IIT Chicago-Kent professors Jerry Goldman, Sheldon H. Nahmod, and Nancy S. Marder will speak in post-show conversations with Elevator Repair Service (ERS) theater company Director John Collins and the audience after performances of Arguendo, March 14 – 16, Edlis Neeson Theater at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 220 E. Chicago Avenue.

Arguendo is an innovative staging of oral arguments in Barnes v. Glen Theatre, a 1991 U.S. Supreme Court case in which go-go dancers challenged an Indiana law banning totally nude dancing on First Amendment grounds. The production is an 80-minute verbatim performance of oral arguments in the case augmented by a set design that includes projections of actual court documents on a screen behind the actors.

Photo Courtesy Joan Marcus

The play takes its name from a Latin term meaning “for the sake of argument” and its inspiration from Oyez®, a multimedia judicial archive at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. ERS Director Collins discovered the Oyez website and amassed a play list of cases on his iPod. The freedom of expression issues in the Barnes case intrigued Collins, who says oral argument is great theater.

Scheduled post-performance conversations with IIT Chicago-Kent faculty include:

●March 14 evening: Jerry Goldman, research professor of law, is the founder and director of Oyez. Professor Goldman is co-author of The Challenge of Democracy: American Government in Global Politics (Wadsworth), a best-selling textbook on American government.

Jerry Goldman

●March 15 matinee: Nancy S. Marder is director of the Justice John Paul Stevens Jury Center and co-director of the Institute for Law and the Humanities. Professor Marder was a law clerk for Justice Stevens when Barnes v. Glen Theatre was heard.

Nancy Marder

●March 16 matinee: Sheldon H. Nahmod, distinguished professor of law, is a well-known expert on First Amendment issues and civil rights. Professor Nahmod has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, he lectures regularly on civil rights matters to federal judges and attorneys. Professor Nahmod writes a law blog for general audiences on Section 1983, constitutional law, and other law-related topics at www.nahmodlaw.com.

Sheldon Hahmod

The evening performance begins at 7:30 pm. Matinee performances start at 3 pm. Tickets are $28 for the general public, $22 for MCA members, and $10 for students. For tickets and more information, visit www.mcachicago.org.

Elevator Repair Service is a New York City-based company that creates original works for live theater with an ongoing ensemble. Since its founding in 1991 by John Collins and a group of actors, ERS has built a body of work that has earned it a loyal following and made it one of New York’s most highly-acclaimed experimental theater companies.