The Modlin Center presents SPEAK Theater Arts' production of N*W*C: The Race Show
March 6, 2007
The Modlin Center welcomes SPEAK Theater Arts' production, N*W*C: The Race Show, a daring and hilarious look at the impact three racial slurs have had on the lives of three friends from different ethnic backgrounds, on Wednesday, March 28 at 7:30 pm in the Alice Jepson Theatre.
SPEAK Theater Arts started as a conscious decision to give voice to performers of colors and types that didn't have the options they needed or wanted. But it quickly became a form, a new benchmark, a rush of comedy and drama that leaves audiences breathless—in all the best ways. Their debut production, N*W*C: The Race Show, presents a dangerously compelling original work of populist theater with enough laughs to ease the sting of their social commentary—while bringing divergent audiences to a much needed point of convergence.
N*W*C mixes comedy with the real-life stories of three young men from different ethnic backgrounds to deconstruct the notion of race in America. Drama, hip hop, slam poetry and stand-up comedy are intermingled to communicate the show's overall message: "There's only one race: the human race." As for the powerful title, the cast/co-writers Miles Gregley, Rafael Agustin and Allan Axibal say, "the show traces the origins and evolution of three derogatory terms that shaped our lives and took the place of a genuine understanding of our distinct cultures. In doing this show we hope to de-power these words for ourselves and for our audiences."
The L.A. Times says, "The show saps those slurs of their pejorative power…the result is an improbably infectious hip-hop beat." LA Weekly describes the performers as "supremely clever" using "nimble staging" to "break down the vagaries of their respective ethnic experiences with wicked humor and surprising heartbreak."
Tickets are on sale now and available by visiting or calling the Modlin Center Box Office at (804) 289-8980 or by visiting modlin.richmond.edu.