We've created PRC² as a venue for stimulating, topical artistic presentations and a safe place to talk about the themes they raise pertaining to the challenging issues of our day.
Jan 7 - 11, following each performance of Wrestling Jerusalem, expert panelists joining artist Aaron Davidman and moderator Collin Rustin include:
Panelists
Wednesday, Jan 7
Michael FigueroaMichael A. Figueroa is an ethnomusicologist who researches the relation between music, place, and violence in the Middle East and Mediterranean regions. His current book project focuses on how national space is musically and poetically constructed in Israel/Palestine, with a focus on the critical moment of the Six-Day War of 1967. A multidisciplinary study of musical-poetic practice (including public rituals of commemoration, festivals, recording projects, and a variety of print and mass media), the monograph will explore the close relation between musical knowledge and spatial justice in the region. His additional research interests include music and memory in/of Muslim Iberia, global popular music, black music, music and violence, music and literature, hermeneutics, and the analysis of song. He holds a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Musicology from Northwestern University. His research has been supported by the Ford Foundation, American Musicological Society (Howard Mayer Brown Fellowship), and a Fulbright-IIE Fellowship. He currently serves as Co-chair of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Special Interest Group for the Study of Music and Violence, Assistant Editor for the International Council for Traditional Music’s Mediterranean Music Studies Study Group, and Board Member for the Mayart Foundation.
Thursday, Jan 8
Ari Roth, Artistic Director, Mosaic Theater Company (former Artistic Director at Theater J)Ari Roth is an American theatrical producer, playwright, director and educator. From 1997 to 2014, he served as the Artistic Director of Theater J in Washington, D.C. Roth grew up on the South Side of Chicago and is a graduate of the University of Chicago Laboratory High School and the University of Michigan where he studied playwriting and received his first of two Avery Hopwood Awards for Drama from noted Michigan alum, playwright Arthur Miller. The Washington Post has described Roth as a “maverick artistic director” noted for staging premiers of new works by both “established and budding playwrights.” The New York Times called Roth's play Born Guilty a "searing drama." The play was commissioned and produced by Arena Stage, directed by Zelda Fichandler and nominated for the 1992 Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play. As a producer, with Theater J he produced world premieres by the late Wendy Wasserstein (Welcome To My Rash & Third), Joyce Carol Oates (The Tattooed Girl), Richard Greenberg (Bal Masque), Ariel Dorfman (Picasso's Closet), and Either Or by “Schindler's List” author, Thomas Keneally. As an educator, he has taught at the University of Michigan for ten years and has lectured at Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon and New York Universities. He currently teaches a course in political theater for the University of Michigan's “Michigan in DC” internship program and is the Founding Artistic Director of Mosaic Theatre Company.
Jacqueline E. Lawton, Professor, Department of Dramatic Art, UNC-Chapel Hill
Jacqueline E. Lawton was named one of 30 of the nation's leading black playwrights by Arena Stage’s American Voices New Play Institute. Her plays include: Anna K; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; The Devil’s Sweet Water; The Hampton Years; Ira Aldridge: the African Roscius; Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention; Love Brothers Serenade (2013 semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference); Mad Breed; Noms de Guerre; and Our Man Beverly Snow. Ms. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow. She is a 2012 TCG Young Leaders of Color award recipient, National New Play Network (NNPN) Playwright Alum, and member of Arena Stage's Playwrights' Arena. She is also a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America.
Friday, Jan 9
Layla Quran, Undergraduate, UNC-Chapel HillLayla Quran was born in Jerusalem and raised in Greenville, NC. She is a senior Global Studies and Journalism student at UNC. After her first year at Carolina, she visited the West Bank to complete a research project on the role of the Arts as a form of resistance in Palestine. She interviewed nearly 50 Palestinian artists throughout the West Bank. She most recently returned from a research trip this past summer where she conducted interviews with Palestinian artists on their thoughts regarding the cultural boycott movement for her honors thesis. She hopes to pursue a career in multimedia journalism after graduation.
Itay Asaf, Israel Scholar, NC Hillel
Itay Asaf, Jewish Agency Israel Fellow to Hillel, earned his BA in behavioral science from Yizrael Valley College in Israel. He grew up in kibbutz Ginossar, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He worked as a counselor at an after school program for 1st through 6th graders on his kibbutz. He served in the special forces of the IDF for 3 years. He is a former basketball coach and the manager of a basketball school in Emek Yizrael valley basketball club.
Saturday, Jan 10
Itay Asaf, Israel Scholar, NC HillelItay Asaf, Jewish Agency Israel Fellow to Hillel, earned his BA in behavioral science from Yizrael Valley College in Israel. He grew up in kibbutz Ginossar, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He worked as a counselor at an after school program for 1st through 6th graders on his kibbutz. He served in the special forces of the IDF for 3 years. He is a former basketball coach and the manager of a basketball school in Emek Yizrael valley basketball club.
Elyse Crystall, Professor, English and Comparative Literature, UNC-Chapel Hill
Elyse Crystall, originally from Brooklyn, NY, is a long time social justice activist and human rights advocate. She teaches in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC-CH, is a member of Concerned Faculty for Palestine at UNC-Chapel Hill, and co-convenes the Carolina Seminar "Rethinking Israel/Palestine." She is also a member of Jewish Voice for Peace. In the summers of 2006 and 2011, Dr. Crystall visited the West Bank to rebuild demolished Palestinian homes.
Sunday, January 11 (7:30pm)
Yaakov Ariel, Professor, Department of Religious Studies, UNC-Chapel HillYaakov Ariel is a native of Jerusalem. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Chicago, where he obtained his doctoral degree. A scholar of Christian-Jewish relations, he teaches at the Department of Religious Studies at UNC.
Conversation Facilitator
Collin E. Rustin, Jr., President – Rustin & Associates, L.L.C.
Collin established his company to help businesses improve productivity and manage conflict; to help community organizations increase their effectiveness in handling controversial issues; and to help governmental agencies improve their efficiency by providing skill-building workshops focusing on executive coaching, diversity awareness training, mediation services and conflict resolution. Prior to operating his own business full time, Collin was director of Human Resources Counseling Services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his staff was responsible for providing confidential services, workplace mediation, resolving employee/management conflicts, and approving employment terminations to more than 5,000 staff employees.
Collin also provides management feedback and executive training services at the internationally renowned Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro and for AvoLead, LLC in Durham NC. He co-leads training modules focusing on developing high performance teams and leading people through transitions.
He has used his mediation training to help corporations and governmental agencies manage different conflict situations and reduce tensions among members of different ethnic groups.
A graduate of UNC-CH, Collin received his BA degree in Psychology and his Master of Arts degree in Public Administration/Political Science. Collin is recognized as a Board Certified Coach by the Center for Credentialing & Education, Inc.
All are welcome - join us!
These post-show discussions are free and open to the public (beginning 5 minutes after the end of each 90-minute performance of Wrestling Jerusalem), however, space is limited.
Call the Box Office at 919.962.PLAY (7529) to reserve your seat!
