Our Story
My name is Josh Wilder. I'm a third year acting major at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama and proud Philadelphia native. PERFECTION all started as a conversation that I had with my co worker about the gentrification of Harlem, his personal story of over coming gang violence and the hardships he faced being an inner city youth in New York, that ultimately led him to college. In February 2010, I recorded a series of our conversations and with his blessing I had to make his story accessible to everyone who was willing to listen. I transcribed all our our sessions and created the one man show and actually performed in the basement of the FRAME GALLERY on Carnegie Mellon's campus. My great friend and mentor, Larry Powell, who just finished working with the Lincoln Center Theatre in NYC came down to sign on as director. His passion and vision for the piece made it a very important piece of theatre that had to go on for another workshop.
In the fall of 2010 I edited the piece again and it got accepted in to Carnegie Mellon's PLAYGROUND Festival of new student work. Larry came back from New York to direct the piece again and brought sound designer, Hidenor J. Nakajo on to the project which took it to new heights, I also brought in some colleagues of mine: Adrian Enscoe who added new elements to the piece through his mask creations and Julie Mallis who provided bold scenic designs to support the vision. Kendra Chapman served as Stage Manager and Alesia Etinoff as Dramaturg. None of this would be possible with our their outstanding collaboration.
The ultimate goal of this piece is to have the world premiere in Harlem, where the play is based, but we want to try it out in other major cities such as Los Angeles THIS SUMMER and Chicago WINTER 2011. With your help and support we can make this happen and help open the eyes of many people who don't understand the lost lasting effects gentrification has on the inner city, especially the youth. Here's a brief synopsis of the show:
In the midst of Harlem’s gentrification, Perfection, a revolutionary college student, throws a brick into a new 14 million dollar condominium development that stands besides the project building he grew up in. PERFECTION tells the story of a young man trying to save the Harlem he
once knew before it is all buried. PERFECTION is a solo performance art piece, incorporating elements of abstract masks, poetry and video to create the haunting experience of Harlem’s abandoned, yet politically charged atmosphere.
PERFECTION explores the current problem of gentrification as a type of socio-economic cleansing in Harlem. As Columbia University continues to expand downward into Harlem, property value has risen causing rent to rise in subsidized low income housing areas.
PERFECTION is based on the interviews of a college student who discussed his journey from gang life in Harlem to the discovery of his academic potential.
The Impact
By doing this show I plan to impact the people of my generation to stand up against gentrification and help protect their, neighborhoods, their support system, and most important their cultural identity. If this campaign doesn't receive any support then who will be the theatrical voice to stand up against these issues? How will our voices be heard to save the inner city? Who will tell our stories?
What We Need & What You Get
$2000- Theater/Space Rental
Renting a theater/space isn't cheap wherever you go. Even though this wont give us a guaranteed week of performance we will do our best to sell out every performance! Also this covers the cost for any rehearsal space.
$300- Fight and Transportation
The director is already LA based, so this will help cover any travel Expenses going to LA. The director is doing this FREE OF CHARGE BECAUSE HE HAS BELIEVED IN THE PROJECT SINCE DAY ONE. The best I can do is get to LA and with that I need your help. My tuition is $54,000 dollars.
$300- Advertisements
Though Facebook and Youtube are great mediums to advertise and promote the show, I still want to go into the community and promote via flyers and posters. Maybe even have a salon with local LA based artists telling them about the show.
$400- Design elements
We want the show to be the best designed and the most cost efficient! There will be many elements to this production including mask, scenic, and sound! help our designers to create to their very best. Most of them are doing this FREE OF CHARGE!
If you contribute to this campaign:
You will be supporting a new important voice of American Theater whose giving a fresher perspective to the story telling of unheard voices.
Other Ways You Can Help
SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT OUR CAMPAIGN!!!!!!!! If you know anyone who would like to sign on as a long term producer or know a theater company that would commission/host this piece tell them about it!