Dear friends,

Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for Civics Happy Hour. Thank you also to our fearless bread bakers, who took Rick’s sourdough bread baking class this weekend as a "perk” from donating to our fundraiser. What delicious looking loaves!

Next up, join us TONIGHT to discuss LIT's recent Meet-the-
Candidates Forum. Learn more and RSVP here.

The Debates 2021 is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).

Hope to see you soon!

Peace, power, and love to you,
Paul, Katie, Kathryn, and Hilarie

Dear friends,

We are THRILLED to announce that we have won funding from the Brooklyn Arts Council for The Debates 2021!

“Brooklyn Arts Council grants strive to support local artists and small arts organizations whose work enhances the cultural climate of our borough, city, state, and nation. These awards encourage professional development, community growth, and fellowship among artists.”

We are over the moon to share this news and for The Debates 2021’s events to begin this week! Before we remind you of those events, we must excitedly include this official text about the project: The Debates 2021 is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).

Upcoming:

• Civics Happy Hour: 3/18 @ 7pm
• Candidate Forum Watch Party: 3/23 @ 6:30pm
• Political Analysis Meeting 3/25 @ 7pm

Learn more about these upcoming events here.

Hope to see you soon!

Peace, power, and love to you,
Paul, Katie, Kathryn, and Hilarie

Dear friends,

We hope you are well and enjoying these almost-early days of Spring! It’s been beautiful lately in New York.

With our successful fundraiser complete (thank you again!), Theater in Asylum’s plans are charging full-steam ahead! We are just beginning serious work on our next production: The Debates 2021.

The Debates 2021 will be our fourth iteration of The Debates. This year we turn to New York City’s Democratic primaries and the conversation over what we want our city to be. New Yorkers will soon elect a new mayor, comptroller, and many city council members.

Last month we launched our voter guide and next week begins our live events!

Thursday, March 18, 7-9pm on Zoom

Join Theater in Asylum for a discussion about the roles, responsibilities, and opportunities of NYC’s Mayor and City Council. We’ll give a brief overview of the positions, dig in to a few key activities they perform (making laws and setting the budget), and then open things up for a discussion. While we’re no experts at any of this, we are theater and politics enthusiasts who believe in learning about these things together and empowering each other in the process.
Preparation: None is required, though we recommend that you check out these two Gothamist articles:

• What does the Mayor do?
• What does the City Council do?
  
  

Tuesday, March 23, 6:30pm on Zoom

We’ll be tuning in to LIT’s forum! Here’s what they have to say about the night: “The 2021 New York City Election will be historic and presents a historic opportunity to reshape our city government. Because of term limits, we will have an almost entirely new City Council, a new Speaker, Mayor, Comptroller, and four new Borough Presidents. The new Ranked Choice Voting system in NYC makes it more important than ever to get to know the candidates vying to be your voice in city government. This is your chance to meet these candidates, and their chance to prove to you that they are the right choice to represent the Indie Artists of NYC.”

Psst! If you’re not familiar with LIT, they’re a fantastic arts advocacy organization that Katie’s been working with for years!

Thursday, March 25, 7-9pm on Zoom

Join us to debrief and discuss LIT’s “Meet the Candidates 2021” forum. We encourage you to watch what you can either live when it happens or afterwards (we’ll post the YouTube link when it’s available). This conversation will be casual, with no political wonkery required! All are welcome, even if you didn’t watch the whole forum! We’ll be looking to tease out the issues that came up in the forum and see what excited or frustrated folks about the candidates’ policies.

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers, election experts, nor representatives of any campaign. We are theater makers. All expenditures for The Debates are paid for by Theater in Asylum. No actions, script lines, voting guide, or events are authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. Theater in Asylum never endorses candidates in a race. We simply want more people, people like you, to engage and participate. No copyright infringement, defamation, libel, or slander is intended. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to email us at [email protected]. Please don’t sue us!

Hope to see you soon!

Peace, power, and love to you,
Paul, Katie, Kathryn, and Hilarie

Dear friends,

2020 was a year full of difficulty and loss, but also urgently-needed work and reflection. As a nation we impeached a president, witnessed and worked for an Uprising for Black Lives, elected a new president, hunkered down in unprecedented isolation, and lost far too many to a horrible virus. 2020 was so much.

As we eagerly approach 2021, we are thrilled and honored to announce Theater in Asylum’s plans for 2021. We reach to next year with hope, and as live theater becomes safe again, we plan to:

• Create and present The Debates 2021, centered on NYC’s upcoming elections*
• Produce Andy Boyd’s play Occupy Prescott*
• Continue offering weekly Cold Readings online, with more guest facilitators
• Give our platform to other artists to try out new work via a cabaret*
  

* We are planning our two productions and one cabaret to have multiple presentation options. Outdoors? Online? We are keeping safety top-of-mind, with multiple contingency plans and flexibility as the health situation in NYC changes.

If you are in a position to donate, we humbly ask for your support of Theater in Asylum’s 2021 Season. We are so grateful for all that’s been made possible these past 10 years, and we look ahead to 2021 with eagerness and hope.

Since 2015, Theater in Asylum has gathered friends to read and discuss great plays once a month. As the pandemic sent us into our homes, we moved these gatherings online and began holding them weekly. Wednesday nights have become a cherished place not only for play reading but for processing these wild times. We plan to continue weekly readings online until it’s safe to gather in person again, and invite more guest facilitators to bring new plays and new ideas to the group.

The Debates 2021 will be our fourth iteration of The Debates. This year we turn to New York City’s Democratic primaries and the conversation over what we want our city to be. New Yorkers will soon elect a new mayor, comptroller, and many city council members.

We believe everyone should understand their electoral power, and we know theater is a potent tool to elucidate that power. As in past years, we’ll host a slew of events including watch parties, political analysis meetings, and finally, an original play about the election. We want not only to get out the vote, but also to empower the voter to engage in the electoral process with understanding and confidence. With our unique blend of mimicry, abstraction, and earnest curiosity, we seek to illuminate the candidates, the issues, and ourselves.

Nearly ten years ago, activists gathered in lower Manhattan to peacefully occupy Zuccotti Park and to declare opposition to an economic system clearly inadequate for the majority of Americans, the 99%. Occupy Wall Street galvanized people around the world and inspired hundreds of activist occupations, big and small, united in a call to radically rethink the economic order.

Playwright Andy Boyd hones in on Prescott, Arizona to follow five Occupiers in their efforts to change their town and the world. They broadly agree that the one percent is too powerful, but agreement breaks down as they search for specifics. Reaching consensus on what a better world looks like—and how to get there—is frequently frustrating and rarely glamorous. Never easy, but urgently necessary. On the 10th anniversary of the rallying cry heard round the world, we are thrilled to produce the prescient and hopeful play: Occupy Prescott.

We’re planning to host another cabaret, sharing our platform with artists in our community to workshop their new work. We will also continue to revise our mission statement and our company’s inner workings, as well as participating in anti-racism trainings through the League of Independent Theater.

We have big plans for 2021. If you are able, we would so appreciate your help in funding our next season. Thank you for your time, your support, and your love. We wish you and yours safety, good health, and a bright new year.

Thank you, thank you, thank you,
Paul, Katie, Kathryn, and Hilarie
Theater in Asylum