West Side Story: A Cultural Perspective on an American Tragedy with Stephen Kitsakos
Date & Time
Venue
Virtual Event
Event Description
Is it racism that precipitated the tragedy in West Side Story and not just miscommunication as in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet? How does the marginalization of outsiders keep repeating itself in the story of America? How did four gay men: Bernstein, Sondheim, Laurents & Robbins create a musical which captures the universality of the immigrant experience and provide the basis for racial conflict in mid-20th century urban life? We look at the journey from “East Side Story” to “West Side Story” through a socio-cultural and socio-political lens to examine how the universals from Shakespeare in 1597 are still admissible in 2020.
Instructor Stephen Kitsakos draws from a wealth of theatre experience, having served on the Theatre Arts Faculty at SUNY New Paltz from 1999-2013, where he taught undergraduate theatre studies and performance and directed many plays. He is also an opera librettist and writer.
