THE LIFE & DEATH OF ART

"The Life & Death of Art" is a new play set at the intersection of a revolutionary artist’s personal crisis, the genocide in Gaza, and modern cultural decay.

Both a formal protest against the on-going destruction of Palestine (and all oppressed peoples!) and a manifesto of sorts for the art world, it is expressed through the fomalities of tragedy informed by the traditions of Clifford Odets, Lorraine Hansberry, Bertolt Brecht and the Black Arts Movement - it is less a story of betrayal, truth and the corruption of the arts than it is an expression of class war and a mirror of our savage times. It expresses the rancor, confusion and the need for resistance to all that seeks to desecrate beauty, truth and love.

The Kangalee Arts Ensemble's first original play is a dynamic expression of "actor's freedom" and the liberation of bold ideas that need to be given voice in a dizzying climate of apathy, destruction and oppression.A character driven ensemble piece that avails itself to the controversial relationships between art, Leftist revolutionary politics and the new wave of fascism that has run amok. Starring the incomparable theater stalwarts Ward Nixon, Tessa Martin, Ian Hersey, Justine Stock, newcomer Sierra Jackson, and the author himself -- Dennis Leroy Kangalee's ferocious script showcases the fusion of different acting styles and that delicate balance between agitprop and poetry.

Heavily inspired by the legacy of the Living Theater and the Negro Ensemble Company, the Kangalee Arts Ensemble seeks to do with its actors what Peter Schumann's Bread & Puppet theater do with papier mache: make both performer and spectator one, seeking for liberation through the flames of our times...We guarantee this will be unlike any contemporary play out there as it is both a return to some of the traditions of a very art form - but in a radical way...to combat what "new world order" appetites exist. Those interested in both social realism, engaging dialogue, the emotional athleticism of actors, the absurd, Brecht's epic theater, jazz, punk, aspects of the Black avant-garde and radical politics in general - may take an interest.

**THE WORLD PREMIERE OF THIS ANTICIPATED, CONTROVERSIAL NEW PLAY KICKS OFF APRIL 25TH, 2024 AND PLAYS FOR FIVE PERFORMANCES: APRIL 25 - 28, 2024.

8PM AND 2PM MATINEE ON SATURDAY

2PM MATINEE ON SUNDAY **

EMAIL: [email protected] with any problems or questions.

This original woodcarving drawing-painting by Brian Alessandro exquisitely captures the fractious mood and energy of the play's trio - Carver Carmelo (Ward Nixon, L) a radical artist willing to risk everything to speak his own truth and align with the oppressed; Luka (Dennis Leroy Kangalee, Center), a charming scoundrel who reveals himself to be a venal terrorist out to destroy Carver and Maris (Tessa Martin, R,) a poet and casualty of the Leftist revolution that never quite took hold in the United States and now wondering - as the migrants of the world do - where her next step will be...

Event Venue

JACK, 20 Putnam Avenue, Brooklyn, United States