Credits

Anu Yadav (writer/performer)
Patrick Crowley (director/dramaturg)
Friends and Residents of Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg(advisory board)
The Cultural Development Corporation's Mead Theatre Lab program (production sponsor)
Bare Stage Productions, LLC (producing organization)

And special shout out to these following organizations who have been a part of the development of this play over the course of two years and it's relationship to community organizing:

Sol & Soul
The Poor People's Economic Human Right's Campaign (PPEHRC)
The University of the Poor
Manna CDC

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Anu Yadav (writer/performer) is a writer, performer and theater-based educator in Washington, DC. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Yadav was a 2000-01 Thomas J. Watson Fellow, during which she studied theatre towards social change in Brazil, India and South Africa. Yadav is a member of Friends and Residents of Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg, and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign. She is the winner of the 2006 Mayor's Arts Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist.

Patrick Crowley (director/dramaturg) is an emerging local playwright and director and longtime arts educator. Credits include, Reaching for Home, which he wrote and performed at the DC Hip Hip Theater Festival, and Let the Youth be Told: Us by Us, he directed and conceived at the DCAC. Upcoming shows include, The Other River, which he is co-writing with Karen Zacarias at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and Hip Hop Anansi, which he is directing and conceiving at Imagination Stage. He has also worked in various capacities with Woolly Mammoth, Young Playwrights, African Continuum and Rorschach Theatres. In 2003 he received a Young Artist Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Friends and Residents of Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg (advisory board) is a neighborhood watchdog group of low-income families, organizers, and concerned citizens organizing around issues of affordable housing in Washington, DC. It was formed in 1999 by residents of southeast DC's Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg public housing projects in response to the government-funded relocation efforts and demolition of their neighborhood. Friends and Residents is committed to: ensuring the rights of residents are upheld in the relocation process; maintaining contact with all 400 displaced families who now are scattered across the city; and organizing for the guaranteed right of re-entry to the newly-built community. Friends and Residents continues to advocate, educate, inform, and network with citizens facing similar displacement and other housing groups. The group is pleased to support the play 'Capers which inspires citizens about their human right to affordable housing.

The Cultural Development Corporation's Mead Theatre Lab program (production sponsor) is an intensive mentorship program for performing artists and independent theatre companies. Inaugurated with the production of 'Capers, the program provides theatre space, technical production support, and production mentoring. A panel of noted Washington, DC, theatre professionals selects the projects and provides guidance to the chosen producers. The result is an eclectic group of innovative, edgy productions and an environment in which emerging performing artists can grow. Production sponsorship is made possible thanks to the generous support of Gilbert and Jaylee Mead.

Flashpoint, a CuDC project, is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary arts space dedicated to nurturing emerging artists and cultural organizations in order to build their professional capacity. Flashpoint provides services and training for cultural organizations to strengthen their management capacity and offers exhibit and performance spaces that enable arts groups to focus on their artistic goals and expand their visibility. Flashpoint includes a contemporary art gallery, the 75-seat Mead Theatre Lab, the Coors Dance Studio and shared office space. In a typical week, a dramatic reading in the theatre, a rehearsal for a modern dance piece and cutting-edge contemporaryinstallations in the gallery enliven Flashpoint's spaces actively defining it as a true creative laboratory.

Bare Stage Productions, LLC (producing organization) is the business structure for Anu's creative endeavors, begun in the winter of 2005.

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And special shout out to these following organizations who have been a part of the development of this play over the course of two years and it's relationship to community organizing:

Sol & Soul is a Washington, DC-based arts organization that acts as an incubator for established and emerging artists of conscience. We do this by bringing together artists from various disciplines with activists, community organizations, schools, and other individuals from a wide range of cultural/class/age backgrounds to create, produce, and present creative works with a social conscience.

The Poor People's Economic Human Right's Campaign (PPEHRC) is committed to uniting the poor across color lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty. We work to accomplish this through advancing economic human rights as named in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights- such as the rights to food, housing, health, education, communication and a living wage job.

The University of the Poor is the educational arm of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) and is concerned with the unity and development of the leaders of a growing movement to end poverty. Since its inception, the University of the Poor has shared education tools with grassroots anti-poverty groups across the nation, has helped link media professionals, performing artists, social workers, members of the religious community and labor organizers with the movement to end poverty, and has facilitated the exchange of knowledge between poor people and their allies across the globe.

Manna CDC In its short history, Manna CDC has distinguished itself as one of a few organizations in Washington, DC that moves beyond service provision to build sustainable community capacity and leadership so that low-income people of color can speak for themselves. The CDC promotes leadership that does not tell others what to do, but helps them take charge to build their abilities and skills; it is not about being the leader, but about building more leadership in the community to increase capacity for the long term. Finally, Manna CDC recognizes that leadership cannot exist without the support and power of the whole community. Central to Manna CDC's leadership style is the identification and dismantling of systemic influences such as racism, classism and sexism that manifest both individually and institutionally.

'Capers was first presented as a staged reading November 3-6, 2004 by Sol & Soul.

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