Interactive Scam Play
MONTH2MONTH was a series of public discussions and performances in private residences initiated by the artists William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton. As part of the Center for NYC Neighborhoods’ anti-scam campaign, I proposed an interactive play to MONTH2MONTH. The play was accepted and performed in May 2016. The play cast audience members as homeowners seeking a mortgage modification. Center staff played a variety of characters offering either “real” help or attempting to scam the audience members. The play sought to show the audience how hard it is to differentiate between true help and a scam, in order to minimize the stigma of being scammed and raise awareness about free help available.
Role
Project Lead
Date
May 2016
Project Lead
In addition to creating and writing the proposal, I was the project lead for the play. This included:
Drafting roles for the audience
Creating roles for Center staff
Preparing staff
Creating materials for use in the play, including mortgage modification documents
Played the role of Agent of Homeowner Mortgage Help, Inc.
“...anyone interested in the intersection of class, race, money, and life, and in experiencing a rare meeting of art world and real world, might want to give MONTH2MONTH a shot.”
Project Context
Through a lottery conducted in Winter of 2016, the public was invited to participate in curated short-term stays in exemplary ‘luxury’ and ‘affordable’ housing units in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The stays were underscored by a month-long series of happenings that examined art’s uncomfortable relationship to real estate development and neighborhood change. MONTH2MONTH aimed to build a platform for discussions about how class, wealth, and social mobility affect people’s ability to live in New York City.