New York Theatre Workshop Presents the 2008 Pre-Election Events

The presidential election of 2008 approaches and promises to be an historic one. Join New York Theatre Workshop for a series of public readings and events that reflect on our history as a nation and a political body, and in so doing, shine a spotlight on our current political landscape and our future. At times
unsettling, even subversive, each event will contribute to the public discourse and spark challenging conversations in our community as we approach this critical election. From the nineteenth century,
to the furor of the 60s, to the current administration, we find eerie echoes that remind us our history
is not that far behind us.

Monday, September 22nd at 7:00pm
YEAR ONE OF THE EMPIRE
A Play of American Politics, War, and Protest taken from the historical record
by Elinor Fuchs and Joyce Antler
directed by Moisés Kaufman

"Year One of the Empire," by theater critic Elinor Fuchs and historian Joyce Antler, is a theatrical excursion into American imperialism. At the turn of the century, America went to war vowing to free Cuba from Spanish colonial rule. We didn't promise not to take the rest of the Spanish island empire, and quicklly seized Puerto Rico, Guam, and the
Philippine Islands. The U.S.then became embroiled in a desperate three-year "insurrection" in the Philippine Islands. Unlike the Spanish-American War, its comic curtain-raiser, the Philippine struggle is barely mentioned in American history books. 4000 American soldiers and upwards of 250,000 Filipinos lost their lives in a colonial-style war that uncannily foreshadows the war in Iraq and Vietnam before it. The play's title comes from a Nation Magazine editorial of February 1900. A documentary originally written as a protest against the war in Vietnam, the Iraq War has made the play contemporary all over again.

Saturday, September 27th 11:00am-4:00pm
A Public Reading of Dennis Kucinich’s
ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT
as part of Fourth Arts Block’s FAB Festival

On September 27th, New York Theatre Workshop and playwright and performance artist Deb Margolin will be hosting an open, public reading of the 35 Articles of Impeachment that Dennis Kucinich read into the Congressional record on June 9th of this year. We are calling all citizens to come read and listen. Over the course of five hours, participants can come and go, listen and take over the reading at any time. It will be a somber yet joyous community event in which the enumeration of the charges against George W. Bush will be fully read and considered—a must for all citizens of conscience! And it will be fun, too. Guest stars will light our stage—there will be surprises!

This event will be taking place during FAB Festival, an outdoor block party and open house on East 4th St, with outdoor stages, videos, art installations, dance classes and more. For over 30 years, East 4th Street has embraced the new, diverse, and experimental in theater, film, and art. Fourth Arts Block (FAB) is a coalition of 15 arts and community groups leading the effort to develop permanent homes for the arts and preserve the unique cultural nature of the block and East Village. Participants include: Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance, Downtown Art, Duo Theater, Horse Trade Theatre Group, La MaMa, ETC, Millennium Film Workshop, Neo-Futurists, Performance Space 122, Rod Rodgers Dance Company, Peculiar Works, Theatro IATI, Works in Progress, WOW Cafe Theater, Theater for a New City, Merchant's House Museum... and of course New York Theatre Workshop!

Monday, October 6th at 7:00pm
I HATE TO BE THE ONE TO TELL YOU THIS
an evening with Mark Crispin Miller
directed by Gregory Keller

Mark Crispin Miller is a Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at NYU, and a longtime proponent of democracy in the United States. Join him for a public meditation on the issues of the minute. Miller’s books include The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder, Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order, Fooled Again: The Real Case for Electoral Reform and, most recently, Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008. He is, as well, a prolific blogger, at News from Underground (www.markcrispinmiller.com).
Miller is also well-known as a speaker and performer. After 9/11, when his criticism of the Bush regime was unofficially verboten, he turned to theater, and started doing a kind of journalistic stand-up at the Cherry Lane Theater. From there he moved on to the New York Theater Workshop, where, working with director Gregory Keller and co-performer Steve Cuiffo, he wrote and starred in Patriot Act: A Public Meditation, presented by NYTW in the summer of 2004 as a contribution to the public discourse prior to the last presidential election. Four years later, the discussion continues.

Monday, November 3rd at 7:00pm
WEEKEND
by Gore Vidal
directed by Leigh Silverman

Due to an overwhelming response from our members and donors, there are no longer tickets available for this reading.

NYTW MEMBERS can put their names on a waiting list in advance by emailing Marketing@nytw.org.

There will be a waiting list for the GENERAL PUBLIC. Names will be taken starting at 6pm on Monday, November 3 at the NYTW Box Office and tickets will start being released 10 minutes prior to curtain.

Featuring Patch Darragh (All That I Will Ever Be), Stephen James King, Adriane Lenox (Doubt, Caroline or Change), Stuart Margolin ("The Rockford Files"), Margo Martindale ("The Riches," Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Jan Maxwell (To Be or Not To Be, Entertaining Mr. Sloane), Conan McCarty ("The Closer"), Hubert Point-Du Jour, Michael Potts (Grey Gardens), Carrie Preston ("True Blood"), Tim Robbins (Mystic River, The Shawshank Redemption), Charles Turner (The Play About The Baby), and Kerry Washington (Lakeview Terrace, The Last King of Scotland).

It’s 1968 and the Republican Party is in a struggle for its conscience. Four years earlier after an explosive rise by Barry Goldwater and the far right, Goldwater became the Republican nominee for President running against Lyndon Johnson. Crushingly defeated, the Republican Party was left in disarray.

Four years later, the longstanding progressive core of the party is attempting to make a comeback. Republican Senator Charles MacGruder is preparing to announce his candidacy for president and make a bold statement against the Vietnam War, when his son arrives for the weekend with shocking and potentially career-ending news. WEEKEND premiered on Broadway in the spring of 1968, in the heat of the campaign during which it is set, and Vidal’s biting political humor is no less relevant today. In a whirlwind of self-righteousness, bigotry, blackmail and opportunism, conservative values are called into question—even into direct contradiction—as pollsters and loyalists try to contain the damage and protect their candidate from the swirling media circus. As politicians question their consciences in the midst of scandal, we get a prescient snapshot of a critical moment in our nation’s political history.

All events are free, open to the public, and will take place at New York Theatre Workshop (79 East 4th Street). NYTW Repeat Defenders may reserve in advance by e-mailing NormaS@nytw.org and NYTW members may reserve in advance by e-mailing Marketing@nytw.org.

Tickets for the general public will be available only at the New York Theatre Workshop Box Office
starting at 6pm on Monday, November 3rd and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

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