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SHOWS /

The Civilians‘ shows are accessible, enjoyable and adaptable to almost any theater group’s needs. Because the plays incorporate the stories of many different people, cast size can range from 3 to 30 and more depending on your resources and creative vision. In this section, you can find information about each show, and suggestions for how to use our scripts at your school.

We encourage you to adapt most of the scripts to suit your community, rather than simply producing our shows as written. So for these shows, we’ve created toolkits that will give you insight into our process, and information on how you can ask your own questions, investigate, and create your own material to incorporate into your production.

Therefore, If you are interested in performing a Civilians show, you must first acquire the rights. We’ve explained it all HERE.

Shows:
Canard, Canard, Goose
(I Am) Nobody’s Lunch
Gone Missing
This Beautiful City
Tales From My Parents’ Divorce
Paris Commune
In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards

STUDY /

I am enchanted. And from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for giving us this piece.
—Evan Katz, Playwrights Horizons Theater School student

Studying a Civilians play for class? This section contains ARTICLES about the company and our shows, a list of RESOURCES that can help you investigate the subjects of our plays. We’ve also put together information about OUR WORKING METHODS.

THE CIVILIANS AT YOUR SCHOOL /

The Civilians frequently tours around the country with stops at colleges around the country. Hence if you’re interested in the Company performing at your school, please email us at INFO@THECIVILIANS.ORG. There are a number of other ways to bring the work of the Civilians on your college campus. You can create your own productions of many of our plays. Civilians’ company members teach WORKSHOPS and give LECTURES at schools around the country. The Civilians often tour recent productions, and RESIDENCIES at colleges and universities have often provided crucial support as we develop new work.

WORKSHOPS

Workshops are led by experienced Associate Artists with the Civilians, who have collaborated on the creation of past works and have experience in all of the Civilians’ methods. After that, workshop participants will receive an overview to the Civilians method—an innovative and collaborative approach to creating theatre. Through acting exercises and interview practice, the participants will gain insight into the process of creating a Civilians show, and learn first hand how the Civilians’ approach is useful in creating art and performance work. Skills taught include:

• Engaging peers and community members in meaningful dialogue about the chosen topic
• Putting together a successful interview
• Research techniques
• Presenting interview material back to the class
• Performance techniques
• Writing and editing skills to build a monologue or scene from interview material

ONE-DAY MASTER-CLASS

In a one-day Master Class (5 hours is recommended) students are taught about conducting interviews: how to approach an interview subject; how do you explain the project, how do you listen to them while they’re talking so that you absorb their persona as well as their words; how to guide the interview to the most interesting places? Students will have the opportunity to interview each other, and possibly those outside of the room depending on time, and perform those interviews for the class. Students will also be guided in the beginning steps of collecting those interviews into a cohesive performance.

MULTI-SESSION WORKSHOP

Multi-session workshops (4-6 2-hour sessions recommended) include all of the instruction of the Master Class. In addition, students, working with the Associate Artist, can choose a topic to investigate and over the course of the workshop conduct interviews on a given topic and build them into a short performance. Students learn additional editing, writing and directing skills as well as having the option of performing in front of an audience.

COST:

Master Class: The cost for the one-day Master Class ranges from $500 – $1,000. This fee includes the cost of the workshop, artist fees, and supplies. If applicable, space rental fees and travel will be additional.

Multi-Session Workshop: The cost for the multi-session workshops vary depending on the number of sessions and the overall length of time (between the first and last sessions). Typical costs range from $2,000 to $8,000. Travel and Housing would be additional for sites outside of New York.

LECTURES

If you’re interested in having a Civilians Associate Artist speak at your school, please contact INFO@THECIVILIANS.ORG.

Here is a video from our recent class at the Brooklyn High School of the Arts! They conducted interviews about the sixties and used them to make a play.