Liberal Arts

by Ken Kaissar

When risqué photographs of college students are found in a professor’s desk, one professor, outraged by the lack of action, is determined to see justice served. She mobilizes the faculty, writes letters and gives interviews to keep the story alive. But she fails to take two major details into account: all of the photographed students are overweight, and all are of Middle-Eastern descent. The public becomes...

When risqué photographs of college students are found in a professor’s desk, one professor, outraged by the lack of action, is determined to see justice served. She mobilizes the faculty, writes letters and gives interviews to keep the story alive. But she fails to take two major details into account: all of the photographed students are overweight, and all are of Middle-Eastern descent. The public becomes less concerned with justice for one student, and more concerned with body shaming and threats of global terrorism.

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Liberal Arts

Recommended by

  • Jack O'Keeffe: Liberal Arts by Ken Kaissar
    “

    A biting, blistering lambasting of collegiate culture, institutional failings, objectification, and punishment (or lack there of) amidst a flurry of explorations of gender and race. Despite being so thematically dense, never loses grip on its characters and its zero-to-60 in record time pace.

    A biting, blistering lambasting of collegiate culture, institutional failings, objectification, and punishment (or lack there of) amidst a flurry of explorations of gender and race. Despite being so thematically dense, never loses grip on its characters and its zero-to-60 in record time pace.

    ”
  • Rachael Carnes: Liberal Arts by Ken Kaissar
    “

    Cracking dialogue plunges us right into the cold, deep end of academia, where an indiscretion blows up, leaving corpses and collateral damage. Kaissar explores the murky depths of institutional betrayal, picking at the inequities inside gender, race and power dynamics, as thoughts and ideas and worlds unravel. A chilling tragedy, that goes down so easy.

    Cracking dialogue plunges us right into the cold, deep end of academia, where an indiscretion blows up, leaving corpses and collateral damage. Kaissar explores the murky depths of institutional betrayal, picking at the inequities inside gender, race and power dynamics, as thoughts and ideas and worlds unravel. A chilling tragedy, that goes down so easy.

    ”
  • Cheryl Bear: Liberal Arts by Ken Kaissar
    “

    A bold and needed look at the culture of body shaming and bigotry as society erodes. Well done.

    A bold and needed look at the culture of body shaming and bigotry as society erodes. Well done.

    ”
View all 6 recommendations

Development History

  • Workshop, The Phoenix Theatre Company, 2019
  • Reading, Wordsmyth Theater Company, 2016