WPCNR STAGE DOOR. From Purchase College. September 25, 2006: Purchase College and its Neuberger Museum of Art present a multimedia theatrical performance of Crossing the BLVD: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in a New America, September 28 at 4:30 PM in the Humanities Theater of the Durst Family Humanities Building. Admission is $6, $3 for Museum members. For more information, call 914-251-6100. Purchase College is located at 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY. Here's the scoop on this unique locally produced perfomrance:

The performance features monologues, images and sounds portraying the struggles, humor and pathos of new immigrants and refugees living in the most polyglot place on the planet with character actress/audio artist Judith Sloan and artist/writer Warren Lehrer, who is also a professor of art and design at Purchase. A discussion moderated by Asian Studies Professor Renqiu Yu and a reception will follow the performance.

As immigration policy is being debated around the country, Crossing the BLVD sheds light on the experiences of people who came to the United States after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act Amendment mandated an end to immigration policies that favored white Western Europeans.

In the performance, Sloan and Lehrer present the very human stories of why people continue to migrate to this country and what their experiences have been since they came here pre- and post-9/11. Lehrer is the tour guide providing commentary and perspective as Sloan channels over 30 people they met on their three-year journey around the world through the borough of Queens.

Their performance is illuminated by projections of Lehrer’s photographs of the subjects, objects they have carried with them from home to home, landscapes and maps, along with Sloan’s soundtrack of original music, sounds and voices.

Crossing the BLVD is the winner of the 2004 Brendan Gill Prize, which recognizes innovative artistic responses to urban life and is awarded by the Municipal Art Society.  

The event is produced in conjunction with the Crossing the BLVD exhibition of photographs, stories and sounds currently on view at the Neuberger Museum of Art through January 7, 2007.

The performance is co-produced by EarSay with support from the Elias Foundation.