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James Scruggs
125 Lafayette Place Plainfield, N.J. 07060 917 642 6495 [email protected] James Scruggs is an artist who creates challenging topical performance work addressing America’s weaponization of Black skin and oppression of the LGBTQ+ community. April 2024 Awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship March 2024 Commissioned by HERE Arts Center in association with CultureHub to produce a virtual live-streaming of work in progress excerpts from The American Reconciliation Commission Play, which was originally commissioned to be written by The Perelman Arts Center and was awarded a MAP Grant January 2023 Awarded the “Adding Justice Through The Arts Award from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers for making social justice theater. August 2022 Awarded a National Performance Network Creation and Development Fund Grant to create OFF THE RECORD: Acts of Restorative Justice, a theatrical piece that ACTUALLY changes lives by expunging criminal records. Commissioned by Arts Emerson, Art2Action and The Center at West Park for 2025 performances June 2022 Performed a character Issue-Man in an original site specific interactive work live on Juneteenth, commissioned by The Flea, NYC March 2019 Writer/Creator/Producer/Performer of A Voluptuary Life a solo work exploring the life of a sexually active senior citizen discovering great worth in his life as a non- breeder. It was awarded a MAP Grant. May 2018 Writer/Creator/Producer of MELT ! A site specific interactive mock rally commissioned by, and performed on The NYC Highline. Its “The year 2060, 17th Annual Post Racial America Day Rally” and the president of USA arrives and outlaws gender reveals and refuses to disclose their gender January 2018 Writer/Performer/Producer of Severe Clear; He worked at Windows on the World in the WTC and was on vacation on 9/11. It was an interactive Zoom experience exploring choices produced by Columbia University’s Digital Storytelling Lab. November 2017 Writer/Creator/Producer of Trapped in a Traveling Minstrel Show. This was a deconstructed minstrel show where unarmed black man shootings by policeman are viewed as subjectively as one would view a sculpture. It was Awarded an Elliot Norton Award in Boston for Outstanding Production Fringe Theater May 2017 Writer/ Producer/Creator 3/Fifths SupremacyLand a satirical ethno-theme park. Audience members chose a race, Black or White at the door for drastically different experiences. It was awarded a MAP Grant and a Creative Capital Award May 2014 Writer/Producer/Creator Deepest Man a theatrical work incorporating a 40’ 3D holographic projection surface to “bring” the audience underwater in an exploration of a man's insanity; he plunges his head into a sink and believes he is freediving. June 2011 Writer/Producer/Performer in Tickets to Manhood. and it was commissioned by Dixon Place, NYC. June 2010 Writer/Performer/Producer of Touchscape, performed at Dixon Place. It was awarded a residency at The Baryshnikov Arts Center. May 2008 Writer/Producer of Rus(h), commissioned by HERE Arts Center, performed at 3LD Art and Technology Center May 2005 Writer/Producer/Creator/Performer Disposable Men a multi-media work with radical audience interaction. Examining similarities Hollywood monsters and Black men share, the unfounded fear of, and perceived oversize negative attributes. It was Awarded the first ever 2005 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance and a Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Foundation Grant for a substantial upgrade in theatrical design. Education BFA School of Visual Arts / Film 1979 |