The New Group to Host Panel Discussion in Conjunction With Downtown Race Riot
(© David Gordon)
In conjunction with its production of Seth Zvi Rosenfeld's Downtown Race Riot, the New Group will host a panel titled Confronting Racial Bias in Our Communities on Monday, December 11, at the National Black Theatre.
Moderated by Nancy Giles, the panel will feature Anurag Gupta, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Moise Morancy, and James Braxton Peterson. It is part of the company's New Group Now: Where Art Meets Our Present Culture series of public discussions locating New Group productions within the larger context of American and/or global society.
Downtown Race Riot is described as follows: "On a hot late summer day in 1976, a mob of young men — all white except one — descended on Washington Square Park with pipes and bats, and attacked any people of color they could find. Seth Zvi Rosenfeld takes us back to that day, to the cramped Village apartment of Mary Shannon, a strung-out, freewheeling single mom, as her son Pnut and his Haitian best friend, Massive, wrestle with their obligation to join the riot. The boys, torn between loyalty to each other and to the neighborhood, grasp for ways to keep the violence from destroying their friendship forever. A snapshot of a time not so different than today, when a new social freedom ran smack into the forces of reaction, and when the stakes were truly life and death."
The cast includes Cristian DeMeo, David Levi, Moise Morancy, Josh Pais, Sadie Scott, Chloë Sevigny, and Daniel Sovich. Scott Elliott directs, and the production features set design by Derek McLane, costume design by Clint Ramos, lighting design by Yael Lubetzky, sound design by M.L. Dogg, and fight direction by UnkleDave's Fight-House. Downtown Race Riot is set to open December 3 at Pershing Square Signature Center.
