Lectures and Workshops

Jerry Levy has been teaching sociology at Marlboro College since 1975.  In conjunction with his performances Jerry Levy gives lectures, leads discussions and conducts workshops relating the themes of the plays to current events, education, contemporary and classical sociological thought, community  activism, history, foreign policy, globalism, poverty and development in third world countries. Ideal for high schools, colleges, universities,  and other social centers, organizations or institutions interested in stimulating a dialogue,  our lectures, discussions and  workshops can be designed to address the needs of your curriculum and or mission.

Please find below, a sample of our  MARX IN SOHO, THE FEVER, & Performing Arts related Lectures:

_ Marx - The Person and The Social Theorist.
The relevance of Marx’s ideas and life to the tumultuous world we live in today.  What can we learn from his life and his family as we face an uncertain future?  How can Marx’s ideas be used to understand a complex and rapidly changing world. What is the relevance of Marx to a humanistic liberal arts curriculum?  How does Marx differ from other theorists of his time as well as contemporary thinkers?  What role did Marx play in  the development of sociological thought?  Was Karl Marx a Marxist?

- The Dialectics of Theater and Social Research.
The relevance of theater as a ritualistic methodology for exploring geographical and historical worlds.  The relationship between social research and theater as a basis for a deeper understanding of the human condition.

- One Person Solo Theater.   Production , performance and touring one man shows. The social ecology of solo and audience collaboration.

THE FEVER, Consumption and Poverty; A lecture on how Wallace Shawn’s play, THE FEVER, explores how the consumption addictions of the rich and the humanistic middleclasses sustain the condition of poverty

THE FEVER and Wallace Shawn’s critique of the arts; A lecture analyzing the question of whether or not the arts contribute to or prevent progress?

THE FEVER and ethics in the contemporary world. A lecture on the central question posed in Wallace Shawn’s THE FEVER. “Do people have a right to enjoy life in the midst of  mass-suffering. 

-The United States- its foreign policy and the world. The development of U.S. Foreign policy and its consequences for the  U.S and the world. What changes in global and domestic politics might be necessary for  the United States to achieve a more rational relationship with  other nations and regions.

Seeing Howard Zinn’s MARX IN SOHO and or Wallace Shawn’s THE FEVER is just a starting place. Explore the themes of these play further by having us design a lecture,  lead a discussion or run a workshop for you