Public Performance : with What the Body Can Do: Open Sessions 11

What the Body Can Do: Open Sessions 11, What the Body Can Do: Open Sessions 11, will present an excerpt ofHephaestus a full-length play that explores questions of disability and sexuality, the limitations of the body, and the desire to transcend them. The play uses the character of Hephaestus¬¬—the crippled blacksmith god of classical mythology—to interrogate the notion of disability, and what it says about our relationships with our own bodies. Drawing on a variety of classical texts and employing elements of dance and music, this new full-length play probes the classics to illuminate contemporary attitudes about gender, race, and beauty. The play will be followed by a panel between Willie Johnson, play-writer; Sarah Stites, director, and Amy Hughes, Associate Professor, Theater History & Criticism at CUNY.

Hephaestus

Written by Willie Johnson

Directed by Sarah Stites

Props, Costumes, and Sets by Slinko

Choreography devised by Sarah Stites, Diane Chen, Rachel Lynn Jackson, and Emma Orme

Performed by Diane Chen, Rebecca S'manga Frank, Rachel Lynn Jackson, Benoit Johnson, and Emma Orme

Music by Dylan Neely

Poster by Slinko, 2017.