To the Bone

By: Lisa Ramirez
Directed by: Lisa Peterson
Originally commissioned by: Working Theater

A Benefit Reading Hosted by V (formerly Eve Ensler), Rosa Clemente, and Maria Hinojosa
To support Rural & Migrant Ministry, an organization serving migrant farm workers in Sullivan County
December 7, 2020
7PM

Featuring the original cast of the critically acclaimed Cherry Lane Theatre production:
Dan Domingues, Liza Fernandez, Annie Henk, Paola Lazaro-Munoz, Lisa Ramirez, Gerardo Rodriguez, Xochitl Romero, Danny Wolohan

Simultaneously translated into Spanish by Valeria Avina
with Sound from Jill Du Boff Lerman

Inspired by actual interviews with immigrant workers in the poultry processing plants of upstate NY, TO THE BONE examines the very nature of equality and justice in contemporary America. This virtual reading of TO THE BONE will benefit Sullivan County migrant farm workers and their fight for a farm workers’ Bill of Rights.

Join us for an evening of art and activism spearheaded by playwright Lisa Ramirez that will be simultaneously translated in Spanish, and led by Guest Emcees V (formerly Eve Ensler), the Tony Award-winning playwright, activist and author of the Obie Award-winning theatrical phenomenon The Vagina Monologues and the critically acclaimed ‘The Apology’, Rosa Clemente, organizer, producer, independent journalist and scholar-activist, and Maria Hinojosa the Founder and President of Futuro Media Group and author of the recently released ‘Once I Was You’. 

All proceeds will benefit Rural & Migrant Ministry, a local service organization working to overcome the prejudices and poverty that degrade and debilitate people within rural New York by building communities that celebrate diversity, achieve true mutuality, and fight for dignity and opportunity to all.

Lisa Ramirez (playwright) EXIT CUCKOO (nanny in motherland), world- premiere produced by the Working Theater in NYC (Colman Domingo- director); ART OF MEMORY, 3-Legged Dog in NYC (Tanya Calamoneri- director). Pas de Deux (lost my shoe), Cherry Lane Theatre- Mentor Project (Bryan Davidson Blue- director); TO THE BONE, Working Theater commission; world-premiere produced by the Cherry Lane Theatre (Lisa Peterson-director). DOWN HERE BELOW, an adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s, THE LOWER DEPTHS, commission and world-premiere by the Oakland Theater Project (Michael French- director). IN THE MOUNTAINS, commissioned by The Workshop Theater (Thomas Cote-́ director). Currently working on two different scripts for TV and a commission of, sAiNt jOaN (burn/burn/burn), an adaptation for the Oakland Theater Project, where she serves as Associate Artistic Director. A veteran actor, Lisa has performed at many theatres in NYC and regionally, including the Vineyard Theatre, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Rising Phoenix Rep, Atlantic Theatre, the Cherry Lane Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, INTAR, Working Theater, Playmakers Rep, Berkeley Rep, Magic Theater, Ubuntu Theater Project and many more. TV/Film credits: FOR LIFE, ALMOST FAMILY, THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT, KABUL.

V (formerly Eve Ensler)(Guest Emcee)  is the Tony award winning playwright and author of the Obie award winning, theatrical phenomenon, The Vagina Monologues translated into 48 languages, performed in 140 countries along with many other plays. She is the author of a number of books including her latest best sellers, The Apology and In the Body of the World as well as The New York Times best seller, I am an Emotional Creature. She starred on Broadway in The Good Body, and most recently Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club in In the Body of the World. Most recently, she helped create That Kindness: Nurses in Their Own Words presented by BAM in accordance with theaters all across the country.   She is founder of V-Day, the 22-year-old global activist movement which has raised over 120 million dollars to end violence against all women all women (cisgender and transgender), those who hold fluid identities, nonbinary people, girls and the planet—and founder of One Billion Rising, the largest global mass action to end gender-based violence in over 200 countries,  as well as a co-founder of City of Joy. She writes regularly for The Guardian.

V photo Credit: Paula Allen

Rosa Alicia Clemente is a Black-Puerto Rican woman born and raised in the Bronx, NY. She is an organizer, producer, independent journalist and scholar-activist. Rosa was the first ever Afro-Latina women to run for Vice-President of the United States in 2008 on the Green Party ticket. She and her running mate, Cynthia McKinney, were to this date the only women of color ticket in American presidential history. She is a frequent guest on television, radio and online media, as her opinions on critical current events are widely sought after. As president of Know Thy Self Productions, she has produced several major community activism tours over the last 20 years. As a co-founder and national coordinator of the first ever National Hip-Hop Political Convention in 2003, Rosa helped bring together more than 3000 activists to create and implement a national political agenda for the Hip-Hop generation. She also co-founded the REACH Hip-Hop Coalition, a Hip-Hop generation-based media justice organization.

Maria Hinojosa (Guest Emcee) dreamt of a space where she could create independent, multimedia journalism that explores and gives a critical voice to the diverse American experience. She made that dream a reality in 2010 when she created Futuro Media, an independent, nonprofit newsroom based in Harlem, NYC with the mission to create multimedia content from a POC perspective. As Anchor and Executive Producer of the Peabody Award-winning show Latino USA, distributed by PRX, and Co-Host of Futuro Media’s award-winning political podcast In The Thick, Hinojosa has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad.

Since 1981 Rural & Migrant Ministry, a statewide, non-profit organization, has been standing proudly with the rural and migrant communities throughout New York. We act to overcome the prejudices and poverty that degrade and debilitate people within rural New York by building communities that celebrate diversity, achieve true mutuality and fight for dignity and opportunity to all. We work with rural leaders, both young and older, who are committed to equality and cooperative opportunity, especially within agricultural systems. We also support people in faith, labor and university communities who seek to stand with rural leaders as allies.