Dixon Place presents the co-production of world-famous beatboxer and Drama Desk Award recipient Chesney Snow’s THE UNWRITTEN LAW opening Sunday, July 30th. Snow comes direct from his run in Broadway’s In Transit, where Ben Brantley of the NY Times called him “a one-man sound effects wiz.”. Detailing his life’s journey from his inherited legacy of incarceration to the responsibilities of fatherhood, homelessness to Harvard, and ultimately starring on the Broadway stage, THE UNWRITTEN LAW is an unforgettable evening of one man’s poignant story. Adeptly weaving his inspiring, deeply personal tale with original music, contemporary dance, stunning visual design, and his signature beatboxing skills, Snow brings to light over a century of his family’s history in the deep South. THE UNWRITTEN LAW, will play six performances only – Sundays July 30th, August 6th & 13th at 6:30pm and Mondays July 31st, August 7th & 14th at 7:30pm – at Dixon Place (161A Chrystie Street).

Dixon Place is hosting a really great, totally passionate, very well crafted and well developed performance in Chesney Snow’s The Unwritten Law, directed by Rebecca Arends. It is the story of Snow’s family history and cultural history, told through his choreopoetry with two super high-quality dancers dramatizing the events besides him. Snow tells the story of his family, in a nation of opportunity but plagued by deep racial oppression and segregation, and how he overcame the burden of this history yet still faces it everyday. From Jim Crow, through the 1980s, and up until today, Snow, through his lightly rhymed spoken-word melody with a cello and piano accompaniment, relates striking and moving events from his personal and family history with genuine optimism and sincere depth. He is an apt storyteller, but it is his passion that resonates. The movement element of the work, performed by Arends and Winston Dynamite Brown (Maleek Washington will take over the run henceforth), draws attention because it’s physically so impressive, but infrequently communicates beyond dramatization. So it’s wild entertaining, but doesn’t contribute to the meaning of the work. This would hold back some …Read more