The Lehrstücke
In 2022, I received a grant from Creatives Rebuild New York’s Artist Employment Program with Ma-Yi Theater Company to create new Lehrstücke (“Learning Plays”), a form pioneered by Bertolt Brecht, to address issues facing working-class Asian American communities in New York City.
The Plays
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Best friends Irene and Mandip can't focus on their jobs at the nameless national coffee chain and want to change the horrifying shit around them – not knowing where to turn, they seek answers from their personal moral compass: actor Benedict Cumberbatch. A dark satire and a riff on Bertolt Brecht's Der Jasager and Der Neinsager, Benedict Cumberbatch, Am I Irredeemable? teaches about the dangers of seeking change through rugged individualism and consumption.
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This play is a circle. When federal funding for food banks can only provide blocks of fortified cheese, Diana Song and Lanie set out against all the odds to feed their neighborhood. Part Lehrstück and part raucous comedy, Bags explores the dishearteningly cyclical nature of organizing and teaches about the importance of continued engagement & the power of mutual aid.
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A landlord. An organizer. All the tenants. Based on my conversation with organizers Rima Begum and Whitney Hu and the real-life Bangladeshi Tenants Union, Always Eat the Food follows the forming of a tenants union against a predatory real estate company.
The Research
Firstly, I conducted interviews with organizers Hailie Kim, Whitney Hu, and Rima Begum, as well as observing the work of the Flushing Food Collaborative to learn more about the organizing efforts going on in New York City’s Asian American communities.
To learn more about the Lehrstücke, a form rooted in Marxist dialectics, I visited the Bertolt Brecht Archives at the Berlin Akademie der Künste to read Brecht’s notes about the form and his developmental processes for his learning plays such as Die Maßnahme, Ozeansflug, Der Jasager, and Der Neinsager.
Development
Ma-Yi Theater Company developed the Lehrstücke from 2023-2024.
Always Eat the Food was developed with director Aneesha Kudtarkar, dramaturg Sophie Siegel-Warren, and actors Purva Bedi, Golam Sarwar Harun, and Jasmine Sharma.
Bags was developed with director Chongren Fan, dramaturgs Esmé Maria Ng & Kalina Ko, and actors Sonnie Brown, Katie May Porter, and Jillian Sun.
Benedict Cumberbatch, Am I Irredeemable? was developed with director Cara Hinh and actors Uma Paranjpe and Sara Rahman.
Public showings
In June 2024, Ma-Yi Theater Company and 2g Productions presented public readings of Bags and Always Eat the Food at the Glow Community Center in Flushing, Queens. Xingying Peng translated Bags into Traditional Chinese and Golam Sarwar Harun translated Always Eat the Food into Bangla.
Bags was directed by Chongren Fan and featured Sonnie Brown, Katie May Porter, Jillian Sun, and Anzi DeBenedetto. It featured a community discussion with Hailie Kim and State Senator Julia Salazar (NY-18).
Always Eat the Food was directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar and featured Purva Bedi, Golam Sarwar Harun, Jasmine Sharma, and Arjun Dhawan. It featured a community discussion with Rima Begum and Yuh-Line Niou.
