Symposium
Poets Theater Variety Show
Sept 18–20, 2024
St. Mark’s Church
131 E. 10th St
Curated by Ethan Philbrick
Building on decades of engagement between experimental literature and performance, The Poetry Project presents ALIEN AND ORDINARY: A POETS THEATER SYMPOSIUM. Our title recalls Bertolt Brecht’s understanding of how making everyday life productively strange, a technique Brecht referred to as alienation, opens up possibilities for ordinary people to transform the world around us in profound ways. Over five events and three days, this symposium engages the past and future of Poets Theater, exploring how community-oriented, anti-professional performance makes new sense of changing everything.
The symposium will feature performances and plays by Nile Harris, Bassem Saad, Sanja Grozdanić, Amelia Bande, and Charlene Incarnate, plus a poets theater variety show hosted by Morgan Bassichis featuring Jess Barbagallo, Nazareth Hassan, Stephen Ira, Kite, The Illustrious Pearl, Fargo Nissim Tbakhi, and Tony Torn. Tickets to each performance are $15 in advance, or $20 at the door. Attendees can also purchase a pass to all five events for $40.
ALIEN AND ORDINARY: A POETS THEATER SYMPOSIUM:
Wed Sept 18: Poets Theater Variety Show (8pm, Sanctuary)
Thurs Sept 19: Permanent Trespass (Beirut of the Balkans and the American Century) (7pm, Parish Hall)
let me hold your hand when I say this [the words are just words] (9pm, Sanctuary)
Fri Sept 20: REHEARSAL ABYSS / ENSAYO ABISMAL (7pm, Parish Hall)
Y’all Are Fucked Up (9pm, Sanctuary)
Alien and Ordinary: A Poets Theater Symposium is generously supported and made possible by funding from the Axe-Houghton Foundation.
