Monthly Media Roundup December, 2012

Happy New Year! We hope you've had a great holiday season. Our office has been closed starting December 21, and will reopen January 2. We wanted to still keep you in the loop about what has been happening for us online this month, so here's the December Media Roundup. See you in 2013!

Blog:
R&D Group Post by Matt Dellapina about his R&D project

Podcast:
Occupy #S17, Part I featuring a performance by Tony Award-nominee Kathleen Chalfant, a monologue by our Associate Artist Colleen Werthmann, and a song by Jill Sobule

Subscribe on iTunes HERE!

Press:
Mr. Burns is the Washington Post's Best Show of the Year
Paris Commune in L Magazine's Best Shows of the Year
You Better Sit Down as a New York Times Best Unscripted Moment of the Year

Video:
Occupy #S17 Clip of Kathleen Chalfant performing at Joe's Pub
And we've got a bunch of video clips from our Education Program at the Brooklyn High School of the Arts, where students conducted interviews and created their own show about voting, civic responsibility, and voting. Here they are:
Why Do You Vote?
Voting is for Bigger People
Who's Bush?
Does Race Matter?

And here is video of the kids performing a song that Michael Friedman wrote, which they sang as part of the show!

Monthly Media Roundup November, 2012

We know that November is the month of the Scorpio, but here at The Civilians, it's been a little bit of a Gemini month! We had the first public concert showing of Pretty Filthy at Joe's Pub; meanwhile, our Associate Artist Marsha Stephanie Blake has been hard at work with students at Brooklyn High School of the Arts on their new play (which has performances next Monday and Tuesday)! Plus, we actually had two different projects on television, one about Paris Commune and our environmental music videos were on 24 Hours of Reality on PBS featuring Al Gore! Anyway, lots going on this month; here's our media roundup for November:

Blog:
Featured Associate Artist: Bess Wohl, playwright of Pretty Filthy
Updates from the Brooklyn High School of the Arts: The students are getting ready for their performances of the brand-new play they created, Why We Vote next Monday and Tuesday!
Meet the R&D: A post from our R&D Coordinator, EllaRose Chary about this year's R&D Group participants and projects
Porn Parodies: Updates about Pretty Filthy
Why do you vote? Intro to our Brooklyn High School of the Arts Investigative Theater Education Program

Podcast:
Bogotá Prison Pageant, Part I: Interviews from our investigation in the national women's prison in Bogotá, Colombia, where they host an annual beauty pageant for the incarcerated.
Death, Part III: Another story from Bogotá about a woman who had a near-death experience, plus Michael Friedman's song "Stars" from Gone Missing

Subscribe on iTunes HERE!

Video

Paris Commune on TV: Here's an awesome feature about Paris Commune that was made for a CUNY TV show sponsored by the French Embassy! It's got interviews with Steve, Michael, and the performers, plus footage from the show!

The Great Immensity Blog
Feeling the Heat of Climate Change: about the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, happening right now!

Hurricane Sandy: exploring the conversations about climate change and the environmental crisis sparked by Sandy (plus ways to get involved in relief efforts)

Photos
Our super hottt cast for Pretty Filthy at Joe's Pub

Pretty Filthy at Joe's Pub

Monthly Media Roundup October, 2012

A lot happened this month! Paris Commune had its sold-out run at BAM, and we are so proud of the show and the incredible artists who made it happen. Here's our recap of media that we posted this month; enjoy!

Blog
Featured Associate Artist: Marsha Stephanie Blake
Meet the R&D - A post by R&D Group artist Mia Rovegno about her experience in the 2011-12 Group!
Literary Corner: We Were There - A write-up about David Lawson's new piece of investigative theater that is based on interviews with veterans

Podcast
Paris Commune: A Podcast Discussion featuring NYU professor Kristin Ross discussing the actual Paris Commune and its relationship to social space
Occupy Your Mind, Part III The third part of our performance at Judson Church, including an interview with Reverend Billy and the guy who invented the Occupy Bat Signal

Death, Part III - An incredible monologue from an interview with a woman incarcerated in the national Colombian women's prison who had a near death experience performed by Jeanine Serralles 

Subscribe on iTunes HERE!

Video
Occupy Your Mind: Daniel as Billy at Sarah Lawrence College
Occupy Your Mind: Colleen Werthmann as Andrea at Joe's Pub
Occupy Your Mind: Laura as Andrea at Sarah Lawrence College
Occupy Your Mind: Matt sings "Down by the Riverside" at Sarah Lawrence College

Photos
Paris Commune Production Photos   
Occupy Your Mind Photo of the Occupy show at University of Cincinnati

Nina Hellman, Jeanine Serralles, Kate Buddeke, and Aysan Celik in Paris Commune at BAM

YOU BETTER SIT DOWN: Question #2

For the run of You Better Sit Down: Tales from My Parents' Divorce at The Flea Theater (our show in which four of our artists asked their parents about their parents' divorces, and play their parents in the verbatim conversations), we are asking a question every week, and your responses will inspire what we do in our post-show Salon Nights. The first post-show event is this Saturday, April 14. Last week's questions got some amazing responses  - see them HERE.

This week's question is:

Where were you when you told the kids about the split and what was their reaction? 

For those who aren't divorced, let us know where and how you told your close friends about a break-up!

This was a question that the artists in the show asked their parents. Here's a clip of the answers they got:



Get your tickets to the show HERE!

Occupy Broadway

Our artists, including Michael Friedman, Matt Dellapina, and Quincy Tyler Bernstine, along with Greg Hildreth and Celia Keenan-Bolger, performed yesterday at the very beginning of Occupy Broadway, which is "a 24-hour performance occupation" a few blocks north of Time Square. It's still going on, so if you're around, be sure to check out all of the great stuff packed into the remaining hours!

Here are some photos of Matt Dellapina singing to the crowd:

And here is the finale of The Civilians' performance: Michael Friedman leading the crowd in a sing-along of "Dump the Bosses Off Your Back," a song of discontent and protest from 1911. The lyrics below so you can sing along at home!

Are you poor, forlorn and hungry?
Are there lots of things you lack?
Is your life made up of misery?
Then dump the bosses off your back.

Are your clothes all patched and tattered?
Are you living in a shack?
Would you have your troubles scattered?
Then dump the bosses off your back.

Are you almost split asunder?
Loaded like a long-eared jack?
Boob - why don't you buck like thunder,
And dump the bosses off your back?

All the agonies you suffer
You can end with one good whack;
Stiffen up, you orn'ry duffer
And dump the bosses off your back.

Watch the Occupy Wall Street Cabaret!

The Civilians' Let Me Ascertain You: Occupy Wall Street Cabaret was last Friday, and it went great! We couldn't be prouder of our fantastic artists for pulling together to create such a wonderful show (and so quickly - interviews began just a few weeks ago)!

We got a great write-up from The Faster Times, who said that "The 80-minute show was the most moving work of theater I have seen all season." Read the whole article here!

We are so happy to announce that the entire show is available! Watch the videos posted here, or check out a snapshot from an interview posted below!

Watch live streaming video from joespub at livestream.com

Watch live streaming video from joespub at livestream.com

Watch live streaming video from joespub at livestream.com

Fate is a 19 year old in youthful, punkish clothing. She tells us what brings her to OWS and what it's like living there:

“I came out here with my boyfriend and my friends? But um…all I really love about this is …we’re making a point. We’re standing up for what we believe in and at the end of the day, you know, we still have our heads up…we still have hope. Hopefully none of these freaking PIGS (gestures to police) mess it up.

Well, being here my day is…is peaceful. Yeah, it is hard to sleep …early...but you know, everyone’s like, “Yeah come on,” everyone’s like rowdy, like “Yeah protestors” and it’s like, you gotta be up. We clean up, we put the blankets back so other people can use them. We eat. Uh. Our spots change all the time. There are people that are coming in from different states and different countries, so we have to make a little bit more room for them. And. That’s basically like…it’s like guests, coming into our home. This is our home. And we’re trying to make it look suitable…to people.”

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!

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!)

IN THE FOOTPRINT: Featured Video

"I had two ladies, one was a teacher, one was a stockbroker... they were a couple; and the both of 'em were both yellin at me, yelling and screaming, saying how could you be for this project, don't you realize if he builds a sixty story building the trees aren't going to get sunshine. You actually believe that, that the buildings are gonna - how in your right mind you gonna believe that? You can't block the sun! I can't remember how many million miles and it still somehow reaches the flowers even underwater - how you gonna block the sun with a building? Manhattan never woulda been built in with that theory. Am I right or wrong?"

Master Builder, Union Member, and Interviewee



Here is a link to Barclay's press release about the groundbreaking in March. Here's what they say about union jobs: "It is anticipated that Atlantic Yards will generate over $5 billion in new tax revenues for the State and the
City over the next 30 years and will create upwards of 17,000 union construction jobs and up to 8,000 permanent jobs when the entire project is completed."

And here is Norman Oder weighing in on the jobs issue.

Lastly, the earth is 150 million kilometers (93.2 million miles) from the sun.

IN THE FOOTPRINT: Featured Video

GENTRIFICATION AND A WORD OF ADVICE:



"I remember when Time Out NY did their thing about Fort Greene and the best block to live in NYC was uh- South Portland between Lafayette and DeKalb and at first I was like, no it's not! And then I was like, "Oh shit, they just blew up our spot," So the ironic thing to me is that I’ve now become a gentrifier of Bed Stuy. So that's the sort of weird situation that I find myself in. Sorta like pushed out of one neighborhood into another."

Here's the more recent NY Mag ranking of New York neighborhoods. Park Slope is Number 1; Fort Greene is ranked Number 18.

What do you think the best place is to live in NYC?

IN THE FOOTPRINT: Featured Video

How about a blog post about bloggers?



"Norman Oder - do you know him? He does the Atlantic Yards Report blog. He has a theory, that Brooklyn would be a large city in another place in the United States, it would have one or two papers, and they would have fully staffed newsrooms. He, he quotes another media person who says nowhere else in the United States are more people served by so little media. But we do have a lot of bloggers. One thing I think of as like the bloggers, I kinda think of - we're like a Greek chorus, basically. We tell people what's really going on. You could do like a Greek chorus in your show!"

Click here for an article by Norman Oder in his blog about the recent Atlantic Yards reporting.

More Atlantic Yards-related blog links to the right of this entry in "My Blog List."

Can you handle all the meta happening in this post?

IN THE FOOTPRINT: Featured Video

Here is a video from our workshop production of IN THE FOOTPRINT, which was at the Brooklyn Lyceum in 2008 (under the title Brooklyn at Eye Level). This is from an interview with the President of the Youth Council Atlantic Terminal Community Center.







"If they build a stadium, that's OK. I have no problem. Cause I could come outta my house and go watch a game. Live. That's no problem. But what about the seniors in this building, the elderly? Come on now."