"Playwriting as Activism: Advocacy through Authenticity"

Date: March 29th, 2017
Duration: 1h:14m:39s

The 2017 Spring Presidential Lecture Series:
"Playwriting as Activism: Advocacy through Authenticity"
C. Julian Jiménez
(Also known to the professional theatrical world as J. Julian Christopher)

Assistant Professor, Speech Communication and Theatre Arts
Queensborough Community College, The City University of New York

The debate of the “purpose” of theatre has raged for millennia. Form the Golden Age of Greece when Aristotle and Plato debated the cathartic experience of theatre, to today as funding for The National Endowment of the Arts remains unstable, theatre has reflected, rejected, embraced, and challenged the societies in which it is created; and the audiences for whom the stories are told. Playwrights for centuries have purposed the stag to entertain, but they have also shaped it to be a platform for social change, protest, and advocacy. In this presentation, C. Julian Jimenez will discuss how as a playwright, he confronts the intersectionality of identity, power, and privilege by crafting stories of emotionally rich, dynamic characters of the Queer and Latinx experience. These stories and characters defy caricature, and through them Jimenez challenges stereotypes and the heteronormative white gaze.

Stereotypes and bigotry are built on misunderstanding and archaic cultural myths. Jimenez will illustrate how theatrical voices can ignite a social revolution within audiences by presenting truthful depictions of often stereotyped, frequently ostracized and historically disenfranchised communities. He will discuss his methods of debunking cultural mythologies through the breaking of overused character tropes, theatrical structure, and traditional storytelling.