THE DECISION FESTIVAL ARTISTS: QAADIR HOWARD AND NEIL RHODES

Qaadir Howard has produced over 350 videos for youtube under the channel name 'Timaya.' These videos showcase his original characters and skits, personal narratives, musical performances, and pop culture commentary. To date, "Timaya" has nearly 85,000 subscribers and 14 million video views. This is the first stage reading of Qaadir's work.

Neil Rhodes has been a fan of Qaadir for four years, after first viewing "Did I just Get Rejected From McDonald's?"After a chance meeting in LA, Neil and Qaadir became fast friends and decided to collaborate on NIGERIA, based on Qaadir's video "I Wish To Give You $250,000,000."

INTERVIEW (w/ Neil Rhodes)

1. What inspired you to write this play?

Qaadir/Timaya's YouTube video entitled "I Wish to Give You $250000000."

2. How has this election been different for you?

This election has challenged me to make a decision about how much I will engage with the political scene going forward.  With a tendency to keep elections and politicians at a distance, I questioned during this campaign whether politicians are truly the con artists I always paint them to be.  How wide is the brush I use to express my disdain for both Republicans and Democrats?

3. As an artist, what do you think your responsibility is politically to your community (or do you think you even have one)?

My responsibility as an artist is only to write down the words in my head.  I trust that the impact of NIGERIA and other plays I will write in the future will be felt, but I have no idea how that will play out.

4. What would it take for you to vote for the other party?

A candidate with a proven track record of honesty and success.

5. What's the most exciting thing about this election being over?

We are now aware of where we stand ideologically.  The lesson, I believe, is that our differences are our strengths - and that there is room enough on this planet for everyone to disagree, believe, doubt, challenge, and coexist.  Differences make us understand ourselves with more clarity if we are open to it.

6. What do you miss about Bush?

He actually had a playful sense of humor, which was fun.

7. Favorite president and why?

Ugh, I don't even know enough to pick one.

8. Any political jokes?

The whole thing is a joke sometimes - a bad one!

9. When did you think you were going to lose it about what you saw on TV, read, or saw (debates or convention)?

When Mitt Romney got that spray tan, I loved it!!!!!  To quote Qaadir, "Hola, como estas and all things of this nature!"

10. What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Another great year with my partner, Brian!

THANK YOU!!!

THE DECISION PLAY FESTIVAL

CLICK HERE FOR SCHEDULE

The Decision is a short play reading festival about what happens after the heated election but also where we will be or should be after this November.  This event is a fundraiser for the Limitless Health Institute and to help families affected by the storm and living in shelters supported by Safe Horizon.
Join us in watching a series of funny, incisive, dramatic short theatre pieces. The Decision will feature a series of 10 minute plays written and directed and acted by some of New York's finest artists.

LOCATION:
The Three Jewels, NYC61 Fourth Avenue, Third FloorNew York, NY 10003

TIME: 
*Saturday 11/10, 7pm
*Sunday 11/1, 3:00pm
*Monday 11/12, 7:00pm
* *Suggested Donation $10 for Saturday or Sunday/$15 for Monday (All 8 plays)
Email 2012playfestival@gmail.com with Sat, Sun, or Mon
in the subject line.  

THE DECISION FESTIVAL ARTIST: CHRISTOPHER PAUL MOORE

Christopher Paul Moore is a playwright, historian, curator and Senior Researcher for the N.Y. Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and author and co-author of several works including The Black New Yorkers: 400 Years of African American History, Standing In The Need Of Prayer: African American Prayer Traditions, Slavery In New York. A former journalist and news editor for ABC Radio and National Black Network News, Chris interviewed several presidential contenders including George Romney, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George Bush. A 1986 Eugene O’Neill Playwright Fellow, Moore’s play, The Last Season, is published in Seven Black Plays: Anthology of African American Plays (Northwestern University). In 1991 Chris broke the story of the unearthing of the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan on FOX NY Channel 5. He is featured in Annenberg Media’s Teaching Multicultural Literature program, “Langston Hughes and Christopher Moore,” and New Jack City: Harlem Walking Tour with Christopher Moore (Warner Bros), directed by Mario Van Peebles, and he is a consultant to PBS History Detectives. 

INTERVIEW

1. You wrote historical play "Pearl Street." What's the story and inspiration?

My play is about the 2012 Election, a Wall Street worker is suddenly

overcome and transformed by the mystical presence of Peter Stuyvesant,

the long deceased Governor (aka The Boss) of the colonial Wall.

I was inspired by our daily news reports, which indicate that our

world is fundamentally changing no matter who is our president. I

would like my play to give the audience a theatrical, yet historic,

view of America since the arrival of our first ancestors. The play

believes that climate and human behavior are the most important

elements of global civilization, especially here at Pearl Street.

2. As an artist, what do you think your responsibility is politically

to your community (or do you think you even have one)?

We are all responsible, artists et al, which is the way life is

shaped, I believe. Artists may be history’s truest historians. About

200 years ago, Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote that “Poets are the

unacknowledged legislators of the world.” Playwrights are second only

to Hip Hop performers, who are the best of the best. I wish I had

their talent.

3. Favorite president and why?

FDR. I spent five years writing a book about World War II and I

believe FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt were the best team ever in the White

House. Of FDR’s “Four Freedoms” which are now magnificently on display in a park on Roosevelt Island, #3 “freedom from want” and #4 “freedom from fear” will be the hallmarks of a favorable global change.

4. When did you think you were going to lose it about what you saw on

TV, read, or saw (debates or convention)?

I counted to ten every time I read or heard about the financial needs

of the 2012 election. The dollar amounts raised and spent every day by

both candidates were disgraceful distortions of American fairness and

liberty.

5. What are you looking forward to in 2013?

I look forward to seeing how we all will continue to change our world,

hopefully for the better.

THANK YOU!!

THE DECISION PLAY FESTIVAL

CLICK HERE FOR SCHEDULE

The Decision is a short play reading festival about what happens after the heated election but also where we will be or should be after this November.  This event is a fundraiser for the Limitless Health Institute and to help families affected by the storm and living in shelters supported by Safe Horizon.
Join us in watching a series of funny, incisive, dramatic short theatre pieces. The Decision will feature a series of 10 minute plays written and directed and acted by some of New York's finest artists.

LOCATION:
The Three Jewels, NYC61 Fourth Avenue, Third FloorNew York, NY 10003

TIME: 
*Saturday 11/10, 7pm
*Sunday 11/1, 3:00pm
*Monday 11/12, 7:00pm
* *Suggested Donation $10 for Saturday or Sunday/$15 for Monday (All 8 plays)
Email 2012playfestival@gmail.com with Sat, Sun, or Mon
in the subject line.  

THE DECISION FESTIVAL ARTIST: MATT VORZIMER

Matt Vorzimer is a music producer and drummer with over two decades of playing. By the time he was 13 he was playing with his band "STU" at the legendary Fox Theatre in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado. He moved to New York and graduated from New School for Jazz. He composed music for webisodes series like  "MISTER" and this season of the Showtime hit, 'Dexter." He plays a variety of styles and has 4 albums out that can be listened to and purchased on his website. His sound design page is ecussionist.bandcamp.com

INTERVIEW

1. In 'Decisions A Mile High" you created a cabaret piece using electronic music and a monologue. What's the story and what inspired you to jam it out?  

Saturn's Return, is the biggest theme in my life right now. Trying to create newness in my life and find another platform to compliment music, that I could express myself on. Ultimately, writing this was better than just sitting around getting dark on my life. 

2. How has this election been different for you? 

For one, the debates seemed like pure and ironically brilliant theater. Really SNL could have wrote it and I wouldn't have been suprised, was how funny I thought they were. Also, that a third party candidate, like a Nader isn't really present in the race to divide the primary candidates votes, which I think is interesting.

3. As an artist, what do you think your responsibility is politically to your community (or do you think you even have one)?

For me maybe it's more of a duty to deliver clear messages, and be responsible for those, whatever the content be, than it is having the responsibility to be  political. Everything in life has politics that we will never escape. In our everyday work environments, you have politics. In our personal relationships, you have politics. In the things we say about the world there are political undertones. So I think politics is just part of life. But life IS people and people ARE politics. It's just that I value my brothers and sisters in my community so much that ultimately my responsibility is to be available for my community and be of service and to connect with it's members on a true level.

4. What would it take for you to vote for the other party?

 Candidates who run that are down with gays, women's right to choose, and non racist/religious fanatic people who value demographics that are outside of their club of multi-millionaires.

5. What's the most exciting thing about this election being over?  

 Hopefully the absence of Mitt Romney from my everyday life. But depending on which way this goes, I may have to get over that. Let's just hope that accepting Mitt Romney as the leader of my country is not the decision I have to make.

6. What do you miss about Bush?

 The pure entertainment of watching him butcher his speeches and situations in general.  

7. Favorite president and why?

 Clinton. It was a good time for the arts in America. I care about jazz. He was about music and the NEA. Our economy was way better. It was also the first time in my life that I was becoming more politically aware and his whole presidency was an amazing saga that I was there to witness (although i was young) but even crazier to look back on. There is a good documentary I think it's called Clinton about his presidency.

8. When did you think you were going to lose it about what you saw on TV, read, or saw (debates or convention)?

 I almost died laughing when this cat Romney siad something about "binders full of women."

10. What are you looking forward to in 2013? 

Turning art into money.

THANK YOU!!

THE DECISION PLAY FESTIVAL

CLICK HERE FOR SCHEDULE

The Decision is a short play reading festival about what happens after the heated election but also where we will be or should be after this November.  This event is a fundraiser for the Limitless Health Institute and to help families affected by the storm and living in shelters supported by Safe Horizon.
Join us in watching a series of funny, incisive, dramatic short theatre pieces. The Decision will feature a series of 10 minute plays written and directed and acted by some of New York's finest artists.

LOCATION:
The Three Jewels, NYC61 Fourth Avenue, Third FloorNew York, NY 10003

TIME: 
*Saturday 11/10, 7pm
*Sunday 11/1, 3:00pm
*Monday 11/12, 7:00pm
* *Suggested Donation $10 for Saturday or Sunday/$15 for Monday (All 8 plays)
Email 2012playfestival@gmail.com with Sat, Sun, or Mon
in the subject line.