“Let Me Ascertain You: The Civilians Podcast Series” launches with an investigation into Atlantic Yards, the largest development project in Brooklyn’s history. In our inaugural episode, we look at the people who championed and fought the development of Atlantic Yards, the site that will eventually house the Barclays Center. Here, actors Aysan Celik, Colleen Werthmann, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Billy Eugene Jones bring to life transcripts of interviews with bloggers, local business owners, residents and activists — all of whom have something to say about what is lost and what is earned when we transform space. Also, composer Michael Friedman shares two songs he wrote from the interviews: “White People” and “The Four Brooklyns.”
The material presented in this podcast was collected for the Civilians’ play “In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards,” which was included in year-end Top 10 lists by The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Time Out New York.
To subscribe to “Let Me Ascertain You” — the Civilians’ podcast — using iTunes, click here.
Author
-
The Civilians is a company that creates new theater from creative investigations into the most vital questions of the present. Through a number of artistic programs, the Civilians advances theater as an engine of artistic innovation and strengthens the connections between theater and society. An artist-led company, the Civilians creates and produces new theater and pursues its artistic mission through programs serving artists and the public. The company’s work is grounded in investigative theater, an artistic practice rooted in the process of creative inquiry that brings artists into dynamic engagement with the subject of their work. Artists look outward in pursuit of a question, often engaging with individuals and communities in order to listen, make discoveries, and challenge habitual ways of knowing. The ethos of investigative theater extends into production, inviting audiences to be active participants in the inquiry before, during, and after the performance. Since its founding in 2001, the Obie Award-winning company has supported the creation of 14 original shows, and its work has been produced at many theaters in New York, nationally, and internationally. Last season saw two highly successful shows: "Mr. Burns: a Post-Electric Play" at Playwrights Horizons, which was included in eight Top 10 of 2013 Lists, and "The Great Immensity" at The Public Theater. The Civilians’ work has been published by Dramatists Play Service, Oberon Books, Ghostlight Records and Playscripts, Inc.