Six members of the Brooklyn community will share their compelling personal stories of a catalytic time in American history and its reverberations into the present in a theatrical production entitled "Brooklyn ’63" presented by 651 ARTS and Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn on Friday, May 24 and Saturday, May 25, 2013, 7:30pm. "Brooklyn '63" is a theater performance featuring Brooklyn-based activists, witnesses and those who have inherited the legacy of a generation of civic action. In collaboration with 651 ARTS, Ping Chong + Company will use the interview-based Undesirable Elements process to create this new play. Created and directed by Ping Chong and Talvin Wilks and featuring Brooklyn residents Elinor Barr, Lourdes Lebron, Clyde Deloris Herring, Patrick Dougher, Sam Pinn and Stan Kinard, this illustrious group will share their experiences and perspectives from the early Labor movement, the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Teachers Strike, the Downstate Medical Center protests led by Brooklyn CORE, the history of The East in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and a host of events and reminiscences that took place in Brownsville, Ft. Greene, Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, Williamsburg, Bushwick and many places in between. Undesirable Elements is an ongoing series of community-specific oral history theater works developed by Ping Chong + Company. Each production is made in a specific host community with local participants testifying to their real lives and experiences. The series is designed to help communities confront and overcome cultural insularity by encouraging a greater understanding of the commonalities that bind us all. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for students and seniors. Tickets can be purchased by calling 718.488.1624 or visiting kumbletheater.org.
