Who decides what art is and where it belongs, and what is the role of race, class, and pedigree? THIS IS MODERN ART, the acclaimed and controversial 2014 play by Idris Goodwin and Kevin Coval, based on the 2010 “bombing” of the Art Institute of Chicago by an underground graffiti crew, is making its New York debut. The production by Blessed Unrest is directed by Jessica Burr and performing as part of the inaugural season of Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop (79 East 4th Street between Bowery & 2nd Ave., New York, NY 10003.) A preview will be held on June 2, with the opening night on Sunday, June 3rd, and performances running Thursdays thru Mondays to June 23. Tickets are $20 for the shows on June 2–4; $25 June 7–11; and $35 June 14–23, and can be purchased at https://www.nytw.org/show/this-is-modern-art/.
THIS IS MODERN ART, based on real events from 2010, was written by Idris Goodwin (winner of 2017 National Blue Ink Playwriting Award) and the acclaimed poet Kevin Coval under commission from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater where the play premiered. A crew of artists of color, believing they will never be invited into the hallowed Art Institute of Chicago, decide to introduce themselves. They paint a fifty-foot graffiti piece on the towering wall of the Institute’s New Modern Wing in the middle of the night in twenty minutes. These marginalized young men, aided by the white girlfriend of the crew leader, risk everything to make their voices heard, defying our assumptions about what art is and where it belongs. This Is Modern Art ignited a fiery debate about race, privilege, and representation after being called “irresponsible” and “potentially damaging” by Chicago Sun-Times’ Hedy Weiss.
“The production of This is Modern Art in New York City is a story of an aesthetic renegade child coming home,” say playwrights Idris Goodwin and Kevin Coval. “The whole planet saw what young people here were doing in the early 1980s, taking graffiti from the walls in Philly and applying and developing its styles on trains. We watched Style Wars and cheered for young people around the planet as they began to adapt, adopt and translate the cultural message into their own local vernaculars. Now we are tremendously excited that the hip-hop’s Mecca welcomes back its descendants. We look forward to seeing how the culture morphs, elevates and continues,” they further explain.
Blessed Unrest brings their award-winning, trademark physicality to a play that has wowed audiences in Chicago, Denver, New Haven, and Houston. The set design features a stage-filling original graffiti piece painted for the production by legendary NYC street artist KEO XMEN, lighting design by Miriam Nilofa Crowe (a regular collaborator with such artists as four-time Grammy-winner Rosanne Cash and a Grammy and Latin Grammy-winner Lila Downs), sound design by Adrian Bridges, and set design by Matt Opatrny. The cast consists of returning Blessed Unrest collaborators J. Stephen Brantley (recently seen in the 2017 production of A Christmas Carol, and known as playwright and a recipient of 2017 Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award), Nancy McArthur (Snow Queen, 2018) and Ashley N. Hildreth (Platonov, 2018) as well as the actors making their debut with the company: Andrew Gonzalez, Shakur Tolliver, and Landon G. Woodson.