At NYU a documentary play refuses to take political bias at face value HEAD TOPICS

At NYU a documentary play refuses to take political bias at face value

10/21/2022 11:03:00 PM

Verbatim Performance Lab an educational theater program at NYU is meant to help audiences get past physical attributes and associations to listen closely

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Gothamist

A play at NYU has words and gestures of interview subjects delivered by actors whose ages, races and genders differ from the original speakers. The approach is meant to help audiences get past physical attributes and associations to listen more carefully. Verbatim Performance Lab an educational theater program at NYU is meant to help audiences get past physical attributes and associations to listen closely Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations"It was like I was agreeing with him," she said, "But also distrustful of what he was saying."which just opened at NYU’s Black Box Theatre. In this new documentary theater work, the exact words and gestures of interview subjects are delivered by actors whose ages, races, and genders differ from those of the original speakers: an approach meant to help audience members get past physical attributes and associations to listen more closely and carefully. The play explores whether the current political landscape is as polarized as media — whether broadcast or social — would have us believe. Read more:
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YEEEOOOOWWW terra_money JamieCrawleyCD The fukker is living the dream 🫥🫥 Annual Al Smith Dinner provides backdrop for tightening NY gubernatorial raceThe annual Al Smith Dinner is the political event of the year in New York, highlighted by bold-faced names from the worlds of government and business. A swing and a miss - Chicago ReaderSwing State, Rebecca Gilman's latest at the Goodman, is just in time for the midterms, but takes on too many issues. SullivanCatey Meet the teen queen of professional pickleballShe plays doubles with her mom, is sponsored by Fila and says college can wait: Pickleball’s Anna Leigh Waters is the face of an exploding sport. I'm sure the mom, is beautiful. We rely on your support to make local news available to all Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2022.October 20, 2022 at 7:49 a.speech Swift gave at NYU’s spring commencement ceremony , at which she was presented with an honorary doctorate in fine arts.Bloomberg reported on Friday . Donate today Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations Michael Roberts, a young graduate student at NYU, held an iPhone aloft as he faced a crowd on campus on Thursday night. Members of the new generation have a flood of information at their fingertips, he declared, and should be careful about what they choose to believe. UPDATED: October 20, 2022 at 7:52 a. His speech drew laughter from a gathered crowd. Cool news is, you’re on your own now. Later that evening, one observer said she’d laughed because while she agrees it's important to check information found online, she didn't believe Roberts was being truthful. A Cottage Grove, Minnesota man has admitted in court to taking part in a shootout outside a high school graduation party in Woodbury last year that killed his 14-year-old stepson. "It was like I was agreeing with him," she said, "But also distrustful of what he was saying. He claimed he had moved there before the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. " Her skepticism was warranted. A plea agreement Dawson reached with prosecutors calls for a maximum of nearly nine years in prison, but also allows his defense attorney to argue for a mandatory minimum of five years at a sentencing hearing scheduled for Jan. and watch live as new lyrics were unveiled. Roberts was in character, portraying an old man from Texas in “Whatever you are, be a good one: A Portraits US Town Hall,” which just opened at NYU’s Black Box Theatre. In this new documentary theater work, the exact words and gestures of interview subjects are delivered by actors whose ages, races, and genders differ from those of the original speakers: an approach meant to help audience members get past physical attributes and associations to listen more closely and carefully. Dawson’s stepson, Demaris Ekdahl, of Maplewood, was killed in the shootout, which Dawson admitted he started by firing the first shots after the boy called him and said he and his brother “were getting robbed” while leaving the graduation party, according to court documents. The play explores whether the current political landscape is as polarized as media — whether broadcast or social — would have us believe. Joe Salvatore is a co-creator of the play and the director of Verbatim Performance Lab, the educational theater program behind the project. 28, under the argument that Dawson was acting in the defense of Ekdahl and his brother. “What we do is we investigate the words and gestures of folks that we discover, either in media artifacts or in interviews that we conduct, about a particular topic,” he told Gothamist a few days before the Thursday premiere. “Over the past year, we've been conducting interviews with folks from across the United States, to get their insights into what are the major causes of this extreme polarization that we're facing in the United States right now?” Salvatore continued.” Also charged in connection with the shooting were Enrique L. “There's a certain narrative that's presented around polarization that I'm not necessarily sure that I fully trust. This project was kind of getting underneath whether or not we're actually as polarized as lots of folks want us to believe we are. Hudson, 19, and Jaden L.” Actor Ran Zhu (left) and Verbatim Performance Lab founder Joe Salvatore (right), performing in “Whatever you are, be a good one: A Portraits US Town Hall” at NYU. Photo by Keith R. All three were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. Huff The project certainly is timely: A Pew Research Center survey published in August found that the way Republicans and Democrats describe one another with negative characteristics has been on the rise since 2016, when the center first began tracking the questions it posed. The study found that 72% of Republicans view members of the Democratic Party as immoral, while 83% of Democrats think Republicans are more close-minded than other Americans. Paul, pleaded guilty to the assault charge and was . Keith Huff, the director of “Whatever you are,” said a team of 30 students recruited interviewees from around the country, in the end collecting 110 interviews conducted with people from 37 states. The team questioned volunteers about how they’d learned about U. Paul. S. history, what they thought the country's core values were, and if they ever felt like their rights had been violated.m. “The one that was most passionate was when people were asked if they could ask any question to a politician that was running for office, what would that question be?” Huff remembered. “And I think that one was an interesting response for people, because it got to this idea that people's voices aren't being heard — which is fascinating when we live in the governmental structure that we're in. Davila pulled a gun on Ekdahl’s brother, while Townsend slapped him across the face. The whole point of our elected representatives is that they're supposed to represent us. And a lot of the responses you were getting was that they felt like that was not happening.” The team selected 50 interviews, and then selected excerpts of about 90 seconds to two minutes to feature. Each of the 10 actors in the cast has memorized the answers, mannerisms, pitch and delivery of roughly five different interview subjects. In performance, the actors are introduced as if they were appearing on a late-night talk show. The play is designed to be interactive; monologues are randomly chosen every night by the audience, who are also asked to answer questions about each segment throughout the night. “We wanted to put those portraits in conversation,” Huff said, “because what we heard from a lot of the people that were being interviewed was this sort of breakdown of communication that has happened, where people don't feel like they can have conversations about politics because it's very anxiety-filled.” Verbatim Performance Lab intentionally casts actors who differ in age, race, and gender from the interview subjects whose words they deliver. Photo by Jonathan King/NYU “Her Opponent,” based on media clips from the presidential debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton — with the genders flipped. “A woman played Donald Trump, and a man played Hillary Clinton,” Salvatore explained. He and his team came to believe that when an audience hears someone’s words performed by a different-bodied actor, they are more likely to pay attention to how something is being said, and maybe develop a better understanding of that person. “I don't mean that they necessarily end up agreeing with the person, or even particularly liking the person,” Salvatore said. “But they develop empathy.” Now, with the midterm elections just weeks away, Salvatore and Huff said they hope people will leave performances of “Whatever you are” questioning not only how to better engage in discussions about politics, but also how to become more politically involved. “One of the things that we've discovered by this work is that our civics education in this country is really poor,” Huff said. “People do not understand how our government works, they don't understand the different branches, they don't understand what different jobs are responsible for. And that's problematic, because if you don't understand the way the government works, and what different positions and people in power are supposed to be doing, it's really hard to hold them accountable.” Tagged .