HERE Arts | James Scruggs in collaboration with Thomas Giovanni
Off the Record: Acts of Restorative Justice
April 5 - 19 2026
IN RESIDENCE:March 21 – 30, 2026
How do you face a world that fills you with anxiety, fear, and frustration?
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?
PERFORMANCE: April 5 – 19 2026
Sunday, 4/5 at 4 pm (PREVIEW)
Tuesday, 4/7 at 8:30 pm (PREVIEW)
Wednesday, 4/8 at 8:30 pm (PREVIEW)
Thursday, 4/9 at 8:30 pm (OPENING)
Friday, 4/10 at 8:30 pm
Saturday, 4/11 at 4 pm & at 8:30 pm
Sunday, 4/12 at 4 pm (MASK REQUIRED) (Post Show w/Legal Aid Society)
Tuesday, 4/14 at 8:30 pm
Wednesday, 4/15 at 8:30 pm
Thursday, 4/16 at 8:30 pm
Saturday, 4/18 4 pm & at 8:30 pm (Post Show w/Community Service Society of NY)
Sunday, 4/19 at 4 pm (Post Show w/Legal Action Clinic)
RUN TIME: 80-90 minutes
PRICE:
At IRT: 154 Christopher st. NYC #3B (third floor) | HERE Arts Center
ADA Accessible
PLEASE NOTE: All sales final and there is no late seating at IRT Theater.
VISIT/CONTACT US»
In this show, there are actors who play characters that represent different big ideas related to criminal justice. There is an Emcee who brings us into the show and sets up the idea that this is an interactive intervention into the American Criminal Justice system. Then, a character called The Conductor discusses her own questions about how to be an activist in the face of the oppression caused by the system. She shares facts and asks the audience to participate in some demonstrations about how the system works. We then meet a character named The Magician, who is a tool of the System, who takes the audiences through a magic card game that further reveals the contradictory and manipulative nature of the American Criminal Justice system. Lastly, we meet The System himself, who challenges the audience directly to offer ideas for how to reform the system. The characters and audience all participate in dialogue and debate around the question of whether reform is possible, and the show ends with this question lingering. There are videos of fire burning across the space, images of a historic lynching in which white onlookers are replaced by Black people.
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. One-on-one attorney consultations will also be available on-site for low-income individuals. Please note that these groups are 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.
We invite everyone to consider purchasing a Pay it Forward or Solidarity ticket to sponsor these free tickets. Options will appear at checkout.
IRT Theater is a grassroots laboratory for independent theater and performance in New York City, providing space and support to a new generation of artists. Tucked away in the old Archive Building in Greenwich Village, IRT’s mission is to build a community of emerging and established artists by creating a home for the development and presentation of new work.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council; A.R.T./New York’s NYC Small Theatres Fund made possible with support from the Howard Gilman Foundation. Thank you to IndieSpace, and everyone who supports venues like ours in New York City.
ACCESS: IRT is a fully wheelchair-accessible facility. Please reach out to Kori Rushton if you have any accessibility questions or concerns, krushton@irttheater.org
PLEASE NOTE: All sales final and there is no late seating at IRT Theater.