This is the second episode of Let Me Ascertain You is drawn from “Flops, Failures and Fiascos,” an original cabaret that explored and celebrated disasters of all shades as told by those who have survived the shame, horror and glory of failing big. “Flops, Failures and Fiascos,” was curated by 2015-16 R&D Group directors Sanaz Ghajar and Colette Robert and featured interviews conducted by the Civilians’ Field Research Team. This episode features two original songs and a story about extra spec...
Sep 02, 2016
This episode of Let Me Ascertain You is drawn from Flops, Failures and Fiascos , an original cabaret that explored and celebrated disasters of all shades as told by those who have survived the shame, horror and glory of failing big. Flops, Failures and Fiascos was curated by 2015-16 R&D Group directors Sanaz Ghajar and Colette Robert and featured interviews conducted by the Civilians’ Field Research Team. In this episode we hear two original songs and a pair of intertwined monologues all sur...
Jul 29, 2016
This episode of Let Me Ascertain you is the third and final installation of “The Way They Live,” the final performance of the Civilians’ season-long residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “The Way They Live” was written by Micharne Cloughley, based on interviews Civilians associates and members of the company’s Field Research Team conducted with curators, artists and visitors in the Met’s American Wing between 2014 and 2015. This episode includes song crafted from interviews about three ar...
Mar 07, 2016
This episode of Let Me Ascertain you is the second of three culled from “The Way They Live,” the final performance of the Civilians’ season-long residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “The Way They Live” was written by Micharne Cloughley, based on interviews Civilians associates and members of the company’s Field Research Team conducted with curators, artists and visitors in the Met’s American Wing between 2014 and 2015. This episode includes monologues and a song crafted from interviews a...
Feb 01, 2016
This episode of Let Me Ascertain you is the first of three culled from “The Way They Live,” the final performance of the Civilians’ season-long residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “The Way They Live” was written by Micharne Cloughley, based on interviews Civilians associates and members of the company’s Field Research Team conducted with curators, artists and visitors in the Met’s American Wing between 2014 and 2015. This episode includes monologues and songs crafted from interviews abo...
Nov 23, 2015
For this episode of Let Me Ascertain You, we bring you back to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where The Civilians are artists in residence. As part of our research, we were wandering through some of the museum's halls like the Petrie Court, looking at nude sculptures that fill that space, like Jacques Sarazin’s gentle Leda and the Swan and Antonio Canova’s indifferent Paris. Surrounded by such a rich history of the representation of the human form, we questioned how the human body and wh...
Mar 25, 2015
On this special podcast, we're back inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, investigating within the halls and installations of this iconic museum. Focusing on beauty, sex, love, and the body for this Let Me Ascertain You episode, we asked the curators to speak on these topics in relation to the artworks and share the compelling histories behind them. This past September, we turned their interviews into monologues and songs, which we then performed in the Petrie Court Cafe at the Muse...
Mar 05, 2015
What you’re about to hear has been workshopped and presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of The Civilians' artist residency. The performances come from interviews we did during our investigation for our upcoming musical, “Pretty Filthy,” about the ‘Other Hollywood’ in the San Fernando Valley...porn capital of the world. We went behind-the-scenes and interviewed countless directors, porn stars, agents and beyond. “Pretty Filthy” goes up at Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side i...
Jan 31, 2015
Welcome to the final episode of our Let Me Ascertain You series on sex and death. According to Freud, the death drive is the drive towards self-destruction and the return to the "inorganic." Eros on the other hand is the drive to create and be productive. This episode explores these often competing drives. First up we have the original song “We Could Always Try Counting Sheep!” written and performed by Andrea Grody based on an interview about “sexomina.” Then Cindy Cheung performs an interview w...
Aug 06, 2014
Let Me Ascertain You is back with the third episode in our series about all things sex and death related. In this episode we are leaning towards the sex side of the sex and death equation, looking at those elements of life that in one context might seem unpleasant or downright awful, but in another context can be well, kind of sexy. First, Dan Domingues performs an interview we did with Peter, a man who recounts how bondage became a path to self-discovery, and then Rebecca Hart performs Emily, a...
Jul 23, 2014
We are in the thick of exploring our competing sex and death drives, and that interesting space where the two overlap and even coalesce. In this episode, we are searching for the "white light," that surreal experience that can really open happen in sex or death, when we glimpse the soul. First up is actor Parker Drown performing Trevor, an NYC “rent boy,” followed by Jeanine Serralles performing Kelli Dunham, a writer/performer with the tag line “Everyone’s Favorite Ex-Nun, Genderqueer, Nerd Com...
Jul 09, 2014
Let Me Ascertain You is back with a new series examining two of The Civilians’ favorite fixations: sex and death. This first podcast in the series focuses on death as the ultimate turn-on. To start us off, we have Stephen Plunkett performing a monologue from an interview we did with famed porn director Craven Moorehead. Then we have Sam Breslin Wright performing an interview with Johannes, an Austrian who runs an arts/technology festival that buries people alive, aptly named, “The Six Feet Under...
Jun 25, 2014
This is our fourth and final episode of our Let Me Ascertain You: Sex Variants 1941, taking inspiration from a study conducted in the 1930’s by Dr. George Henry in which he interviewed a couple hundred individuals and cataloged data such as a complete family history with symbols to indicate who had what venereal disease, tuberculosis, alcoholism, who committed suicide, who was psychotic. We set some of these personal histories to song and brought others to life with monologues performed at Joe’s...
Apr 16, 2014
Welcome to episode three in our series Let Me Ascertain You: Sex Variants 1941. Recorded live at Joe’s Pub in New York City, this show takes its inspiration from the medical book Sex Variants: A study of Homosexual Patterns by Dr. George W. Henry. For each of his case studies, Dr. Henry recorded a detailed and intimate personal history, and we are sharing some of these with you now through performances by actors and in original songs. In between, you will sometimes hear Dr. Henry’s own introduct...
Apr 02, 2014
Hi! We’re back with the second episode of Let Me Ascertain You: Sex Variants 1941 recorded live here in NYC at Joe’s Pub. This series takes its inspiration from a 1941 medical book by Dr. George W. Henry. Subtitled "A Study of Homosexual Pattern," Dr. Henry classified these case studies as homosexuals, bi-sexuals, or narcissists. A little something for everyone. In this episode we’ll start off with the case study of Irene K., played at our live show by Kate Buddeke. The evening’s MC Trey Lyford ...
Mar 12, 2014
We’re kicking off a new series here at Let Me Ascertain You. These podcasts are taken from our live shows performed at Joe's Pub here in New York City, and our most recent show was called Sex Variants 1941. As you may know, our shows are typically inspired by interviews we do ourselves but for this one we are borrowing our inspiration from a medical study entitled Sex Variants: a study of homosexual patterns. The book is a collection of case studies conducted by Dr. George W. Henry of Cornell Un...
Feb 26, 2014
This is our fourth and final episode of “Let Me Ascertain You: Holy Matrimony” from our investigations into American Weddings. In celebration of the defeat of DOMA in the Supreme Court this past summer we decided to poke around in the grand old institution of marriage and then as we do with each of our Let Me Ascertain You shows, we have actors perform these verbatim interviews in front of a live audience. This show took place in our home away from home, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater. We’ll st...
Feb 05, 2014
We’re here with episode three of four podcasts of our Let Me Ascertain You: Holy Matrimony! series looking at all things about weddings. Our crew of artists talked to real-life couples as well as the people in the amazing and strange world of the wedding industry. And all these interviews were performed live by actors at Joe’s Pub in our hometown of New York City. Our first piece is a little bit of a twist: one of our Associate Artists Donnetta Lavinia Grays interviewed and will play here, her v...
Jan 22, 2014
We’re back with the second episode of Let Me Ascertain You: Holy Matrimony! For this series we did a deep dive into the wonderful world of weddings in America. Or maybe more like a face plant into a three tiered wedding cake. So with icing on our faces and hangover from too much cheap wine… here are a few more interviews performed by actors live at Joe’s Pub in New York City. In this episode, we’re going from Minnesota to the Mississippi Delta and then we’re going off the grid to a Hippy wedding...
Jan 09, 2014
We’re starting up a new series here at Let Me Ascertain You called “Holy Matrimony!" With DOMA getting taken down by the Supreme Court this past summer and with marriage equality spreading state by state, we thought it was a good time to look in our own Civiliansy way at that very special occasion – the wedding. For the past few months, our intrepid team of interviewers gathered stories from all over America for glimpses into weddings in a Vegas Wedding Chapel, a Courthouse in Louisiana, and eve...
Dec 11, 2013
This is our fourth and final episode of our Let Me Ascertain You: Be The Death of Me Series. These interviews are part of an ongoing investigation about death, dying and whatever comes after that. We talked to more than a hundred people so far, and many of these conversations centered on how we remember and how we memorialize those that we’ve lost. Maybe you’ve passed an entirely white bike chained up somewhere and wondered what it was. And maybe you guessed that it’s a memorial for a cyclist ki...
Nov 27, 2013
Here’s episode three in our new podcast series Let Me Ascertain You: Be The Death of Me. What you’ll hear are excerpts from a larger ongoing project about life, death, and whatever happens after that. As part of this investigation, our team spoke to those who work every day in matters of life and death — people who spend their days in the places that witness the demise of our bodies. We’ve put three of those stories together for this episode. To kick things off, here’s actor Peter Friedman perfo...
Nov 14, 2013
We’re back with the second episode of Let Me Ascertain You: Be The Death of Me. For this Civilians' project we took a prismatic look into the end of life and talked with a cross-section of New Yorkers - ER nurses, priests, funeral directors, vampires, shamans, crime-scene cleaners, and many ordinary people dealing with the extraordinary experience of loss. In this episode we share three of those stories. Actors Gardiner Comfort, Jennifer Morris, and Jeremy Shamos perform. The interviews for this...
Oct 30, 2013
We’re starting up a new series here at Let Me Ascertain You taken from a couple of live events we did recently about death. The show called “Be The Death of Me” is about facing that final curtain and maybe what lies on the other side. A small army of artists spent six months interviewing all sorts of people here in New York City. A cast of 33 brilliant actors performed these pieces at the Irondale Center in our home neighborhood of Fort Greene Brooklyn. And over the next few episodes, we’re goin...
Oct 16, 2013
Up next is our third podcast of our series "Let Me Ascertain You: LGBTQ All Out!" dedicated to sexuality and gender. For this episode, we've got another interview from a staffer at the Rainbow Heights Club in Brooklyn, an advocacy program for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender emotional recovery and wellness. You can learn more about them at rainbowheights.org. Samira Wiley performs Danee live in New York City at the Barrow Street Theater. Then, our next performance comes from an interview w...
Sep 11, 2013
We’re back with the second episode of Let Me Ascertain You: LGBTQ All Out recorded live at the Barrow Street Theater; actors perform various real people we interviewed about their experiences related to sexuality and gender. One of the groups who helped us out on this show was the Theater of the Oppressed NYC, they have an awesome theater troupe for queer homeless youth. We talked to one their troupe member Vincent and in this episode you’ll hear Jax Jackson perform that interview. Then actor Pe...
Aug 28, 2013
We’ve got a new topic here at Let Me Ascertain You that we're calling "LGBTQ All Out!” and it's all about those who have battled for, celebrated, and championed their sexual orientation and gender identity. We dig into the personal stories, struggles and triumphs of a group of individuals in the LGBTQ community. Here, our Associate Artists and special guests perform interviews that we conducted recently. This podcast was recorded live at Barrow Street Theater in NYC. In this episode you’ll hear ...
Aug 14, 2013
Now for the finale of our Occupy #S17 series! This episode contains recordings of a live performance of interviews with Occupy protesters that we presented at Joe's Pub for the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. First up is our Associate Artist Matt Dellapina performing a demonstrator named Alexander. Next up is Jahi Kearse as Sumumba. To close this episode out, we have Mary Kate O'Neil and Jill Sobule leading the evening's cast and musicians in a sing-along of Neil Young's protest song...
Mar 13, 2013
Here are more of our interviews from the Occupy Wall Street movement, presenting interviews we’ve conducted with activists since the beginning at of it all at Zuccotti Park on September 17, 2011. We created an event at Joe’s Pub in NYC and invited theaters, schools, and other non-profits from around the country to join us in performing an Occupy anniversary show simultaneously the night of the 17th. Here are some performances from our show in NY, starting with our Associate Artist Colleen Werthm...
Feb 27, 2013
Welcome to our third podcast episode commemorating the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. The Civilians conducted interviews with activists in the movement since its start last year at Zuccotti up to this one year anniversary on September 17, 2012 (referred to as #S17 in the Twitter-sphere). The first performance in this episode is by special Civilians guest-star David Cale of an interview with Carne Ross, a British Diplomat who gives us a different perspective on the movement. Next up ...
Feb 13, 2013
