(Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring & JFREJ Purim Spectacular)
March 22, 2008; Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring
TERRIFYING performance! HORRIFYING costumes! DEVELOPERS that go bump in the night! SPINE-TINGLING drinks! STOMACH-FILLING food by Domestic Workers United! MONSTERS!DANCING! MAYHEM! THEATER! PUBLIC HOUSING! LIBERATION!
Music by: Michael Winograd and Friends, Rebel Diaz, The Rude Mechanical Orchestra, DJ Doom Dub, and more!
Spectacle by: Jenny Romaine! Adrienne Cooper! Daniel Lang/Levitsky! Killer Sideburns! Aleza Summit! Michelle Kay! Rachel Mattson! Ariel Federow! The Sukkos Mob! and many, many more...
In partnership with Mothers on the Move, Picture the Homeless, Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), FIERCE, and the AJWS-AVODAH Partnership.
JFREJ newsletter reportback:
ZOMBIE CONDOS ATTACK WORKMEN'S CIRCLE
No one is hurt but the costumes
The JFREJ/Workmens Circle Purimspiel is a legendary annual event and this year continued the righteous and raucous spectacular & topsy-turvy tradition. The concept: murderous zombie buildings take over Manhattan, and only Esther and the collective efforts of the dispossessed can save the day. This zombie-gentrification horrorshow was created by a team of mad scientists under the fluorescent glow of Workmen's Circle conference rooms, drawing on the Megillah as well as interviews with members of grassroots community organizations from the Right to the City Campaign: GOLES, MOM, Picture the Homeless, FUREE & FIERCE. Despite a giant pool of slippery fake blood on the dance floor, hundreds of sweaty JFREJ members, friends, and allies escaped death and/or dismemberment on Saturday, March 22.
Don't believe the hype – this Purim performance did actually have a plot. Behind all those smooth Michael Jackson dance moves, beneath the sexy mermaids of the labor movement costumes, amidst the rats and roaches that ran shrieking through the audience, audible through the raucous tunes of Michael Winograd, the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Rebel Diaz, and the cheering crowd at Yankee Stadium – a highly inventive and clever production guided the audience through the pitfalls of the search for affordable housing in New York City. Representatives from partner organizations GOLES, MOM, Picture the Homeless, and FIERCE participated in the show and were able to pitch their campaigns to the general audience. Hundreds of postcards were signed. But mostly, we got to model the kind of world we want to live in: one in which the fight for economic justice is a catalyst for creativity and a full-on celebration.