Presenter at CSUNposium 2020!
Click on VIDEO Here!
A clip of ACT II, SCENE III to Video.
Two items above to look at:
1. The slide show.
2. The 7 minute video.
The entire playbook of "Because Its Sunny in LA (Especially on Skid Row)" was granted a copyright license in 2019 by the U.S. Copyright Office and The Library of Congress. It was also submitted, along with several other materials for submission, to the Dramatists Guild and was a part of my official acceptance as evidence of my qualification to join.
Below is the speech from the symposium.
My name is Thaddeus Nagey and I am a M.A. Theatre Arts Student.
Aside from climate change, the nature of homelessness and poverty in Los Angeles is arguably the number one humanitarian crises facing our timeline.
The emerging field of applied theatre deals with very important social, economic, and political issues facing communities. It is a form of democratic theatre designed to enlist participants that are closely affected by particular issues and has included demographics such as prisoners, people with autism, elderly with dementia, and people suffering from natural, economic, and political disasters. Applied theatre creates hope and empathy on behalf of the performer and audience. Applied theatre also often challenges and asks for a call to change.
• Last Fall, using techniques of Augusto Boal, Bertolt Brecht, and Dr. Peter O’Connor, I wrote a full-length play about homelessness and poverty called, "Because It’s Sunny in LA (Especially on Skid Row)". It is based on real people and real stories. Although it is dramatized and fictional, most of it is actually true.
• In February, a ten-minute staged reading of ACT I, SCENE III, was performed live at the Kennedy Center Theatre Festival and won BEST PLAY AWARD.
• ACT III, Scene I was performed in front of a live audience at the Northridge Playwrights' Workshop.
• ACT II, SCENE II was submitted to the Northridge Review, written partially in pentameter and published. There will be a reading of this scene at CSUN.
• Over 53,000 CSU Students are Homeless in California.
• Nearly 60k documented homeless people in Los Angeles, and nearly 20k in downtown L.A.
• Approximately 7k are on Skid Row and close to 4k are unsheltered.
• California has more than half of all unsheltered homeless people in the country at 53% or over 108K.
• In 2018, more than 1000 people died because of homeless issues in LA. 3 people per day.
• The final casting produced 8 students from five different majors: Psychology, Social Work, Deaf Studies, Central American Studies, and Theatre.
(Watch 7 minute video link above along with the slide show)
Watch video HERE!
A clip of ACT II, SCENE III
REFLECTION NOTES AFTER THE SYMPOSIUM:
A question was asked by the one of the judges if I had any quantitative evidence that my theatre created social change.
The quantitative research that has been accomplished by LAHSA, USICH, HUD, researchers and news organizations are extremely important and should not be ignored, but let’s face it, homelessness is not going away anytime soon. Homelessness and poverty are systemic issues in America. These quantifications often have very little meaning to the people going through hardship. These numbers are also underestimated and continue to grow because many homeless people are hiding, marginalized, live in fear and do not want to be counted. What we can document, may help in understanding how much resources are necessary to assist in providing "bigger picture" services, however, these statistics don’t assist in understanding most situations, emotions, and the human experience of people that are homeless and in poverty. The question remains, does statistical data carve out a space for people to speak and express their thoughts, feelings and the human experience? It is without question that applied theatre accomplishes these tasks. Art is equally important to science and research.
The judge wanted my to quantify the effectiveness of the project that I presented. But I struggled to explain that I was handicapped due to the adjustments of theatre to video. It's difficult to survey participants and audience accurately to produce quantifiable data of my theatre.
This theatre piece was originally designed with heavy mechanisms for AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION and the video took away all of that. Frankly the judges didn't know the difference, but this is what makes my theatre so different, special and innovative.
First and foremost, time. Time is a huge factor because theatre takes a long time to develop. Just the full length playbook alone took 8 months to develop. Then the cost of making theatre-it cost me lots of money that I really don't have. Then there is the creation of attitude surveys and the processing of them.
I don't think the judge understood that for theatre, it's a much more cumbersome process, takes way more time and is a way more expensive process (I would need GRANT MONEY) than doing quantitative analysis and PRODUCING this type of research in others fields like psychology, social work, etc.
The judge slammed my work as fictional and didn't seem to understand the importance of the arts. So I was the only arts major competing in the session and that gave me a huge disservice and disadvantage. The cards were already stacked against me because he was comparing creative works with non-creative works.
But I do have some news:
1. After the KCACTF performance, someone saw one of my actors perform (that I casted) and was offered a two year scholarship to the Stella Adler acting program.
2. I had a few people contact me telling me they either donated to one of these causes that I listed on my CSUNPOSIUM presentation or they messaged me through email and Instagram asking me for more information about where to donate and how to get more involved.
So for me, it was all worth it. I brought it up, involved 10 students in a very worthwhile way and presented to a full ZOOM room with the highest sign on rate out of any of other presentation in my session. I had people signed on from different states too!
I feel blessed for the opportunity to present this material and to spread awareness and a call to action for social change through theatre and performance. Mission accomplished.
A clip of ACT II, SCENE III to Video.
Two items above to look at:
1. The slide show.
2. The 7 minute video.
The entire playbook of "Because Its Sunny in LA (Especially on Skid Row)" was granted a copyright license in 2019 by the U.S. Copyright Office and The Library of Congress. It was also submitted, along with several other materials for submission, to the Dramatists Guild and was a part of my official acceptance as evidence of my qualification to join.
Below is the speech from the symposium.
My name is Thaddeus Nagey and I am a M.A. Theatre Arts Student.
Aside from climate change, the nature of homelessness and poverty in Los Angeles is arguably the number one humanitarian crises facing our timeline.
The emerging field of applied theatre deals with very important social, economic, and political issues facing communities. It is a form of democratic theatre designed to enlist participants that are closely affected by particular issues and has included demographics such as prisoners, people with autism, elderly with dementia, and people suffering from natural, economic, and political disasters. Applied theatre creates hope and empathy on behalf of the performer and audience. Applied theatre also often challenges and asks for a call to change.
• Last Fall, using techniques of Augusto Boal, Bertolt Brecht, and Dr. Peter O’Connor, I wrote a full-length play about homelessness and poverty called, "Because It’s Sunny in LA (Especially on Skid Row)". It is based on real people and real stories. Although it is dramatized and fictional, most of it is actually true.
• In February, a ten-minute staged reading of ACT I, SCENE III, was performed live at the Kennedy Center Theatre Festival and won BEST PLAY AWARD.
• ACT III, Scene I was performed in front of a live audience at the Northridge Playwrights' Workshop.
• ACT II, SCENE II was submitted to the Northridge Review, written partially in pentameter and published. There will be a reading of this scene at CSUN.
• Over 53,000 CSU Students are Homeless in California.
• Nearly 60k documented homeless people in Los Angeles, and nearly 20k in downtown L.A.
• Approximately 7k are on Skid Row and close to 4k are unsheltered.
• California has more than half of all unsheltered homeless people in the country at 53% or over 108K.
• In 2018, more than 1000 people died because of homeless issues in LA. 3 people per day.
• The final casting produced 8 students from five different majors: Psychology, Social Work, Deaf Studies, Central American Studies, and Theatre.
(Watch 7 minute video link above along with the slide show)
Watch video HERE!
A clip of ACT II, SCENE III
REFLECTION NOTES AFTER THE SYMPOSIUM:
A question was asked by the one of the judges if I had any quantitative evidence that my theatre created social change.
The quantitative research that has been accomplished by LAHSA, USICH, HUD, researchers and news organizations are extremely important and should not be ignored, but let’s face it, homelessness is not going away anytime soon. Homelessness and poverty are systemic issues in America. These quantifications often have very little meaning to the people going through hardship. These numbers are also underestimated and continue to grow because many homeless people are hiding, marginalized, live in fear and do not want to be counted. What we can document, may help in understanding how much resources are necessary to assist in providing "bigger picture" services, however, these statistics don’t assist in understanding most situations, emotions, and the human experience of people that are homeless and in poverty. The question remains, does statistical data carve out a space for people to speak and express their thoughts, feelings and the human experience? It is without question that applied theatre accomplishes these tasks. Art is equally important to science and research.
The judge wanted my to quantify the effectiveness of the project that I presented. But I struggled to explain that I was handicapped due to the adjustments of theatre to video. It's difficult to survey participants and audience accurately to produce quantifiable data of my theatre.
This theatre piece was originally designed with heavy mechanisms for AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION and the video took away all of that. Frankly the judges didn't know the difference, but this is what makes my theatre so different, special and innovative.
First and foremost, time. Time is a huge factor because theatre takes a long time to develop. Just the full length playbook alone took 8 months to develop. Then the cost of making theatre-it cost me lots of money that I really don't have. Then there is the creation of attitude surveys and the processing of them.
I don't think the judge understood that for theatre, it's a much more cumbersome process, takes way more time and is a way more expensive process (I would need GRANT MONEY) than doing quantitative analysis and PRODUCING this type of research in others fields like psychology, social work, etc.
The judge slammed my work as fictional and didn't seem to understand the importance of the arts. So I was the only arts major competing in the session and that gave me a huge disservice and disadvantage. The cards were already stacked against me because he was comparing creative works with non-creative works.
But I do have some news:
1. After the KCACTF performance, someone saw one of my actors perform (that I casted) and was offered a two year scholarship to the Stella Adler acting program.
2. I had a few people contact me telling me they either donated to one of these causes that I listed on my CSUNPOSIUM presentation or they messaged me through email and Instagram asking me for more information about where to donate and how to get more involved.
So for me, it was all worth it. I brought it up, involved 10 students in a very worthwhile way and presented to a full ZOOM room with the highest sign on rate out of any of other presentation in my session. I had people signed on from different states too!
I feel blessed for the opportunity to present this material and to spread awareness and a call to action for social change through theatre and performance. Mission accomplished.
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