Challenging + relevant; reimagining Antigone | Jeanette Ol-Suk Yew | TEDxSBU

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Challenging + Relevant; Reimagining Antigone is a presentation on how I used contemporary performance practices with students as a process to help them to find and use their own voice while creating a performance. Through this process, it also gave them courage to be a WEAPON for social change or an influencer of social values as theater intended to accomplish.

Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew is a NYC based theater designer and generative artist in contemporary performances that are genre blending. She received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts and is currently with the Department of Theatre Arts at SBU. Since arriving at NYC, Jeanette has devised many original projects that
were performed at St. Ann’s Warehouse, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, Dixon Place, Incubator Arts Project and was invited to the Prague Quadrennial (PQ) twice. Her most recent project, a multidisciplinary adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey titled: ARE THEY EDIBLE? was played to sold-out houses in NYC and was described as “bold and inventive.”
As an artist Jeanette has received support from the Jim Henson Foundation, the Urban Artist Initiative/NYC Fellowship, Artist Trust’s GAP program, Queens Council on the Arts’ Queens Arts Fund, the Puppeteers of America Rose Endowment Fund, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Puffin Foundation, and FAHSS from Stony Brook University. She is also a recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program.
At SBU, Jeanette brings her process in creating unique and original performances to the classroom. She believes this approach allows students to synthesis global topics such as immigration and terrorism with theatrical devices. The students learned to research, write, design and performed the materials. At a result, they not only gain skills in the performing arts but also learn how to infuse their own voices into every aspect of the creation process. With SB students Jeanette has created Perfect Union and Antigone.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)