The “Catches” project is a three-act experimental play that renders an alternative Tulsa history-specifically a convulsive, multi-day episode in it’s early 20th century history.

Ray Pearcey’s experimental three-act play, Citizen Brady Catches a Charge, is structured like a mock trial that allows community members to render judgment of W. Tate Brady. Pearcey interrogates the Tulsa business leader’s role as a Ku Klux Klan member and instigator of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. For each performance, a random set of Tulsans will build the jury and hear arguments made by the prosecution and defense. Except for the lead actors, these legal teams will be composed of actual legal professionals. Through this performance, the audience and the Tulsa “jury” members will decide whether to bring charges against Brady, reasserting the humanity of the victims of the Massacre and highlighting the notable absence of accountability in reckoning with the continued oppression of Black people in Tulsa and in the nation more broadly.

Featured Artist: Ray Pearcey