Breaking Through the Cultural Apartheid
by Jay Blotcher

Ulster County residents Bruce Grund, 79 and Michael Monasterial, 44, come from different worlds, but their love of theater and belief in its capacity for social change links them. After meeting initially at a Tuesday night workshop for playwrights at Art Society of Kingston on the Rondout, their ongoing discussions resulted in a partnership between their respective production companies, Grund’s Apocalypse Productions and Monasterial’s Passing the Torch through Arts.

The new hybrid has already borne fruit: a pair of socially explosive plays which will play nine times throughout the month of October at The Art Society of Kingston: When the Chickens Come Home to Roost and Recidivism, both directed by Grund.

When the Chickens Come Home to Roost concerns the symbiotic and later contentious relationship between civil rights leader Malcolm X and his mentor Elijah Mohammed which led to X’s assassination in 1965. In this Lawrence Holder play, Monasterial plays Malcolm X opposite Stephen M. Jones as the imperious leader of the American Muslim movement.

Recidivism is a play written by Monasterial. The coldly technical word, known to correctional officers and social behaviorologists, refers to incarcerated people who upon release, eventually slip back into crime. In this one-act, a father and son confront the social patterns and personal demons that caused their troubles. Recidivism stars local actors Keith Bullock, Joel Yimbo Jr., Ricky Cannon, Tom Andriello and Jalon Jones.

The two plays are linked by many themes concerning African-American life and a legacy of injustice. Yet more simply, both plays deal with the primal dynamic between a father and his son, whether biological as in Recidivism or spiritual as in Chickens. Veteran director Grund had a clear impetus for bringing these plays
to ASK. “I really believe that racism is alive and well in this country -- and that includes Kingston,” Grund said. These plays address the poisonous effects of racism, but also depict black lives, still an infrequent occurrence in local theater, Grund said.

“The ASK building stands across from two low-income housing projects,” Grund said. “Young and old people of color pass ASK ten times a day and will not come in.” By staging Chickens and Recidivism, Grund not only hopes to change the ASK audience dynamic, but also to provide inspiration to local youths.

“There is relevance [in Chickens] for today’s audience,” Grund said. He points out that Malcolm Little began his life not as an inspirational leader to millions, but as a petty criminal known as Detroit Red. “He was selling crack, pimping, robbing houses, and he turned himself around.”

Bruce Grund has always believed that theater could change minds. That is why
he has mounted shows wherever he can, whether on the stage of a small hole in the wall, or in the streets. [Most recently, he collaborated on the ImpeachMobile which participated in the Artists Soap Box Derby in Kingston.] For many years, Grund toiled in downtown New York City among fellow freedom fighters and unabashed old-school lefties. His early resume includes work with Bread & Puppet, reviewing local theater for underground papers and later shooting an award-winning documentary about the American involvement in Southeast Asia.
Theater was indivisible from his existence as a political activist; he helped organize a college tour for Judith Malina and Julian Beck’s The Living Theater. The message of the theater pieces was unequivocal: students must protest to end the Vietnam War.

“Many of the colleges erupted after theydid their performances,” he said.

When he left New York in 1985, Grund came to Ulster County. Employed as a social worker for the county, he again combined his twin passions of agitating for social justice and creating provocative theater. After adapting poetry by Harlem Renaissance avatar Langston Hughes for the stage, Grund wrote and produced a play called Crack Alley. He cast former addicts and other youths at risk in the production.

“It was a transformative experience,” Grund said. “Here they were being applauded for doing something that was positive, instead of ripping off somebody.”

Most recently, Grund directed a 2004 production of Howard Zinn’s Emma, a stage dramatization of the life of one of his heroes: the 20th-century social activist Emma Goldman, at Byrdcliffe Theater. Goldman was a fierce, uncompromising feminist, free speech activist, union organizer, and anarchist. An immigrant to the United States, Goldman worked to improve ghetto conditions and spoke out against the Great War. For her efforts, Goldman was finally deported to Russia in 1919. In a 2004 interview, Grund told me that the playwright gave him permission to streamline the epic play. “He trusted me to go ahead and interpret his work the best I can.”

Michael Monasterial was a jock at Yonkers’ Roosevelt High School in the late 70s. He was also class clown. A friend suggested he apply that natural talent to joining the drama club. Looking back, Monasterial understands the dynamics at the work. “When you have low esteem, you want to be someone else,” he said, “so acting and drama just fit in with that.”

After several high school productions, Monasterial graduated but kept his love of theater alive through college, resulting in the creation of his own acting company. Three Brothers Theater was established in 1984, while Monasterial also did daywork as a cameraman at the United Nations. He wrote several scripts and received local grants to stage them over the next seven years at local high schools and colleges. Often, the troupe only received stipends to cover gas money.

Monasterial pledged that his work would focus on upbeat messages. “I wanted plays with social significance,” he said. “Themes of independence, self-sufficiency and pride.” Monasterial, who is of mixed race [black, white and Puerto Rican] not only faced family problems at home, but admits that his life went off the rails at one point. While he declines to provide details, the misstep apparently involved either gang time or jail time or both, because Recidivism carries the bitter tang of prison talk and depicts the mounting passions that occur when testosterone behind bars clashes.

“All the material in this play is accurate,” he said, “down to the uniforms, language, lifestyle.”

Monasterial wrote Recidivism six years ago and first staged it for the members of a drug treatment program in the Westchester town of Valhalla. The audience, composed of former inmates, praised the integrity of the piece, telling the cast and playwright, “This is our story.”

While the prevailing message is that people should take responsibility for their actions, and break self-defeating patterns, Monasterial knows that preachy theater can be easily dismissed. “[Recidivism] is therapy,” he said, “but if it wasn’t good theater, no one would watch it.” His theatrical skills were honed at Manhattan’s famous HB Studio.

Monasterial has nurtured his current theater program, Passing the Torch through the Arts, while maintaining his own small construction company. As he did for Three Brothers, Monasterial mounts shows at schools and auditoriums for at-risk and low-income youth [“people with ambition but an inability to vent their frustrations,” he said]. Recent productions have been staged for members of the Boys & Girls Clubs and young parishioners from local black community churches. Monasterial strives for his company’s fiscally self-sufficiency.

Monasterial will return to ASK next February with a production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and then tour regional middle schools. There is talk of filming Recidivism in the old UlsterCounty Jail.

In an era where schools face shrinking budgets and are forced to jettison their arts programs, Monasterial sees Passing the Torch as a crucial resource. “There are so many bad choices out there,” he said, “so many dark paths these kids can take.”

Bruce Grund waxes optimistic about the potential of the partnership forged by the two theatrical companies.

“We both want to make sure we break through the cultural apartheid.”

When the Chickens Come Home to Roost and Recidivism at the Art Society of Kingston. Nine performances. Oct 17-20 and Oct 25-27 at 7:30 each evening. Tickets $20. The final two performances will be matinees on Oct 21 and Oct. 28 at 3pm, to benefit the group SCORE. For tickets to the Oct. 26 gala event, featuring food, jazz music and a community awards ceremony, call [845] 505-2517. Reservations [845] 790-0400.

Jay Blotcher’s first theatrical role was that of the alien Gax in 1971’s “Pandora’s Perilous Predicament” at Martin E. Young School in Randolph, Mass.