaj (1965), for which he was granted the State Incentive Award for Theatre in 1966. In addition to poetry and poetic drama, the great poet also practiced critical writing. Abdel Sabour was a follower of the free art which viewed art as an expression of unbridled imaginativeness and true, vehement emotions, within a highly romantic context. He believed that genuine poetry could be written only through absolute self-communion; he remained faithful to his own principles all his life until his death on August 14, 1981.

 

amiri baraka
Amiri Baraka
 (LeRoi Jones) is one of the most respected and widely published African-American writers. With the beginning of Black Civil Rights Movements during the sixties, Baraka explored the anger of African-Americans and used his writings as a weapon against racism. He is also the author of over 40 books of essays, poems, drama, and music history and criticism, a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution, Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements, Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became, though short-lived, the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics. The movement and his published and performance work, such as the signature study on African-American music, Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded “the cultural corollary to black nationalism” of that revolutionary American milieu.

 

harold pinter
Harold Pinter
 was a Nobel Prize-winning British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. Harold Pinter is generally seen as the foremost representative of British drama in the second half of the 20th century. That he occupies a position as a modern classic is illustrated by his name entering the language as an adjective used to describe a particular atmosphere and environment in drama: “Pinteresque”. Pinter made his playwriting debut in 1957 with The Room, presented in Bristol. Other early plays were The Birthday Party (1957), at first a fiasco of legendary dimensions but later one of his most performed plays, and The Dumb Waiter (1957). His conclusive breakthrough came with The Caretaker (1959), followed by The Homecoming (1964) and other plays. It is said of Harold Pinter that following an initial period of psychological realism he proceeded to a second, more lyrical phase with plays such as Landscape (1967) and Silence (1968) and finally to a third, political phase with One for the Road (1984), Mountain Language (1988), The New World Order(1991) and other plays. Since 1973, Pinter has won recognition as a fighter for human rights, alongside his writing. He has often taken stands seen as controversial.

 

robin a eriksen
Photo by Matthew Dunivan

Robin A. Eriksen is a Norwegian director working both in the US and Norway. He’s a trained actor from the American Academy of Dramatic arts, has a bachelors degree in Theatre Studies from the University of Oslo, as well as an MFA in Directing from Columbia University. After years working in theatre he’s found his passion in directing for the stage; deep diving into different dramatic texts, composing living images, and communicating with actors and designers. This spring he will be working on four new plays, as well as directing and leading the design process for a new show at Dyreparken i Kristiansand, Norways largest tourist attraction.

 

nj agwuna
Photo courtesy of the artist

NJ Agwuna (Director) is a freelance theater/ film director and actor from central Maryland, currently working on her MFA at Columbia University. She has worked on a national and international scale exploring classic text, developing new plays, devising, and investigating new ways to reach audiences. Some of NJ’s credits include The River Rouge (Director),  Freedom Train (Director), The Tempest (Director), Endangered: the Eco Musical (Associate Director), Love and Information (Director), Good Man(Director), Town Hall (Director), Truth or Lie (Director), What She Found (Director), Then She Fell (ASM), Amazing Spider-Man 2, Daredevil, and Jessica Jones. More at: www.njagwuna.com

 

kareem fahmy
Photo courtesy of the artist

Kareem Fahmy is a Canadian-born director and playwright of Egyptian descent. He is a 2017-2018 National Directors Fellow (The O’Neill/NNPN). He has directed and co-conceived a number of world premiere productions including Sevan K. Greene’s This Time (Rising Circle, New York Times Critics’ Pick), James Scruggs’s 3/Fifths (3LD, New York Times 5 Must-See Shows), and Nikkole Salter’s Indian Head (Luna Stage). Other work: Rohina Malik’s The Mecca Tales (NY & NJ premieres), Adam Kraar’s Alternating Currents (world premiere). Kareem has developed plays with New York Theatre Workshop (where he is a Usual Suspect), MCC, Second Stage, Soho Rep, New Dramatists, The Lark, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Sundance, The Civilians, Noor Theatre, Silk Road Rising, and Berkeley Rep. He is a founder of Maia Directors, a consulting group for organizations and artists engaging with Middle Eastern stories. He is currently adapting the beloved Egyptian novel The Yacoubian Building for the stage. MFA: Columbia University. www.KareemFahmy.com

 

salma s zohdi
Photo by Annabel Guevara

Salma S. Zohdi is an Egyptian Dramaturg based in New York City. She is the 2017/2018 Next Generation Fellow at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. Salma is a recipient of two international fellowship awards from the American Association for University Women. When she lived in Egypt she worked as a producer, teaching artist, stage manager, playwright, dramaturg, translator, and assistant director. Credits at Columbia University include: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Disposable Promises. NYC credits: Nathan the Wise at CSC, The Mecca Tales, an evening of “Arab Classic Plays”, and American Dreams & Arabian Nights at the BRICLabSalma is also a collaborator on a work-in-development of a theatre adaptation of Alaa El Aswany’s acclaimed Egyptian novel The Yacoubian Building. At the Segal’s spring 2018 season, she is a co-curator and dramaturg of “Re-Reading Oppression,” an evening of a curated reading series of one-act plays that chronicle oppression, discrimination, and abuse. MA: AUC – English & Comparative Literature from AUC. MFA: Columbia University – Theatre (Dramaturgy).

About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based peer produced, open access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world's performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected], or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal/WhatsApp. View the video archive of past events.

 

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