Presented in partnership with KERA's Art&Seek
From personal memories of our city to national headlining issues, Dallas-based performing artists are addressing history and politics in new and interesting ways. Jerome Weeks, Senior Arts Producer/Reporter for Art&Seek, will moderate a conversation with playwright Jonathan Norton, theatrical director Mara Richards Bim, and conductor Sam Brukhman about recent work and the intersections of art, personal and communal histories, and current events. After the conversation, stick around for a meet and greet with the artists.
Jonathan Norton is a playwright whose work has been produced or developed by numerous Dallas-based and national theater companies. Norton’s play Mississippi Goddamn was a finalist for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and won the 2016 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award given by the American Theatre Critics Association. His play Penny Candy will receive its world premiere at the Dallas Theater Center in June 2019. He is currently the Playwright in Residence at the Dallas Theater Center.
Mara Richards Bim is the founder of Cry Havoc Theater Company, an adjunct faculty member at Eastfield College, and a frequent consultant for Dallas ISD’s Department of Theatre and Dance. Her Dallas directing/devising credits include Cry Havoc’s Babel, Sex Ed (2018), A History of Everything, The Great American Sideshow, Shots Fired (co-director), Shut Up and Listen!, and The (out)Siders Project. Bim is also the recipient of a 2018 Special Projects Grant from the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs for the public art installation "The Cenotaph," and her play Babel was awarded a Forum Award for Best New Play by the DFW Theatre Critics.
Sam Brukhman is the founder and Artistic Director of Verdigris Ensemble, a choral group composed of artists from around the country. Before founding Verdigris Ensemble, Brukhman was the founder of the Vox Mousai Women's Choir and Assistant Conductor of the Orchestra Institute of Napa Valley under Festival Del Sole. In 2015 he was selected as a semifinalist for the National ACDA Conducting Competition in Salt Lake City. He holds a bachelor of music degree from Westminster Choir College and teaches at Brown Middle School in Forney, Texas.