OFF THE RECORD: Acts of Restorative Justice is a performance, intervention, and invitation to walk an energizing path from despair to agency. When the American Criminal Justice System holds all the cards, one woman decides to question the game itself. Along the way, she enlists the audience in helping her fight against the forces of capital. The stakes are the soul of the nation itself – what choice do we have but to walk by her side?

Created by former HARP artist and recent Guggenheim Fellow James Scruggs in collaboration with national criminal justice advocate Thomas Giovanni, OFF THE RECORD is directed by Michael Rohd, the founder/director of the Co-Lab for Civic Imagination at the University of Montana, and Annalisa Dias, HERE Co-Director and co-founder of Groundwater Arts. Co-commissioned by Art2Action.

As part of Off the Record, HERE will be partnering with representatives from legal service providers. After select performances, these groups will provide information sessions on record clearance options in New York, including the new Clean Slate Act! One-on-one attorney consultations will also be available on-site for low-income individuals. Please note that Legal Aid is not able to clear records on-site. 

In order to ensure that these performances remain accessible to systems impacted individuals, free tickets are available to anyone who self-identifies as such, with the code OTRFREE at checkout. 

ABOUT THE LEAD ARTIST: James Scruggs is a writer, performer, producer, screenwriter, who creates large-scale topical, theatrical, multi-media and virtual work focused on inequity or gender politics. In 2018, he created a site-specific immersive, interactive, satirical work commissioned by The High Line, …”MELT!”. He was awarded a 2015 MAP Grant and a 2016 Creative Capital Grant, to create 3/Fifths. Performed in May 2017, it was a fully immersive, interactive ethno-theme park, exploring race and racism called SupremacyLand. His November 2017, “3/Fifths Trapped in a Traveling Minstrel Show” was about how unarmed black men are still feared and legally killed. It received an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Fringe Production in Boston. He recently produced and performed a virtual piece exploring the limited choices that people trapped in the World Trade Center were faced with, called “Severe Clear.” James Scruggs is an active member of The Filmshop Writers Den and the Harlem TV Writers Group. He was selected as one of 18 writers to bring an original theatrical work to The Apollo in the Spring of 2022. He is currently working on a theatrical/social justice piece, “Off The Record,” where effects of mass incarceration are confronted head-on. In 3 cities, NYC, Boston, and Tampa, Fl. 3-5 BIPOC with criminal records will be identified, paired with a lawyer and have their records expunged, and their stories will be shared theatrically. James Scruggs has a BFA in Film from the School of Visual Arts. www.jamesscruggs.com.