The Challenging the Narratives of Racisms Performance Symposium is a series of events exploring key narratives within the United States that challenge and hold up a mirror to the rise of racism, supremacist nationalism, and reflect on how we heal from hatred. Through performance, discussion, and storytelling, these events will aid audiences in understanding the context that has brought the United States to this point and ideate how we fill the need for repair. All events are free and will take place in The Theatre School at DePaul University’s Healy Theatre.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
Monday, October 28, 2024, at 7:00 PM
#Charlottesville
By Priyanka Shetty
#CHARLOTTESVILLE, a devised piece by Priyanka Shetty, is a performance that weaves oral histories to dramatize the Charlottesville community’s response to the Aug. 11, 2017, Unite the Right rally, which led to the death of Heather Heyer when a man rammed his car the next day into a crowd of counter-protesters. The performance is based on more than 100 interviews with residents of the Charlottesville area. Comments Shetty, “I’m just the medium. The ideas and opinions belong to the people who lived through the events when racial violence erupted in the city.”
Tuesday, October 29, 2024, at 6:30 PM
The Rise of Nationalism, White Supremacism, and Antisemitism in the U.S.
With Professor Pamela S. Nadell
The plays Otto Frank and #Charlottesville take their audiences from twentieth-century Nazi Germany to the twenty-first century U.S. To deepen our understanding of both plays, Professor Pamela S. Nadell explores the deep roots of the racist ideology that led to the explosion of antisemitism at the heart of both stories. Join Professor Nadell in a discussion centering on the rise of nationalism, white supremacy, and antisemitism in the United States - moderated by The Theatre School’s David Chack, a professor of Jewish and Holocaust theatre and Identity Theatre at The Theatre School at DePaul University.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024, at 7:00 PM
Otto Frank
By Roger Guenveur Smith
Obie award-winning actor and writer of Do The Right Thing, Roger was invited to perform in Amsterdam and it was there that he visited the Anne Frank House. “[M]y Otto Frank, the custodian of his daughter's legacy, speaks to her from far beyond her time and his own, interrogating the crisis of our present moment from a not-so-distant past…”
EVENT DETAILS:
Dates: Monday, October 28 – Wednesday, October 30th
Fees: N/A
Location: The Theatre School at DePaul University, Healy Theatre, 2350 N. Racine Ave. Chicago, IL 60614
About the Presenters
Priyanka Shetty is an award-winning actor, playwright, and director based in Philadelphia. Priyanka is focused on making art that is a reflection of our times. With humor, insight, and raw energy, her plays pose critical questions about contemporary issues, engender dialogue, and are a call for solidarity and collective action. Priyanka recently made her Off-Broadway debut with her second solo play #Charlottesville at the Drama Desk award-winning 59E59 Theaters in NYC. She is currently working on The Wall, the final play in her Triptych of Solos. She was handpicked for the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive 2021 and was a semi-finalist for the 2022 Eugene O’Neill National Playwriting Conference. Priyanka earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting from the University of Virginia and has served on the faculty of the University of Virginia’s Department of Drama.
Pamela S. Nadell holds the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women's and Gender History and is Director of the Jewish Studies Program at American University. A specialist in American Jewish history and women’s history, her books include America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today (W.W. Norton, 2019), named Jewish Book of the Year by the Jewish Book Council. Reviewed in the New York Times, America’s Jewish Women was praised as “a welcome addition to the American historical canon.” Past president of the Association for Jewish Studies, Nadell’s other titles include Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women's Ordination, 1889–1985 (Beacon Press, 1998). She consults for museums including the National Museum of American Jewish History and the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream. She lectures widely, frequently appears on podcasts, and has written for, among others, the Washington Post, The Conversation, and Hadassah Magazine. In 2017 and 2023, she testified before Congress about antisemitism on college campuses. She is currently writing a history, which received a National Endowment for the Humanities Scholars grant, on antisemitism in America titled Antisemitism, an American Tradition.
Roger Guenveur Smith is known for starring in an unprecedented 13 films with Academy Award-winning director Spike Lee, more than any other actor in the American cinema. Smith starred in the self-written and produced A Huey P. Newton Story, a one-man theatre performance based on the life of Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton. Smith received an Obie Award, and a performance was later filmed by Spike Lee. Smith has also performed important historical figures in American Gangster, Frederick Douglass Now, Marshall, Better Mus' Come, and Behind the Movement. He also stars as the supporting lead role in Rick Famuyiwa's comedy Dope. Most recently, Smith appeared in Till, a biographical drama based on the true story of Mamie Till. In addition to his performances in major studio productions, Smith continues to work in and support independent film projects.