The Civilians are Hiring a New Producing Director

PRODUCING DIRECTOR

The Civilians seeks a Producing Director to partner with the Artistic Director to lead the company's ongoing organizational development and advance its artistic mission. The Producing Director will provide inspirational leadership and help promote collaboration, innovation and sustainability for this thriving theater company. The position manages relationships with all of The Civilians’ stakeholders both internally (staff, artists and board) and externally (producers, presenters, funders, program partners). This position plays the leading role in producing The Civilians’ work, which includes an annual New York production, co-productions locally and nationally, touring, and online media. We seek an individual with exceptional creativity, entrepreneurial vision, and proven management skills for this critical role in our company.

Responsibilities:

·         Producing the company’s artistic work, including marketing and audience development;

·         Sustaining key relationships and cultivating new resources available to The Civilians; 

·         Budgeting and financial management;

·         Individual and Institutional development in collaboration with the Development Director.

·         Identifying and developing new opportunities for growth both for artistic programs and the company overall.

·         Staff leadership, Board relations and strategic planning.

Necessary skills: At least seven years of management responsibility in the arts. Several years of producing experience. Non-profit financial management. Experience with nonprofit development. Solid understanding of commissioning, artist, and presenting contracts. 

Ideal skills: An established national network with producing theaters and presenters. Experience with marketing and PR. Online media literacy. Experience with educational programs.

Competitive salary and benefits. Please send a letter of interest, resume, and salary requirements to: search@thecivilians.org.

ABOUT THE CIVILIANS

Led by Artistic Director Steve Cosson, The Civilians is a company that creates new theater from creative investigations into the most vital questions of the present. Through a number of artistic programs, The Civilians advances theater as an engine of artistic innovation and strengthens the connections between theater and society.

Since its founding in 2001, The Civilians has existed as a theater of discovery.  As a company, we have sought to challenge our ways of knowing and reveal the world as a bigger, stranger, and more complex place than previously believed.  Through this work, artists and audiences have walked in the shoes of those they hadn’t known, found something new in the familiar, broke out of insularity, and grappled with the unknown.  We have investigated the ever-changing present, the “others,” the civilians. 

By embracing this philosophy and a distinctive developmental process, The Civilians has become nationally and internationally known for a string of acclaimed theatrical works, including: Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (2013), Paris Commune (2012), In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards (2010), This Beautiful City (2009), (I Am) Nobody's Lunch (2006) and Gone Missing (2003). The Civilians works with countless partners locally, national, and internationally in order to create, present, and produce this work.  In addition to the creation of work, The Civilians has created a slate of programming in support of artists and their process, including the R&D Writers Group, Let Me Ascertain You cabarets and podcasts, and online media programs.

For more information please visit  www.thecivilians.org.

Meet Our Newest Associate Artists

We are thrilled to introduce our newest group of Associate Artists!

Susannah Flood

With the Civilians, Susannah appeared in Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (Playwrights Horizons). Other favorite New York projects include  Love and Information (New York Theater Workshop), Sylvia in Tribes (Barrow Street Theater); Phoebe in As You Like It (The Public/NYSF); Bird in Hand (Fulcrum Theater); Baby Screams Miracle (Clubbed Thumb); Okay (Ensemble Studio Theatre). Regional credits include two seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (including Mayella Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird and Ophelia in Hamlet); Travesties (McCarter Theater); A Civil War Christmas (world premiere, Long Wharf Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Hartford Stage); Quilters (Denver Center Theatre Company); Our Town (Trinity Repertory Company – IRNE nomination for Best Actress); Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare in Santa Fe); boom (world premiere, Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre), among others. She's a graduate of UC Berkeley and Brown/Trinity (MFA).

Rebecca Hart 

Rebecca Hart is an actor and singer/songwriter based in NYC.  Current/upcoming projects include The Civilians’ ‘The Great Immensity’ at the Public Theater, and the  hip hop theatre piece ‘How to Break’ (as actor and songwriter) at the Spkrbox Festival in Oslo, Norway. Film: ‘Young Adult’ (Paramount), ‘Wendell & the Lemon’ (Imperfect Films). NY Stage:  ‘Uncle Vanya’ (Target Margin/HERE), ‘Son of a Gun’ (Beckett/Theatre Row), ‘Dead City’ (New Georges),  ‘Vendetta Chrome’ (Clubbed Thumb), ‘Love Sucks’ (NYMF) and the original rock musical ‘STRUCK’ (co-written with Bob Saietta) at the 2011 Ice Factory Festival (New Ohio).  Regional credits include the premiere of 'The Great Immensity' at Kansas City Rep, the 35th and 37th Humana Festivals at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the 2010 O'Neill Playwrights Conference, and the 2011 O'Neill Music Theatre Conference.  She is an alum of Brown University's Theatre department, the Public Theater Shakespeare Lab, and the Maggie Flanigan Studio's two year training program.  She ‘plays out’ regularly in collaboration with the folk band The New Students, and co-writes a food blog (A Mouse Bouche: the Hart Sisters Eat Life) with her sister Megan. www.rebeccahart.net

Terri Kohler

With the Civilians:  Brooklyn at Eye Level, Paris Commune, In the Footprint, The Great Immensity 

New York:  Cheri (Signature Theater), The Designated Mourner (The Public/Tfana), In Darfur, (The Public), The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The School for Lies, The Forest (CSC), Belleville, The Black Eyed (NYTW), We are Proud...., Orange, Hat & Grace (Soho Rep), Orpheus X (Tfana), Garden of Earthly Delights (2 Step), Killers and Other Family (Rattlestick), Angel Reapers (The Joyce Theater), Don Juan in Prague (BAM)

Regional: As You Like It (Two River Theater Company), Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare on the Sound), Wild Swans (American Repertory Theater/ The Young Vic), Quixote (Stillpoint Productions), Carmen (Madison Opera), I Just Stopped By to See the Man, God’s Man in Texas (Geffen Playhouse), Oedipus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Dispute, The Sound of a Voice (American Repertory Theater), Moscow: Cherry Tree Towers, The Tenderland, Offenbach!!! (Bard Summerscape) The Tales of Hoffman (New Orleans Opera).

Alyse Alan Louis

The Civilians: Workshop of Times Square (Pammy) at Joe's Pub and Let Me Ascertain You.

NYC: Broadway: Mamma Mia! (Sophie). Off Broadway: City Center Encores: Bells Are Ringing; Lucille Lortel: The Civil War; LaMama ETC: Camp Wanatachi; CAP21:The Daughters. 

Regional: Wendla in Spring Awakening (dir. Steve Cosson) at Olney Theatre Center; Philadelphia Theatre Company: NERDS (Thekla); Pittsburgh City Theatre: POP! Who Shot Andy Warhol? (Valerie Solonas); Revision Theatre; Prince Music Theatre; Walnut Street Theatre.

BFA NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Nedra McClyde

NEDRA McCLYDE believes our job is to unfold what is already within us. She hails from Mitchellville, Maryland and received her MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School. Member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre, recipient of New Dramatist Charles Bowden Award,  NYIT Best Leading Actress nominee, and two-time AUDELCO Award nominee. Recent theater includes Mr. Burns at Playwrights Horizons, Good People at The Old Globe. Television/Film: Blue Bloods, As the World Turns, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, 30 Rock and One Life to Live. Please visit nedramcclyde.com.

Sam Pinkleton

Sam Pinkleton is a New York City-based director and choreographer. As a choreographer, his work includes the recent Broadway revival of Machinal (Roundabout) and the Off-Broadway productions of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Kazino), Mr. Burns... (Playwrights Horizons), Marie Antoinette (Soho Rep), Stage Kiss (Playwrights Horizons), and Buyer and Cellar (Barrow Street). Other recent work includes Spring Awakening (Olney Theater Center), The Material World (Dixon Place) and Love Machine (Incubator Arts Project). As a director, Sam has developed and directed new work with The Vineyard Theatre, Ars Nova, The O’Neill, Joe’s Pub, Abingdon Theatre Company, Primary Stages, Rattlestick, and City Theatre. Sam is co-director of The Dance Cartel’s long-running ONTHEFLOOR at the Ace Hotel. As part of The Civilians R&D group, he is developing a new music theatre work loosely based on the life of Marie Curie and other radioactive terrors with Maggie-Kate Coleman and Erato A. Kremmyda. Sam teaches Bustin’ Moves  at NYU and is a company member of Witness Relocation. Upcoming choreography projects include Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Theatreworks USA/Lucille Lortel), Fly By Night (Playwrights Horizons), and A Little Night Music (Berkshire Theatre Festival). www.sampinkleton.com

A Glimpse Behind the Prison Wall

In a recent Let Me Ascertain You event, Jeanine Serralles gave an astonishing performance as a woman currently serving time in El Buen Pastor, the national women's prison in Bogota, Colombia.  This brilliant retelling is just a taste of what will be divulged tomorrow night, June 13th at 7:30pm at 92YTribeca.  Prepare for quite the comedic/dramatic ride...  

 

The upcoming event of which this clip is a taste is Let Me Ascertain You: Bogota.  It features never before seen material crafted by Civilians artists from interviews that were conducted on-site at the prison.  The evening will focus on the annual beauty pageant that takes place in El Buen Pastor.  Members conducted these interviews with paramilitary, guerrilla fighters, drug smugglers, and more.  The pageant itself is a relatively new development in the prison system and is comprised of everything from folk dancing, to floats built from recycled material, to an evening gown competition.  It is truly indicative of a shift in public policy towards better support and rehabilitation for the incarcerated.  The stories you will hear at this event are candid glimpses inside the walls of a woman's prison along with personal accounts of the political struggles and warfare that continue to threaten Colombia.  

We're all very excited to see what tomorrow evening brings!  If you're interested in getting a first-hand account of this prison beauty pageant and all that it entails, HERE is all the information you'll need to know.  Hope to see you there!

    

SNAPSHOTS FROM OCCUPY WALL STREET: Michele

Last week, we introduced you to some of the people interviewed by Civilians' Artists at the Occupy Wall Street Protest. This week, as Let Me Ascertain You: Occupy Wall Street draws nearer, we're going to give you a sneak peak at some of the characters who you'll find at Joe's Pub on the 28th, here on the blog!

The cabaret is on October 28 at 7:30PM at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street in Manhattan). To purchase tickets, click HERE!

Michele is a longtime New York activist who has been going to the protest since day 3. She was arrested in the Brooklyn Bridge march. Here's a preview from her interview:

“I just decided, you know, the Brooklyn Bridge is a big monument; everybody across the country is going to know what the Brooklyn Bridge is. And, I didn’t want to get arrested, like I promised my partner I wasn’t going to get arrested. From the beginning, the second I went down to Wall Street, “Oh, don’t worry I’ve been doing this forever, I don’t want – I’m tired of getting arrested,” but I’m telling you, the energy at that moment - and people started saying, “Let’s take the bridge,” and then people started singing and dancing, you know? That chant that says you know, “Go up, go down there is revolution in this town”, and we literally just like started dancing out on the bridge and it was just – it was impossible to not do it, you know? And it just- it just- it was like, okay, maybe this is going to get the media’s attention, because up until that point there really hadn’t been anything except, I think it was the Daily News that had the cover of that woman’s cleavage, you know, with the police holding the woman down, you know? That unfortunate photo. Um, so anyways, uh, you know, we went out onto the bridge and I just accepted it and I was like okay, we’re going to get arrested and – and this – I hope it’s worth it, and, uh, and it was.” 

Stay tuned to the blog for more interview excerpts coming next week!

And to check out our awesome feature in The Washington Post, click HERE! The reporter, Peter Marks, talked to Steve and to our Associate Artist Greg McFadden about the creative process, investigative theater, and conducting interviews for our Occupy Wall Street cabaret. He even spent some time with Greg out at Zuccotti Park while he talked to some of the protesters! Check it out!

TALES FROM MY PARENTS' DIVORCE Actors Working with Students

Get ready! TALES FROM MY PARENTS' DIVORCE is heading up to Boston for a run at ArtsEmerson next week. Jenny Morris and Robbie Collier Sublett (actors in and writers of the play) are there now leading a workshop for some students at Emerson College, who will be creating their own piece from interviews that they are conducting. Check out this great article in the Emerson's newspaper The Berkeley Beacon HERE to find out more about what the students are up to! And for tickets to the show at ArtsEmerson, click HERE!

While the show was up at Williamstown for its very successful run, Jenny and Robbie led a workshop for the apprentices. They conducted some of their own interviews about family and the holidays, and they made a lovely piece about it that they performed as a coda to The Civilians' show (which is what the Emerson students will be doing, too). Here's a clip featuring a hilarious song (that I think one could call Michael Friedman-esque at points)! Congrats to these talented youngsters!

Kevin Kline, Liev Schreiber, José Rivera y Otros Apoyan A Grupos de Teatro Amenazados en Bogotá

Esta mañana envíamos la siguiente carta a los periódicos y a los medios de comunicación en Estados Unidos. Se trata de las amenazas de muerte contra compañías de teatro en Bogotá. Para más información, haga click ACA para el artículo de Steve Cosson sobre las amenazas y la respuesta, y qué puede usted hacer para ayudar.

Lo que usted puede hacer:
Por favor, escriba a cualquiera de los siguientes contactos para hacerles saber que usted está preocupado por la seguridad del teatro y los grupos artísticos en Bogotá. Dígale al gobierno colombiano y a la policía que haga todo lo posible para proteger a los grupos e investigar la amenaza.

Volmar Antonio Perez
Defensoria del pueblo
Calle 55 No 10- 32
Bogota, Colombia
Email: http://www.defensoria.org.co/red/?_item=0008&_secc=00&ts=1

Hernan Jaime Ulloa
Programa presidencial de derechos humanos
presidencia de la república
carrera 7 No 6 – 54
Bogota, Colombia
Email: ppdh@presidencia.gov.co

Mariella Barragán
Secretaria de Gobierno Bogota
comunicaciones@gobiernobogota.gov.co

For this post in English, please click here!

The Civilians Occupy Wall Street

Over the past few weeks, Civilians' artists have been downtown talking to the 99% about the current demonstrations, our government, the economy, and the future. The company's next cabaret evening in its Let Me Ascertain You series will take this interview material and reveal the thought-provoking and unexpected, the infuriating and hilarious, the communal and the personal stories of the large and ongoing display of discontent that is Occupy Wall Street. Don't miss this one-night-only performance of monologues and songs by Michael Friedman crafted from interviews in The Civilians' unique style, giving voice to the people and examining the current exercise of democracy that will leave its mark our nation's history.

The cabaret is on October 28 at 7:30PM at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street in Manhattan). To purchase tickets, click HERE!

Here are some excerpts from the interviews we've done so far:

FORMER INVESTMENT BANKER ON WHY HE'S THERE:

"We, the 99%, that’s who, you know everyone who isn’t putting in these policies and – and benefitting from them... the federal reserve for instance [is a] privatized bank which we’re not allowed, uh, even to audit, you know, our government, yet they print our money. But they have no resources and they’re not federal, they’re privatized, and we have to borrow that money from them on loan when section – Article 1, Section 8 of The Constitution, uh, prohibits anyone else from coining money except for Congress, so, you know in that way the wealth would stay with the nation, but what happens is the wealth gets siphoned out of the nation and all the resources get siphoned out of the relation and a few bankers are – are pocketing that money." 

A YOUNG MAN ON HOW TO GET THERE:
"I hitchhiked here all the way from California to get out here for this protest...Um, so what you do, is a lot of people use a cardboard sign, uh white cardboard if you can get it, because it stands out more, but my friend got me a wonderful gift years ago, which was a white, a white – like a dry erase board so that way I could express myself at any given moment or if I wanted to take a new route, I could change it or I could just like write funny shit on there and try to get a laugh out of people . Um, and I – I used that, I have a backpacking backpack that I loaded up with all of my gear, and I carried with me a lawn gnome on the back, which is an unnecessary 10 pounds, but my friend gave it to me and was like take this with you on your journey this time and we named him “Gnome Chomsky” and currently he’s sleeping over there on my bed..."

VIETNAM VET ON THE MEDIA:

"I said I would've been arrested, I would've done it just just to a say wait a second this is what democracy's supposed to be about you know we're supposed to do this, that's what brought this country together, you know, and then you got people, that's what I'm saying, the news people really disappoint.  I even heard O'Reilly, I haven't heard O'Reilly say What are we going to do about these people, you know, I thought O'Reilly at least was going to say Hey, this is what America is all about, but he's a punk, he keeps talking telling everybody how tough he is, you know?  I'm Bill O'Reilly and I'm a I'm a tough guy. No he's not.  He's a sissy. He ran away from Vietnam, too. Tell him that if you ever see him."

  

SEND AN OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTESTER TO THE THEATER!

Donate $15 to send one demonstrator to the show! 

Please click the link below to make a donation of $15 or more and we’ll invite actively protesting members of the 99% to witness their stories being told. 

Kevin Kline, Liev Schreiber, José Rivera, and Others Support Threatened Bogotá Theater Groups

We released the following letter to the national media this morning in regards to the death threats issued against theater companies in Bogotá. For more information, please click HERE for Steve Cosson's post about the threats and the response, and what you can do to help.

What you can do:

Please help by writing any or all of the contacts below to let them know that you are concerned for the safety of the theater and artistic groups in Bogotá and that you urge the Colombian government and police to do everything it can to protect the  groups and to investigate the threat. 

Volmar Antonio Perez
Defensoria del pueblo
Calle 55 No 10- 32
Bogota, Colombia
Email: http://www.defensoria.org.co/red/?_item=0008&_secc=00&ts=1

Hernan Jaime Ulloa
Programa presidencial de derechos humanos
presidencia de la república
carrera 7 No 6 – 54
Bogota, Colombia
Email: ppdh@presidencia.gov.co

Mariella Barragán
Secretaria de Gobierno Bogota

comunicaciones@gobiernobogota.gov.co

Para esta entrada en español, por favor haga clic ACA.

Colombian Drug Trafficking

Steve and his team of artists have continued the process of conducting research and interviews for the BOGOTÁ PRISON PAGEANT at the national women's prison in Bogotá, Colombia. The women are in prison for many different reasons, but one of the more prevalent crimes is that of drug trafficking. In the movie "Maria Full of Grace," the mulas (women trafficking drugs - mules is the literal translation) swallow the cocaine in packages made of condoms. It seems that this method no longer works, since anyone suspected of carrying drugs is x-rayed at the airport.  Now the traffickers have ways of blending the cocaine into clothing, shoes, whatever. You can open a suitcase and everything looks perfectly normal, but then you'll find that all of the fabrics are actually made of drugs. Most of the mulas are paid and know what they're doing, but it does seem that some are tricked into carrying drugs. Apparently, one tactic in international trafficking is to send a group of mulas to the airport at the same time and set one of them up to get caught who is either knowingly or unknowingly carrying a smaller amount of drugs. The narcos pay off the police and the airport, and the set-up mula gets arrested with the smaller amount. The other mulas who've got the bulk of the stash pass through safely and fly off to deliver the goods.

In an interview with one of the mulas, she described this process to Steve and the artists, giving them one of their favorite lines:

"Cuando la policía detuvo, me sentía absolutamente ningún miedo. Solo pánico."

"When the police arrested me, I felt absolutely no fear. Only panic."

Updates from Bogotá - Domestic Drama

Things have been going great down in Bogotá, where Steve Cosson is working with Colombian artists on conducting research and interviews in El Buen Pastor Women's Prison about the annual beauty pageant that they put on there. The winner is being crowned today -- more on that soon!

In the meantime, there's been some drama around the apartment. Steve's recent Facebook status was:

oh dear lord. I am presently trapped on the balcony of my rental apt here in Bogota. I guess when I rented the place I should have specified that I wanted a door to the balcony with handles on the inside AND the outside. It's funny how sometimes you don't realize there's no handle on the outside until you shut the door. I'll be here for an hour until the landlord comes with a key. It's cold and I have to pee. Please share amusing thoughts to stave away the panic.

55 comments later, he was rescued by our Project Coordinator Ella, though the food he had cooking on the stove wasn't so lucky. The resolution, as per FB:

A few more details now that I"m back home in my smokey apt. When the moment of rescue came I heard "steve steve" from above looked up and there was Ella, her friend who lives in the building, and the doorman looking over the ledge of the balcony above with three different sets of pliers... they got lowered one by one on Ella's yarn. The third one worked. Got into an apt filled with smoke. And the landlord arrived 2 minutes later. Of many things I learned today - in Colombia the doormen don't keep spare keys because nobody trusts their doormen enough. And the smoke detectors are only in the halls... so basically you can asphyxiate to death in your own apt and if the fire gets really really really bad and makes it out in the hall then some alarm goes off.

So we're happy to report that with no fires or injuries, Steve was successfully returned to the interior of his apartment.

Meanwhile, out in the hall: This poster has been posted around Steve's apartment building. Transcription and translation below.

Jerónimo perdió su osito de dormir en el edificio: 

Jeronimo lost his little bear in the building.

Si lo encuentras por favor retornarlo al apt. 2105: 

If you find it, please return it to apt. 2105

RECOMPENSA!!!!

REWARD!!!!

Muchas Gracias!

Many Thanks!

  

(El señor Berns sabe)

(Mr. Berns knows)

Pretty reminiscent of another poster that has popped up in The Civilians' world: 

Lost Back-Pack

Valuable Contents: 

2 Beanie Babies 

and a toy dolphin

mostly needed back/ 

If found, please call

That's right - this is a snapshot of the original poster quoted in Gone Missing, complete with absolutely adorable illustrations. It's hanging in our office now. We'll let you know if Jeronimo finds his bear, and we can only hope that the beanie babies and toy dolphin have safely found their way home.

Bogotá Theater Groups Threatened with Exile or Death.

by Steve Cosson, The Civilians

The right is eager to consolidate power and re-take political control. And apparently, that requires threatening teenagers, stilt walkers, mimes and musicians.

Shortly after arriving here in Bogotá I learned of a crisis here in the city that seems perfectly surreal but is in fact very real and worthy of some international attention. (I find myself in Bogotá in order to lead the research of a new Civilians project about a beauty pageant that will take place in a few weeks at El Buen Pastor, the national women’s prison. More on that to come in future blog postings here.)

Here’s what’s going down. On August 23, a group of twelve theater and arts groups were threatened by the very sinister-sounding “Bloque Capital D. C. de las Águilas Negras” (The Capita District Sector of the Black Eagles). The groups received a note saying such things as: “Today we begin the social cleansing of all the dirty organizations that stand in our way... we are not playing around you motherfucking disgusting sons of bitches. Don’t make us finish you off one by one.” In short, the groups were ordered to leave Bogotá or be killed. The full text in Spanish and English follows. 

The Aguilas Negras are essentially a right-wing paramilitary group. Under former president Uribe the paramilitaries were officially disbanded. However, many of these groups have reformed and are sometimes described as "neo paramilitaries" or “emergent criminal groups.” In this instance however, the origin of the threat from the Aguilas Negras is likely not criminal but political which has everything to do with upcoming elections this fall.

WHO IS THREATENED:

The groups primarily work in the working class/poor south of Bogotá, often with a focus on social service, providing activities for youth, etc. The work is populist, often street theater: parades, dance, masks, stilt walking—a kind of spectacular visual theater that’s a tradition in the area. The key factor in this is most likely the youth. While not necessarily political companies, the groups tend to be left-leaning and the right-wing perceives them as competition in the effort to gain recruits among the young.

THE RESPONSE

In response to the threat, the threatened groups and other cultural organizations of Bogotá have convened several large meetings. At a recent convening one of the threatened teatreros commented that while all the groups felt very concerned they could not imagine who would want to kill them. In referring to the text of the death threats, part of which stated the the Aguilas Negras will attack “these motherfucking organizations of shit who pretend to be defenders of the human rights through artistic expressions that are against the policies of our government.” The teatrero commented that the threatened groups could not understand how the defense of human rights could inspire a death threat, nor did they understand what the Aguilas meant as “our government.”

On August 30th, the day that the groups were supposed to leave Bogotá, the groups instead organized a festive parade through the streets of downtown Bogotá calling on fellow citizens and cultural groups to come out in support. Here are some photos and a short video I took of the march:

You can see a bit more of the march in this video, created by others attending:



The march was followed by another large convening. The Police have opened an investigation into the threat and have offered protection to the threatened groups. Part of the investigation’s purpose is to determine who exactly is making the threats as there is a history of various groups using the name “Aguilas Negras” to intimidate their enemies. In this case, whoever might be using the name, it seems to many here in Bogotá that this crisis is happening as part of the lead-up to the fall elections which will elect a new Mayor of Bogotá, state governors and numerous city councils. After the failure of a left-leaning mayor here in Bogotá, the right is eager to consolidate power and re-take control. And apparently, that requires threatening teenagers, stilt walkers, mimes and musicians. Recent newspaper articles here have argued that the threats may be coming from “delinquent groups” comprised of former guerrilla, narcos and paramilitaries who wish to continue control of the local drug trade and that the artistic groups may “present an obstacle.” Just my opinion here, but I can’t see how dancing teenagers pose a threat to the drug trade. The political theory carries more weight.

In the meantime, the artistic groups argue that they do not feel sufficiently protected. And while the police continue their investigation of the threats, it’s vitally important that the international community work to shine a light on this situation and remind the police and the government of Colombia that the world is watching.

Please consider writing or sending an email to the entities listed below. Many national and international human rights groups are already aware of the issue. However, the more international attention we can garner, the greater chance that these threatened groups will be safe. Letters and emails sent directly to officials here in Bogotá truly make a difference. Through The Civilians and other US organizations, I will also be organizing a letter for publication. If you would like to help in that effort please feel free to contact info@thecivilians.org.

Here is a scan of the death threat (click to enlarge):

English translation:

Today we begin a social cleansing of all the dirty organizations that stand in our way.


3.1 To formalize a release in the south-center and south- western areas of the city to the motherfucking organizations of shit that pretend to be defenders of the human rights through artistic expressions that are against the policies of our government.


[List of the the threatened organizations]

We don't care whether you're protected sons of bitches, it won't do you any good. You have 8 days to leave the city, motherfuckers.We are not playing around motherfuckers, disgusting bitches don't make us finish you off one by one. The Capital Section of the Aguilas Negras.

Please help by writing any or all of the contacts below to let them know that you are concerned for the safety of the theater and artistic groups in Bogotá and that you urge the Colombian government and police to do everything it can to protect the  groups and to investigate the threat.

Volmar Antonio Perez
Defensoria del pueblo
Calle 55 No 10- 32
Bogota, Colombia
Email: http://www.defensoria.org.co/red/?_item=0008&_secc=00&ts=1

Hernan Jaime Ulloa
Programa presidencial de derechos humanos
presidencia de la república
carrera 7 No 6 – 54
Bogota, Colombia
Email: ppdh@presidencia.gov.co

Mariella Barragán
Secretaria de Gobierno Bogota

comunicaciones@gobiernobogota.gov.co

And here are some links to recent articles about the threats:

http://www.semana.com/nacion/teatreros-bogota-bajo-amenaza-criminal/163371-3.aspx(Spanish)

http://esferapublica.org/nfblog/?p=18695 (Spanish)

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/culture/18685-bogota-theater-groups-protest-death-threats.html (English)

And an overview of the heirs to the paramilitaries:

http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/02/02/colombia-stop-abuses-paramilitaries-successor-groups (English)

TALES FROM MY PARENTS' DIVORCE at Williamstown

TALES FROM MY PARENTS' DIVORCE has officially opened at Williamstown Theatre Festival, and we still have a weekend of performances to go! The actors, who all interviewed their own parents and in fact play their own parents, do a fantastic job of, dare I say, becoming their parents and telling the stories of building and dividing their families. Writer and actor Robbie Collier Sublett brought up another layer that the show offers during a talk-back after Tuesday's performance - which is that these actors witnessed a lot of these events as kids, and in fact, the stories that they're now telling had a major impact on shaping their childhoods. So it's all the more cathartic to be able to look at these events with the distance (all of the parents are over 20 years divorced at this point) that their parents' have been able to get over time.

The Boston Globe liked it, too, saying it's an "engrossing production" and applauding the actors' "impressive skill." Click HERE for the whole review!

And here are some wonderful program notes written by our most fabulous former Literary Associate, Rachel Lerner-Lay! The notes take a look at some of the statistics (with some great info-graphics) to accompany our stories of one of the wide-spread social phenomena in America today (click on it to enlarge).

And here's a photo of the theater....

And here's a photo of the set! (Note the dishwasher in the back - it really works!)

Congrats to all the cast and crew - break a leg this weekend, and we can't wait for the show to go up to ArtsEmerson in October!

GONE MISSING - Blast from the Past!

In celebration of the Gone Missing concert this Monday, August 8th at Barrow Street Theatre, we have been checking out some videos of past productions of Gone Missing on the web. Professional and community theatres as well as universities and high schools have been putting up productions all over the country. These talent-filled, heart warming, and sometimes hilarious performances have brought back lots of great memories.

Check out this video of Everett High School's Drama Club rehearsing for their performance of the show. Don't miss the 2:10 mark- you will fall for this actress' spin on our work!

And let us not forget this incredible animation done by Rita Sá for School of Visual Arts:

Can't get enough? Be sure to pick up tickets, put on your Gucci pumps (if you can find them), and join us next Monday. So if you saw the show at Barrow Street and have missed it, or missed it during its last run, don't miss Gone Missing on August 8 at 8pm!

Tickets can be purchased at Barrow Street's website:

http://www.barrowstreettheatre.com/whats-on/gonemissing_onenight.asp

See you all next week!

Tutkiva teatteri - Investigative Theater

Tutkiva teatteri means "Investigative Theater" in Finnish - a fact we learned when Alix Lambert, one of our R&D Group playwrights and Associate Artists, was interviewed by Janne Junttila, a Finnish journalist, who is writing a book about contemporary documentary theater. The video of the interview, below, shows her talking about her project Crime, USA, for which she's been traveling around the country conducting interviews with criminals, cops, crime writers, pawnshop owners, the FBI, the DOJ, experts on serial killers, former gang members, and more. The journalist also got some footage from inside an R&D Group meeting, showing a short clip of Mia Chung's project and the discussion. Check it out!

Tutkiva teatteri from Janne Junttila on Vimeo.

For more information about the artists and projects in last year's R&D Group, click HERE.

PLUS, Janne Junttila has collected short excerpts of the interviews he has made here www.dokumenttiteatteri.fi. Interviewees include Judith Malina (a student of Erwin Piscator), Anna Deavere Smith, Nicolas Kent and Richard Norton-Taylor of London's Tricycle Theatre, German group Rimini Protokoll, British director Peter Cheeseman's widow, one Russian, Icelandic and Finnish theatre group. We're thrilled to be included in this awesome project!

10 Ridiculous or Ridiculously Amazing Facts

THE CIVILIANS HAS MADE IT THROUGH TEN YEARS -
HELP US MAKE IT TEN MORE!
 

We’re closing out our tenth anniversary season and we're trying to raise $5,000 to meet our goals for this year.

Any amount helps. How about $10 for 10 years?

Or $20: $10 for the first 10 and $10 for the next!

For a gift of $20 or more, you'll get a signed script from our upcoming Best Of Concert, which will include all of our favorite monologues!

PLUS, if we get 500 people to give us $10 (or more), we’ll make a brand new, original video for the website with some of your favorite moments from shows AND a few of our Associate Artists telling personal stories about memorable interviews!

 

And just for a little more fun, here are a few of the things that have happened in the last ten years that are either hilarious or amazing, and which have us very excited to get going on the next ten!

TEN RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING OR JUST RIDICULOUS 

THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED TO THE CIVILIANS 
IN THE PAST TEN YEARS

10. When The Civilians wins an Obie, Swoosie Kurtz presents the award and reads the lyrics to “The Civilians Theme Song”.

9. After In the Footprint, the following is overheard being said to Mayor Bloomberg at a meeting: “I saw a play about Atlantic Yards last night, and you were played by an empty suit!”
...followed by dead silence.   

8. We’ve made some ridiculously amazing friends. Check out videos HERE and HERE made by past interviewees with wonderfully kind words for our tenth anniversary!

7. When two Associate Artists stalk Anna Paquin in a stairwell in preparation for Canard, Canard, Goose?, she will not comment on the treatment of geese in Fly Away Home. She is portrayed in the show anyway, paving the way for Jay Z’s appearance in In the Footprint ten years later.

6. The Civilians outrages the super right wing by receiving support from the National Science Foundation. This one’s a twofer, since the support is ridiculously amazing, and the outrage was ridiculous.

5. We started an Education Program! Here’s a video of these ridiculously amazing high schoolers who made a short play from interviews!

Stay tuned for the final four in the top ten list... and click here to support our tenth anniversary season!

Jeff Daniels or Jeff Bridges?

Here's a video from LET ME ASCERTAIN YOU: CANARD, CANARD, GOOSE?, a concert version of our very first show ever that we recreated at Joe's Pub last Friday! Watch as The Civilians try to retell the plot of Fly Away Home (whose actual plot - and cast - can be found here!)

Young Civilians at Work, Part II!

Last week, we posted the presentation from our new Education Program. Here is the Question and Answer session from after the performance with our two amazing students and their teacher and our Associate Artist Emily Ackerman! The students field questions about what they learned, how they conducted their interviews, taking on the personas of the different interviewees, and what it was like to talk to friends, family, and even strangers! They've got some great things to say about the investigative method, so check out this behind-the-scenes peak at how to craft a performance from an investigation.

Young Civilians at Work!

In the spring semester of this academic year, The Civilians piloted a new Education Program at a public high school in Brooklyn! The class, taught by the fabulous Civilians' Associate Artist Emily Ackerman (of THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY and recent THE GREAT IMMENSITY readings), focused on issues of the environment. These high school sophomores talked to family, friends, neighbors, shop keepers in their neighborhoods, and more about their beliefs about climate change and their role in preserving the environment on a local level, covering topics like littering. They then used these interviews to craft a play - sound familiar? Check out the video posted below to see what these extraordinary kids came up with in the funny and interesting presentation that they did at the end of the class!

BENEFIT X Success!

Things went great on May 2 at (le) poisson rouge! We met all of our goals, which puts us in a wonderful position for launching our eleventh season, and we're so grateful for all of your support. The performance was lovely with our special guests, Ana Gasteyer and Marc Kudisch. We also had some really special guests: past interviewees saying hello! Here are some awesome videos that we played at the event!


From Nancy-Jo, the real Christian T-Girl from THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY


From Carol, the real Chaneler/Entity from (I AM) NOBODY'S LUNCH

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make this event such a fabulous evening!

BENEFIT X UPDATES!

BENEFIT X is going to be amazing! First of all, we've got our fabulous Associate Artists performing, and they'll be joined by Saturday Night Live's
Ana Gasteyer and Tony-nominee Marc Kudisch! Plus, we've got some old friends joining us that you won't want to miss - some of our past interviewees will be saying hello, so this is an awesome opportunity to see some of the real people who inspired the Civilians characters that you know and love!

And our silent auction is really gearing up! It's a featuring auction on our auction host's homepage (HERE). We've got some amazing packages (a fashion package with a guided shopping trip, fashion advice from an expert, and a $250 gift card to Saks; a rock climbing package; a relaxation package with a massage, facial, and 3 month membership to Yogaworks), delicious food and drink options (some amazing wine selections from our board and Honorary Committee, a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne Vintage 1998 with gorgeous Baccarat flutes), plus lots of travel (Cape Cod, Vegas), lots of shows (signed unpublished script from Lynn Nottage, Tony Kushner package, Playwrights and MTC, Atlantic and Soho Rep, Vineyard, AND MORE!), PLUS an original song written by our dear Michael Friedman, and a private reading by the illustrious and lovely Kathleen Chalfant.

CHECK IT OUT HERE! And forward to your friends! This is a great way to support the company if you can't make it to the event, and get some amazing stuff!

And if you haven't bought tickets yet, please GO HERE!

Thanks so much! See you on Monday!