[NEohioPAL]Additional panel information for CPT and LAPD's AGENTS AND ASSETS, Nov. 24, 26 - 28

[Dan Kilbane]

For Immediate Release
UPDATED PANEL DISCUSSION INFORMATION INCLUDED
Contact:  Dan Kilbane, Director of Marketing & Public Relations
216/631-2727 ext. 203
dkilbane at cptonline.org <mailto:dkilbane at cptonline.org>
promotional photos available by request
November 18, 2004
Presidential End Run Around The Constitution And Congress Exposed in Agents
and Assets
Cleveland Public Theatre and The Los Angeles Poverty Department Dramatize a
Congressional Hearing
Agents and Assets
November 24, 26 - 28 at Orthodox
Post-performance Discussions on Drug Policy
Admission:  suggested $5 donation

Cleveland, OH -- The Los Angeles Poverty Department and Cleveland Public
Theater’s Education Department, with assistance from YMCA Cleveland’s
Y-Haven program, present Agents and Assets for four performances only at
Orthodox on Wednesday, November 24 at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday,
November 26 and 27 at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday, November 28 at 3:00 p.m.    CPT
’s Orthodox space is located at 6203 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland.  Tickets are
available for a suggested $5 donation. For reservations and information call
216/631-2727.

LAPD is an award-winning performance company based in skid row Los Angeles.
"The Los Angeles Poverty Department, despite the homeless status of many of
its members, has thrived for years from its downtown outpost and continues
to offer theater that's often stunning in its honesty and lacking in
pretension," stated L.A. Weekly in its Pick of the Week section.   “Founded
17 years ago in L.A., The Los Angeles Poverty Department has become one of
the country’s most outspoken and profound theater troupes,” Added Real
Detroit.

Agents and Assets, acclaimed in its Los Angeles performances in January
2001, and in 2002 in Detroit, is remounted with a combined cast of Los
Angeles and Cleveland residents, from communities that have been severely
impacted by drugs and drug policy.  LAPD members will be in residence in
Cleveland in November rehearsing with local cast members, conducting
community workshops, outreach activities, and post-performance discussions
with panelists and audience members.

With Agents and Assets, LAPD and CPT address the U.S. government’s
escalating war on drugs. The text is a hearing transcript from the House
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the committee charged with the
oversight of the government's intelligence agencies.   The occasion of the
March 18, 1998, hearing is the CIA Inspector General's report denying
allegations of CIA involvement in crack cocaine trafficking to fund the
Nicaraguan Contras, at a time when Congress had expressly forbid such
activities.   At the heart of the issues addressed by Agents and Assets is
the misuse of U.S. intelligence agencies by the executive branch of the
government.   These events resonate loudly in current events, as we try to
comprehend the rush to war in Iraq.

The entire Agents and Assets script is taken from the hearing transcript.
On-the-ground veterans of the crack epidemic play members of Congress and
the CIA Inspector General.  The lives of the cast members have been
radically impacted by crack, either because they are formerly addicted, or
simply because they live in communities that have been devastated by drugs
and the drug war. "... A theater piece born out of detailed transcripts
might be somewhat dry -- hardly the stuff of high drama.  With Malpede at
the helm, however, provocative seems more the operative word,” stated
Victoria Looseleaf of Los Angeles’ Downtown News, January 8, 2001.

Each performance of Agents & Assets is followed by public talkback.
Talkbacks in the L.A. and Detroit productions included treatment vs.
incarceration, arts and recovery, and the rhetoric of war.

Agents and Assets’ director John Malpede says, "The 'War on Drugs', as the
name clearly states, imposes a military solution on a public health and
social problem, and in doing so, turns our own citizens into 'the enemy' and
then proceeds to victimize our citizens and their communities." Agents and
Assets invites its audience to consider the actions of the U.S. Government,
whether it is in a distant country or in Cleveland.

Several members of the Cleveland end of the cast are part of YMCA Cleveland’
s Y-Haven program.  With its two locations on Cleveland’s East and West
sides, Y-Haven offers a continuum of care, beginning with primary treatment
for drug/alcohol dependency. When residents graduate from the primary
counseling phase, case managers focus their treatment plan on continuing
care, relapse prevention and appropriate education and employment programs.
When residents complete the necessary training, they are placed in jobs or
sheltered workshops. The final phase of the treatment plan is finding
suitable permanent housing for the residents. Y-Haven is unique in that
residents can stay for up to two years. Many of the residents have
experienced such severe physical, mental and spiritual trauma that they need
adequate time to heal. To be considered for admission into the Y-Haven
program, candidates must be homeless males, 18 years or older who agree to
participate in primary treatment, as well as mental health treatment if
deemed necessary.

The production is supported by funding from The Nathan Cummings Foundation
and The California Community Foundation.

The mission of Cleveland Public Theatre is to foster a more conscious and
compassionate community through the arts.

Cleveland Public Theatre and its artistic and education programs are
supported in part by The Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation,
Ohio Arts Council, Greater Cleveland Community Shares, Jakprints, The Free
Times, D.H. Ellison Architects, Forest City Enterprises, Theatre
Communications Group, CoolCleveland.com, National Endowment for the Arts,
Nord Family Foundation, John P. Murphy Foundation, Kulas Foundation,
Bruening Foundation, Codrington Foundation, Giant Eagle Foundation, Thomas
White Foundation, Community Foundation of Greater Lorain, Family Foundations
of Jewish Community Federation, The Dolphin Trust, Saint Ann Foundation,
William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Foundation, Stocker Foundation, Key
Foundation, Nordson Foundation, Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, The
Heartland Arts Fund, Wolf Family Foundation, The Gerson Foundation, The
Meisel Family Foundation, The Doll Family Foundation, Raymond John Wean
Foundation, The Ellie Fund, Cyrus Eaton Foundation, Greater Cleveland
Community Shares, Alcoa Foundation, Capezio/Ballet Makers Foundation, Nathan
and Regina Herman Foundation, Hankins Foundation, Wolpert Fund of the
Cleveland Foundation, The Cleveland Browns Foundation, The Cleveland Plain
Dealer, City Architecture, Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan, & Aronoff LPA, Ron
and Deborah Ratner, Joan Horvitz, Roe Green Foundation, Fifth Third Bank,
Huntington National Bank, National City Bank, Marous Brothers Construction,
Stewart and Donna Kohl, and other corporate and individual contributors.

Please note that all programming, times and locations are subject to change.

Performance & Post-Show Discussions Schedule

Wednesday, November 24     7:30 PM Agents and Assets
Post performance discussion:  Ed Orlett, 2002 campaign manager for
Proposition 1, the “treatment not jail” initiative on the Ohio ballot,
speaks on the impact of the war on drugs on Ohio’s communities.  Brian
Stefan-Szittai, Director of the Inter Religious Task Force, and Cleveland
Attorney Maria Smith on the impact of the war on drugs in Central America
and Columbia.

Friday, November 26     8:00 PM Agents and Assets
Post performance discussion:  Alfred McCoy, historian, University of
Wisconsin, author of The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, speaks on the
current drug trade in Afghanistan; journalist Dan Forbes on the national
propaganda campaign to defeat drug reform. Tony Vento, Director, Inter-Faith
Council, on the impact of the war on drugs in Central America and Columbia.

Saturday, November 27     8:00 PM Agents and Assets
Post performance discussion:  journalist Dan Forbes, Cleveland Attorney
Myron Watson, and Brian Davis, Director Northeast Ohio Coalition for the
Homeless, speak on the organized governmental opposition to drug reform in
Ohio and the impact of the war on drugs in urban communities.

Sunday, November 28     3:00 PM Agents and Assets
Post performance discussion: journalist Dan Forbes speaks on drug policy
reform and the reaction against it.   Reverend Charles Hurst, Pastor, North
Presbyterian Church, on the impact of the war on drugs in Central America
and Columbia.  Rickey Mantley, Los Angeles Community Action Network, on
community organizing for social change.

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