The Assembly to Remount '60s Activist Story HOME/SICK at JACK in Brooklyn

By: Jan. 30, 2017
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The Assembly will present a remount of their hit play, New York Times Critics' Pick HOME/SICK, about the radical student activist movement of the '60s, devised and written collectively, directed by Jess Chayes, and featuring the original 2011 cast and design team.

HOME/SICK runs from March 9 - 25, 2017 in a limited engagement at JACK, located at 505 1/2 Waverly Avenue between Fulton St. and Atlantic Ave. in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Previews begin March 9 for a March 11 opening.

Disgusted by the Vietnam War and rampant inequality at home, a handful of leaders from the 1960s U.S. student movement seized control of Students for a Democratic Society and reshaped it in the name of overthrowing the United States' government. Believing violence to be the only means to a true and lasting peace, these passionate idealists accelerated a movement to its breaking point, but left a country behind. Based on real events, HOME/SICK explores the Weather Underground's inspiration and idealism, infighting and ultimate disintegration, in a passionate examination of collective action.

The Assembly states, "2017 is the right time to revive HOME/SICK. Waking up to an America we no longer recognize, millions of citizens shocked into action are looking to organizers and movement-builders to show us the way forward. HOME/SICK relates the rise and fall of the Weather Underground, one of the most impassioned and infamous political movements in modern American history. Whenever we've revived or toured the play, its resonance has changed depending on the current political climate. Today, when the foundations of our democracy are under assault, we want to reconsider the promise and peril of radical activism and dissent. In addition to recounting the troubled tale of the 1960s student movement, we are excited to embark on an in-depth conversation series focused on tools for coalition-building in today's world. We invite audiences to join us at JACK, one of New York's most diverse and inclusive performance spaces, to take a new look at America's bygone revolutionaries and to listen to the current leaders of our own urgent moment."

A post-show talkback series, Making Our Ideal America: Conversations on Coalition-Building, will follow select performances and include three former Weathermen: Mark Rudd, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. A full list of events and roster of participants, also including contemporary activists, will be announced at a later date.

HOME/SICK is the seventh production created and staged by The Assembly, and was collectively devised by the cast and creative team. It premiered at Brooklyn's The Collapsable Hole in 2011 -- where it was named a New York Times Critics' Pick -- and was subsequently remounted at The Living Theatre in 2012 (where it was famously performed by flashlight during Hurricane Sandy), and Wesleyan University in 2014. HOME/SICK played 4 weeks at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles in June 2016, where it was both an Ovation and Stage Raw Recommended show and a Los Angeles Times "Pick."

HOME/SICK was devised and written collectively by Stephen Aubrey, Edward Bauer, Ben Beckley, Nick Benacerraf, Kate Benson, Marianne Broome, Jess Chayes, Anna Abhau Elliott, Luke Harlan and Emily Louise Perkins.

The cast includes Anna Abhau Elliott, Edward Bauer, Ben Beckley, Kate Benson, Luke Harlan and Emily Louise Perkins.

The production team includes Nick Benacerraf (Environment Designer/Dramaturg), Miriam Nilofa Crowe (Lighting Design), Asa Wember (Sound Design), Deanna Frieman (Costume Design), Stephen Aubrey (Dramaturg), Marianne Broome (Contributing Dramaturg), Sara Pauley (Choreography), Sean Chin (Fight Choreography), Anna Engelsman (Production Stage Manager), Lucy Jackson (Producing Director) and Emily Caffery (Associate Producer).

Performances are Tuesdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 4pm. Tickets from $15 - $30 based on availability. $15 student/senior tickets will be available throughout the run. A limited amount of $40 premium tickets are also available. Purchase at www.AssemblyTheater.org or by calling 1-800-838-3006. The show contains nudity. The running time is 2 hours and 30 minutes including intermission. JACK is accessible from the C or G train to the Clinton-Washington stop.

For more information, visit www.AssemblyTheater.org, Like them on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/AssemblyTheater and follow on Twitter Twitter.com/AssemblyTheater) and Instagram (Instagram.com/AssemblyTheater) at @assemblytheater.

The Assembly is a collective of multi-disciplinary artists committed to realizing a visceral and intelligent theater for a new generation. Assembly members unite varied perspectives in service of unabashedly theatrical and rigorously researched ensemble performances, crafted to spark further conversation with our audiences. Practicing collaboration as the core of the creative process, they develop text, action and design side-by-side within the rehearsal environment and from workshops to productions to post-performance discussions, the company is dedicated to rooting its artists, audiences, and peers in a profound sense of community.

The Assembly was granted the 2015-2016 Archive Residency by the New Ohio and IRT, and premiered its latest original work, I WILL LOOK FORWARD TO THIS LATER, in 2016 at the New Ohio. The company has performed and developed work at venues across New York such as The Incubator, The Prelude Festival, HERE Arts Center, and The Collapsable Hole and has toured to Wesleyan University, the Edinburgh Fringe, the Philly Fringe, NACL and the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles. A feature article about the company was published as the cover story in the Fall 2016 issue of The Drama Review.

The Assembly is Stephen Aubrey, Edward Bauer, Ben Beckley, Nick Benacerraf, Jess Chayes and Emily Louise Perkins.

Pictured: Ben Beckley, Luke Harlan, Kate Benson. Photo by Nick Benacerraf.



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