Monday, October 10, 2016 / 7 PM

Part of the 2016 Writers Block staged reading and performance festival

Alvin Eng brings the third in his Portrait Plays cycle of historical dramas about artists and portraiture.

Eng will present a work in progress reading from the third in his Portrait Plays cycle of historical dramas about artists and portraiture. The Imperial Image is a dramatic triptych that explores how and why portraits of political leaders and royalty have come to hold a powerful place in societal structures and rituals. The triptych spans three different regions and eras. The play begins with a dialogue in Mughal era India, as Western-educated and influenced emperors and court painters contemplate how to communicate and relate to their largely illiterate populace. Part II is a monologue from Marie Antoinette’s court portraitist, Louise Élisabeth Vigée LeBrun. During the French Revolution she fled to St. Petersburg, where she was befriended by Catherine the Great. Many of Mme. Vigée LeBrun’s works are included in the original Hermitage collection. The play concludes in the current era: OBEY/HOPE re-imagines the circumstances surrounding Shepard Fairey’s creation of the ubiquitous “Hope” poster for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.  The cast will feature Marie Christine Katz, Nicky Paraiso and Imran Sheikh. The reading will be directed by Wendy Wasdahl and Alvin Eng

This June, the second Portrait Play, 33 & 1/3 Cornelia Street, was presented at the Howl! Gallery’s Beat & Beyond Festival, featuring Bowery Poetry founder Bob Holman as Joe Gould and the legendary Mink Stole—who has been featured in all of John Waters’ films—playing iconic painter Alice Neel. Three Trees, the first Portrait Play, about the haunting relationship between Alberto Giacometti and Isaku Yanaihara, premiered Off-Broadway with the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre and was also presented as a workshop reading with Center Stage in Baltimore and the Moving Parts Theatre in Paris. Eng is a native NYC playwright, performer and professor. He is currently Visiting Professor/Head of the MFA Playwriting Program at Queens College/CUNY and is also a Fulbright Specialist Scholar in Theatre/U.S. Studies. His plays and performances have been seen throughout NYC and the U.S. as well as in Paris, Hong Kong and Guangzhou. His plays and poetry have been published in Performing Arts Journal, as well as the Nuyorican Poets Café anthologies Aloud and Action, and he is the editor/author of the play anthology/oral history Tokens?: The NYC Asian American Experience on Stage.  About Alvin Eng.

TICKETS: $20 Suggested Donation
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The staged readings series is a benefit for the Actors Fund’s Howl! HELP, providing emergency financial assistance and social service support to artists who have made or continue to make their careers in New York’s East Village and Lower East Side arts communities. Howl! HELP is administered by the Actors Fund and 100% ticket sales benefit the Actors Fund.