About THE MEASURES TAKEN:

After mounting a successful revolution, four political agitators report back to their party leader and reveal that in the course of their struggle they had to execute a comrade. In order to explain themselves they stage a play. In The Measures Taken, Bertolt Brecht leads us to question the nature of solidarity and sacrifice, as we follow the four agitators' mission to spread class consciousness, to organize labor movements, and to overthrow the evils of capitalist society.

This production of The Measures Taken has sought to use Brecht’s learning plays a way to engage people in movements and to discuss its highly relevant issues, from the role of unions in revolutionary work to the complexity of vanguardism.  During the spring and summer of 2022, this show was performed in public parks, community gardens, and activist spaces throughout NYC -- including collaborations with Brooklyn Eviction Defense, Club A, the Gym, DSA North Brooklyn, Interference Archive, and Haymarket’s Socialist Conference in Chicago.  Each show was followed by a facilitated conversation focusing on building interorganizational connections and to reflect on the current state of organizing in Brooklyn and beyond.

 

About Bertolt Brecht:

Considered one of the most important dramatists, poets, and thinkers of the twentieth century, Bertolt Brecht (b. 1898 - d. 1956) was a German Marxist playwright and poet who sought new ways to bring together art and politics. His work was performed for audiences of socialists, unionists, and a growing working-class in post WW1 era-Berlin, and has been an important touchstone for leftist artists ever since. Brecht's The Measures Takenwas written in 1930 as alearning play, a form of radical experimental theater meant for non-actors to embody and reflect on communism, revolution, the ills of capitalism, and the impact of living in a class-based society.

 

Written by Bertolt Brecht

Staging and concept by Jurrell Lewis and Lucas Kane

Directed by Lucas Kane

Performed by Malachi Brown, Ava Kaplan, Nashwa Zaman, Adi Blaustein Rejto, and Kaiden Talesh

Music by Malachi Brown and Livia Reiner

Costumes by Willa Schwabsky and Zelda Mazor-Freedman

Set design by Eliza Williamson

Painting by Adi Blaustein Rejto

Photos by Lee Rayment

 

Cast (pictured in photos above):

Livia Reiner, Mia Moraru, Adi Blaustein Rejto, Jurrell Lewis, Ava Kaplan, Malachi Brown.

 

 

The CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies strives to promote learning by producing thought-provoking public programs that present diverse perspectives by scholars, public policy experts, artists, and labor and social justice activists.

Questions or suggestions?  Email us at: events@slu.cuny.edu.

 

Sponsored by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies

 

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