LIVES OF THE PERFORMERS, PART II: A PORTRAIT OF JASON

On December 3, 1966, director Shirley Clarke invited a small crew to her apartment at the Hotel Chelsea to make a film. What came of the night was Portrait of Jason, a groundbreaking work of cinema verité that is now known as one of the seminal documentaries on the LGBTQIA+ experience and the most influential films in cinema. Captured over a single evening, the portrayal of a gay African-American hustler and aspiring cabaret performer Jason Holliday interrogated race, class and sexuality in ways that were and still are ahead of its time. Now Hilton Als, renowned theatre critic for The New Yorker and the Gardner’s Visiting Curator for the Performing Arts, has adapted the film into a stage drama that captures the intimacy, vulnerability and rawness of the original film while probing power and the price of storytelling itself. Join us for a creative exploration of the life, loves, and work of a man who, in this candid and raw film, brilliantly navigated between truth and performance. As in Als’ other work, the author and director means to celebrate and emphasize Isabella Gardner’s commitment to the art of performance, and curation as spectacle.