The Condemned: University of Minnesota

May 10, 1996

PRESS RELEASE

The eXperimental Theatre Season at the University of Minnesota proudly presents an original theatre collaboration directed by John Troyer. The production, Praxis II: The Condemned runs May 29,30, and 31 in the Nolte Experimental Theatre in Rarig Center on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota. Productions begin at 6:30 pm and the doors open at 6:00 pm. Seating is limited so call 625-1876 for reservations and with any questions. All performances are free and open to the public. Please e-mail praxis@waste.org with further inquiries.

PRAXIS II: The Condemned

The Manager and Magistrate of the Board. Photos by Lauren Allen

In the year 2003, the ruling authority merged the Department of Education, the NEA, and the Department of Defense into one Federally funded entity. Unlimited funding is now available for all Arts programs.....as long as the Board approves. The Board is a group of military Psychological Operations Specialists who oversee the education of all people within society. Theatres across the country have become the new centers of power. On all college campuses in America, Theatre Departments are the most important buildings, housing administration and performances alike. All new work and old work espouses the virtues of an authoritarian, mono-culture regime which controls the flow of all artistic forms.

The calls for expanded funding in the arts have been answered with dire consequences.

The Condemned: Oedipus Rex

A group of individuals has managed to salvage books destroyed in a mass government book buy back plan which provided people ample cash for any book. Entire libraries were liquidated, replaced with on-line computer controlled information services. The various underground movements consist of scholars, students, free-thinkers and cyber-jects. They have all managed to save texts from various cultural theorists and artists whose works were explicitly banned under the Constitutional Reorganization Convention of 1999. Theatre takes place all the time and acting has become the most socially valorized career in America. Most people in theatre and the arts have become blind to what their art is doing. They have all the funding they need, and that’s what matters.

Those who fight the system are erased.

Those who stage random performances are known only through glances and silent publicity. All efforts are made to remove clandestine theatre operations, but their ability to move quickly makes enforcement impossible. An impending showdown is in the works between the performing underground and the Midwest Department of Arts and Defense housed at the University of Minnesota. Traps have been set up everywhere and the risk of failure for the underground means total annihilation. They will never have existed and their work will not have mattered.

The stakes have never been higher and time is running out.

Those who dare challenge the system are known only as PRAXIS and they are truly The Condemned.