Our latest show, “Paris Commune,” will receive its world premiere at ArtsEmerson in Boston, followed by a run at BAM’s Next Wave Festival in the fall. The play concerns the explosive uprising of the Parisian working class in 1871. Enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at our efforts to recreate these historic events on stage. This episode features interviews with “Paris Commune” director and co-author Steve Cosson; co-author, translator and adapter of the songs Michael Friedman; and actor Aysan Celik, who has been with the project throughout its development. The episode closes with Quincy Tyler Bernstine singing “La Canaille,” a song performed at the radical cabaret of the actual Commune in the nineteenth century.
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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.