Cop Out: Beyond Black, White & Blue

The August Wilson Red Door Project presents the world premiere of Cop Out: Beyond Black, White & Blue at Self Enhancement, Inc. 

Cop Out is a series of monologues based on interviews with police officers from across the country. The Red Door Project commissioned writers to interview cops, mostly officers of color, who are often caught in the middle of the complex conversation on racial profiling. The stories in Cop Out reflect this complexity and breadth of lived experience. The Red Door also solicited feedback from a broad spectrum of audiences who attended previews, and has used that feedback to help shape the opening on November 30th at SEI in North Portland.

Cop Out is the next step in the journey that began with the Red Door’s production of The New Black Fest’s Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments. Hands Up was written by seven Black playwrights about their experiences with police profiling in the wake of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson.  The Red Door’s production of Hands Up has been a phenomenon in Portland and other cities in the Northwest. Over 12,000 people have seen it and remarked on both its authenticity and power to open eyes and touch hearts.

Kevin Jones, the Red Door’s Co-Founder and Artistic Director, is after something more. The Red Door’s mission to change racial ecology through the arts is based on an approach to change that is not about taking sides. “Rather,” says Jones, “we believe that the best conditions for change exist if we’re open to listening to, and learning from, each other.” So Cop Out was developed to deepen the conversation.

One audience member who has seen both Hands Up and Cop Out said, “Red Door’s work got me in touch with a different way to be in the world, one that’s not about defining your worth by how ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ you are, but instead about just being human, and sharing and thinking and feeling with others.”

Don’t miss the premiere of this new play that has been described as a “challenging, moving, important evening of theater,” “powerful, transformative,” and “amazingly authentic.”

At a glance

What: Cop Out: Beyond Black, White & Blue

Directed by Kevin Jones, co-directed by Damaris Webb and Phil Johnson

Featuring performances by: Bryant Bentley, Joseph Peréz Bertót, Victoria Alvarez Chacon, Joseph Gibson, Christopher Hirsh, Julana Torres, and Andrea White

Monologues written by: Shepsu Aakhu, J. Nicole Brooks, Bonnie Ratner, Harrison Rivers, Andrea Stolowitz, and Ben Watkins

When: November 30 at 7:30 p.m., December 1 at 7:30 p.m., December 2 at 2:00 p.m.

Where: Self Enhancement Inc, 3920 N Kerby Ave, Portland OR, 97227

What else: Art should be accessible to all, and therefore tickets are pay-what-you-can. The suggested donation is $20, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

For tickets and more information: Visit copoutpdx.com