Panel Discussion & Marathon Reading of Kafka’s “The Trial”

These events are in response to the cancellation of Polish director Krystian Lupa’s adaptation of The Trial, which was scheduled to perform at NYU Skirball on March 7 & 8, 2020. In December 2019, the Polish Cultural Ministry withdrew promised financial support for the production and its 46-person company, making it impossible to travel to New York as planned. As Mr. Lupa states: “The declaration… is clear: Artists who do not sympathize with the current leadership’s cultural policy, who criticize its values, decisions and actions will be treated as enemies of Poland and will not be supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in any form.” Read more about the production, our press release on its cancellation, and the full statement from Mr. Lupa.

NYU Skirball joins with The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, PEN America, CUNY’s Segal Center and the Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies Working Group at NYU to present this special all-day event – in defiance of attempts to silence these artists, and in protest of political corruption, government censorship, and social malevolence.

1PM: PANEL: “ART IN DANGER, ARTISTS AT RISK”

RSVP is recommended but not required.

A panel conversation around Kafka’s The Trial, censorship, artistic freedom, and artists at risk, in relation to the continuing global rise of right-wing and populist politics.

Monika Fabijanska, Former Director of the Polish Cultural Institute in New York
Holly Hughes, Professor at the University of Michigan’s Stamps School of Art and Design
Felix Kaputu, Resident “Writer at Risk” at Fordham University
André Lepecki, NYU Performance Studies Professor and Chairperson
Krystian Lupa, Director
Julie Trébault, Director, Artists at Risk Connection, PEN America

Moderated by Catharine R. Stimpson

3PM: “THE TRIAL” MARATHON READING

The reading will be continuous from 3PM to approximately 9:30/10PM. Stop in anytime; the audience is welcome to come and go throughout the event.

Guest readers include Salman Rushdie, Kathleen Chalfant, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Zadie Smith.