When art imitates life in a profound way, you can’t ignore the message.
Experience a powerful and timely play rooted in real experiences, at Culture Lab LIC (5-25 46th Ave., Long Island City) through March 29, with an opening set for Sunday, March 8. The performance schedule is Thursday through Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.
Culture Lab LIC, in association with The Chocolate Factory Theater, is proud to present the world premiere of “Liberty Scrap,” directed and designed by T. Ryder Smith. Tickets, which start at $35, are currently on sale at libertyscrap.org.
“Liberty Scrap” shines a spotlight on a growing community — stateless individuals in the U.S., whose numbers may dramatically increase should their birthright citizenship get revoked.
As the Supreme Court prepares to review the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, the plight of struggling artist Katya — a desperate young woman searching for a way out of her precarious situation — is captured by award-winning playwright Christina Masciotti, a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, whose plays have been performed to critical acclaim all over the world.
Barely getting by, Katya works hard in a scrap metal warehouse in Queens by day, but gets to enjoy her creative outlet at night. Making unique sculptures out of debris, she transforms rusty pieces of castoff metal into life-like sculptures of insects, wild birds, and sea creatures.
“I began writing ‘Liberty Scrap’ after a friend disclosed to me that she was stateless. I was struck that I’d never heard the term before and stunned the more I learned about it,” Masciotti noted. “She connected me with the recently formed organization United Stateless. They happened to be looking for volunteer writers at the time, primarily in the realm of journalism, but I volunteered to write an in-depth character study in the form of a play.”
Masciotti added: “I spent two years listening, researching, and writing the original first draft with United Stateless’ support and influence. We went on to workshop the show with members of United Stateless joining the cast and continuing to guide development.”
The nonprofit’s mission is to build and inspire community among those affected by statelessness. The play reflects both the harm of legal invisibility and the resilience it takes to transform trauma into reconstruction, creativity, and collective care…and invites audiences to better understand statelessness as a lived reality rather than an abstract concept.
When Katya attempts to return home to care for her Uzbek father, she learns about her precarious and potentially problematic immigration status, which may forever keep her separated from her beloved family.
These ongoing issues have created tension in these communities and angst in individuals’ daily lives, as they try to find and keep jobs, while navigating a harsh reality and scary future riddled with potential “land mines.” Katya symbolizes a growing segment of the stateless community — caught in a limbo-like reality — who are hoping to find a way out of a troubling situation and just lead peaceful lives.
“What’s exceptional about Christina’s plays is the way the language and situations are simultaneously realistic and dream-like. On the immediate level, they deal with crises in working-class lives…often, those of immigrants. But they also play on a level close to that of myth, or fable — a kind of slow hallucination, which lifts the characters and audience out of time,” Ryder Smith asserted.
“And just as Katya finds strength in a community of people, also deemed stateless, we hope the audience will find some sense of solidarity in the very fact of us being in a room together with the play at this cultural moment, and a production shot through with bursts of music and dance and video, ending on a note of defiant hope, despite all.”
The play’s anticipated running time is 120 minutes, with no intermission.
Visit libertyscrap.org for more information.
About the cast
Natia Dune (Katya) was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. She was trained in acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in New York.
Dune has appeared in multiple films, such as “On the Rocks” (Directed by Sofia Coppola), “A Walk Amongst the Tombstones” (Directed by Scott Frank). Her television credits include: “The Americans,” and “Law and Order.” She lives and works in New York City.
Patricia R. Floyd (Maxine) is an actor/director/writer. She appeared in the HBO mini-series “Show Me a Hero” and “Law and Order.” Television appearances include “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” “Blue Bloods,” and “Orange is the New Black.” She has appeared in several films and in a variety of theatrical roles. Floyd has worked as a guest director/instructor at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the New York Film Academy and is a Lifetime Member of the Actors Studio.
Culture Lab LIC is accessible via the G, E trains to Court Square and the No. 7 to Vernon Blvd-Jackson Ave. Please enter building through the parking lot.
