Theatrical Rebellion: Antigone and Social Justice
Sunday, March 18, 2pm
Flat Earth welcomes local activists and artmakers to discuss theatre, social justice, inclusivity, and the intersection thereof.
Elbert Joseph
Elbert Joseph is a well known Deaf actor and advocate for accessibility and inclusion opportunities in Boston Theatre Community. He has acted locally at American Repertory Theatre (Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters and The Lily's Revenge), Paramount Theatre/Emerson College (Mother Hicks), Wheelock Family Theatre (The Taste of Sunrise, Alice - the musical, Peter Pan - the musical, Pippi Longstocking, The Trumpet of the Swan (twice) and many more), Central Square Theatre (Hysteria, Arabian Nights, The Edge of Peace, Arcadia), Hawrich Junior Theatre (Mother Hicks) and many more. His next gig: Stuart Little at Wheelock Family Theatre.
Fatema Ahmad
Fatema is a former biomedical engineer turned community organizer with experience organizing against racism and Islamophobia in North Carolina. She was an organizer with Muslims for Social Justice and the American Friends Service Committee of the Carolinas under the Communities Against Islamophobia project. She helped lead the Stop CVE at UNC campaign and worked with organizations across North Carolina to connect Muslim, Black, and/or Latinx communities around criminalization and surveillance. She is now Deputy Director at Muslim Justice League, a local non-profit that educates, organizes and advocates for human and civil rights that are violated or threatened under national security pretexts.
Betsy S. Goldman
Betsy S. Goldman is a director, dramaturg, and educator. She is the Theatre Arts Program Director at Boston Shakespeare Project, a non-profit provides arts and humanities enrichment programs for Greater Boston's underserved youth. She is a Professor of Theatre at Curry College, is involved in ASL-English translation for the theatre, and she is a trained Joker (a facilitator of Theatre of the Oppressed workshops and forum theatre). She holds a PhD in Theatre History from Tufts University, and a MA in Educational Theatre from New York University.
Antigone Then and Now: Historical, Literary, and Archaeological Conversations
Sunday, March 25, 2pm
Flat Earth welcomes distinguished scholars and practitioners to participate in a discussion around the historical and artistic impacts of Antigone from ancient Greece to now.
Professor Patricia J. Johnson
Patricia J. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Classical Studies at Boston Universary with BA and MA degrees in history and classical archaeology (Cornell), and a PhD in classics (USC) focused on the poetry of the Augustan poet Ovid. She has written on various topics in the course of her career, including Sophocles's Antigone. Her 2008 book, Ovid Before Exile: Art and Punishment in the Metamorphoses, explores Ovid’s artists in the Metamorphoses, and how their stories reflect his concerns about freedom of artistic expression in his own time.
Cecelia A. Feldman
Cecelia A. Feldman is an Acting Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programs at Amherst College, Mead Art Museum. Her academic work focuses on the Greco-Roman East and demonstrates how changes in the visual, literary, and material culture of water management can reflect the shifting dynamics of power and empire. Interrogating the use of water in the face of geo-political shifts and technological developments creates a new understanding of the political, economic, and religious roles of water in antiquity. Through a focus on water in ancient communities, her research presents a subject that is both engaged with critical theory in several disciplines and has current-cy (pun intended) for both past and present.
Regine Vital
Regine Vital is a teacher and actor from Somerville, MA. She received her Master’s in English Literature and Creative Writing from UMass Boston, focusing in Shakespearean Studies. When not nerding out over the Bard, Regine searches for ways to put her storytelling skills to good work in this crazy world we live in. Boston area roles include: Hope/Hope Williams, An Education in Prudence (Open Theatre Project); Clara Stahlbaum, Club Drosselmeyer at Oberon/ART (Green Door Labs); Shawna Duchamps, Coyote on a Fence (HUB Theatre Company); Jazz Lady/Harriet Proctor, A Southern Victory: A Trilogy (Vagabond Theatre Group); Francine/Lena, Clybourne Park (Arlington Friends of the Drama); Mrs. Mueller, Doubt (Winthrop Playmakers).