Discounted tickets plus online and in-person panels and community activities
There’s already loads of excitement in the theater-going world for Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, playing at American Repertory Theater through Sept. 24. Written by Anna Deavere Smith and directed by Taibi Magar in association with Signature Theatre, the show looks at how “30 years ago, the news of the police officers’ acquittal in Rodney King’s police brutality case reverberated throughout the streets of Los Angeles.”
“Called ‘a riot,’ ‘a revolution,’ and ‘a social explosion,’ the events that followed drew worldwide attention—and inspired Smith to dissect the anatomy of the civil unrest,” the Twilight description explains. “Her Tony Award-nominated, Obie Award-winning exploration derived from interviews with more than 350 Los Angelinos reveals the fault lines that set the city ablaze.”
In addition to the show itself, A.R.T. is really pulling out the stops for the accompanying programming.
First, they announced that “1,500 tickets priced at $5 and 1,000 free tickets for public high school students.” As well as “$5 tickets [that] are available via A.R.T. community partners, local organizations, and to those who self-identify as benefiting from a subsidized ticket.”
“We are delighted to partner with the American Repertory Theater on this initiative to offer $5 tickets to the community and free tickets to public high school students to experience a production that resonates strongly in the current environment,” said Jonathan and Jeannie Lavine, who also serve as Trustees of The Crimson Lion / Lavine Family Foundation. “We applaud the A.R.T.’s multidisciplinary approach to engaging its audiences around the pressing issues of our time and believe that by working together we can meaningfully expand access to arts experiences that serve to strengthen and activate our civil discourse and engagement.”
There’s also the “Appetizer,” a “pre-show experience designed for high school students by high school students,” in which “participants will enjoy refreshments and engage in a guided conversation to reflect on the past and present of racial violence, the stories we tell about race, and the path to a more equitable society.”
Then there is A.R.T.’s Civically Speaking series, which “features virtual conversations, lectures, and performance events on history, politics, justice, and the meaning of democracy.” It’s an awfully impressive lineup of in-person as well as online events; check for links and details below …
WHAT ARE JAILS FOR? THE STORY OF MASS INCARCERATION – PRESENTED WITH WEE THE PEOPLE
In Person Saturday, September 10 at 10:30AM | Cambridge Public Library (499 Broadway, Cambridge)
Heroes and villains, cops and robbers: From a young age, kids absorb and play out a lot of ideas about safety, danger, crime, and punishment. As they grow older, they then absorb a never-ending narrative of Black criminality. In this workshop, kids will learn to question these assumptions and understand the connection between disrupting these harmful stereotypes and protecting Black lives. This event is appropriate for all ages, but is designed especially for children and their grownups.
AmericanRepertoryTheater.org/WeeThePeople
CIVICALLY SPEAKING: A CONVERSATION CO-PRESENTED WITH THE ASH CENTER
Online Tuesday, September 13 at 7:30PM
Tune in to hear from Taeku Lee (Harvard University), Janelle Wong (University of Maryland), and Kenneth W. Mack (Harvard Law School) in a discussion inspired by various themes from Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. Co-presented by The Roy and Lila Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School.
AmericanRepertoryTheater.org/CivicallySpeaking
“S” Is for Solidarity – PRESENTED WITH WE THE PEOPLE
In Person Saturday, September 17 at 10:30AM | Cambridge Public Library (499 Broadway, Cambridge)
Imagine going outside, picking up a stick, and snapping the stick in two. Seems easy enough. Now imagine picking up a bunch of sticks, tying them together in a tight bundle, and then snapping that bundle. Not so easy, right? When we stand together and unite in the face of injustice, we become unbreakable. That strength has a name: SOLIDARITY. In this activity-based workshop, kids will explore the power of solidarity to create change and the many ways that non-Black people of color can stand in solidarity with Black lives.
AmericanRepertoryTheater.org/WeeThePeople
THE APPETIZER: TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992
In Person Saturday, September 17 at 12PM and Friday, September 23 at 5:30PM
At this pre-show experience designed for high school students by high school students from A.R.T.’s Youth Action Team, participants will enjoy refreshments and engage in a guided conversation to reflect on the past and present of racial violence, the stories we tell about race, and the path to a more equitable society.
The Youth Action Team (Y.A.T.) is a paid, year-long program beginning this summer for incoming high school juniors that develops leadership skills through original creative arts producing. Participants are forming a community of like-minded peers and industry connections as they design and implement their own arts initiatives in collaboration with A.R.T.’s values and programming. Y.A.T. members will leave the program equipped and inspired to become change- makers in their communities.
INTRO TO PRISON ABOLITION
Online Monday, September 19 at 5PM
This workshop introduces the concept of police and prison abolition as, in the words of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, “…about presence, not absence.” Through guided activities, participants will understand policing—in all its varied forms—as an inherent form of violence, one that actually makes our communities less safe. Participants will think through the kinds of resources—mental health care, public education, housing, and more—that can actually prevent violence, creating broader safety in our communities, without police and prisons.
AmericanRepertoryTheater.org/IntroWorkshop
CIVICALLY SPEAKING – TWILIGHT REVISITED: DUSK OR DAWN?
Online Tuesday, September 20 at 7:30PM
Join a lively and wide-ranging conversation about Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 with Harvard scholars Ju Yon Kim, Tracy K. Smith, and Timothy Patrick McCarthy, who will reflect on this theatrical landmark, its newly revised ensemble production at the A.R.T., and what has happened in this country since its premiere in Los Angeles nearly three decades ago.
Ju Yon Kim is Patsy Takemoto Mink Professor of English and Chair of the Concentration in Theater, Dance & Media at Harvard University. Tracy K. Smith is Professor of English and of African and African American Studies in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Timothy Patrick McCarthy is an award-winning scholar, educator, and activist who has taught at Harvard for more than two decades.
AmericanRepertoryTheater.org/CivicallySpeaking