"The only innovative, and by far the most authentic and affecting expression of regional consciousness. Roadside's charm is also due to the broad range of voices, their vivid mountain accents, and the beautifully timed pacing of the stories." -Southern Exposure Magazine "These delightful tales are told with a lively home-grown warmth that endears them at once to anyone who's grown up with storytelling in the family. ![]() "Roadside is dramaturgy with a difference: a hybrid form of play-acting as organic to this hardbitten coal country as the Cumberland walnut." -Smithsonian Magazine The theatrical and artistic reverberations are unceasing." -National Public Radio, Morning Edition "What emerges in Roadside Theater's work is a portrait of Americans in a locale, Appalachia, that's more rich and immediate than you're likely to read in any social history. In 2020, Ben was recognized by Time magazine as one of “27 People Bridging Divides Across America.” His work in theater, organizing, pedagogy, and economic development has been featured by, the Brookings Institution, TDR/The Drama Review, Harvard Law School, Americans for the Arts, PolicyLink, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has also served as dramaturg on the German premieres of two Broadway musicals. The plays in Volume 2 come from Roadside’s intercultural and issue-specific theater work, including long-term collaborations with the African American Junebug Productions in New Orleans and the Puerto Rican Pregones Theater in the South Bronx, as well as with residents on both sides of the walls of prisons.īen Fink worked with the Roadside ensemble from 2015 through 2020, as a member of the Betsy! Scholars’ Circle, as the founding organizer of the Letcher County Culture Hub and the Performing Our Future coalition, and as the cofounder of the cross-partisan dialogue project Hands Across the Hills. The plays in Volume 1 offer a people’s history of the Appalachian coalfields, from the European incursion through the American War in Vietnam. Its two illustrated volumes explore a century-plus legacy of place-based theater in the United States and make the democratic populist theater tradition both attractive and widely accessible. The award-winning plays and their accompanying essays trace Roadside’s rural coalfield origin through its 45-year development of Appalachia’s first regionally-produced body of original musical drama, its experience touring 48 states and seven foreign countries, and its proven methodology for building diverse, inclusive audiences reflective of whole communities.Īrt in a Democracy: Selected Plays surveys Roadside’s exuberant and widely-performed People’s History of Appalachia series, its intercultural plays co-created with other culturally specific ensembles, and its collaborations with folk artists in Appalachia and Native America. The anthology makes public the ensemble’s grassroots creation and presentation process. In 2020 Ben was recognized by Time Magazine as one of "27 People Bridging Divides Across America." His writings on cultural work, organizing, pedagogy, and grassroots economic development have been published by, the Brookings Institution, Bill Moyers, HowlRound, ArtPlace America, and the National Endowment for the Arts.This two-volume anthology tells the story of Roadside Theater’s first 45 years and includes nine award-winning original play scripts ten essays by authors from different disciplines and generations, which explore the plays’ social, economic, and political circumstances and a critical recounting of the theater’s history from 1975 through 2020. ![]() ![]() in cultural studies from the University of Minnesota, where he taught and trained instructors for many years. He has held positions on the board of directors of Appalshop and Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed, Inc., trained and directed the homeless-housed zAmya Theater Project of Minneapolis, and dramaturged the German-language premieres of several Broadway musicals. Paul, taught English at the Diesterweg Gymnasium (high school) in Berlin, and directed youth theater and creative writing programs at Appel Farm Arts and Music Center in rural southern New Jersey. Ben has organized with faith, labor, and community networks in Minneapolis-St. He works at Roadside Theater, a part of Appalshop, a grassroots cultural and media organization in the east Kentucky coalfields. Ben Fink is the lead organizer of the Performing Our Future coalition and former/founding organizer of the Letcher County Culture Hub.
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