Tag: theatre

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How to Make Theatre During a Pandemic

Here’s a shot of the genius crew I get to remotely work with to make THE HOUSE OF THE NEGRO INSANE a reality. Despite the world premiere of the play being pushed back to 2021 (yes, I’m hopeful that society won’t completely collapse before then), CATF is moving ahead with the design phase, and something* will possibly happen this year.

Clockwise from top left: Tamilla Woodard, director; me; Johnathan Alexander, lighting design; Sharath Patel, sound design; Claire DeLiso, set design; Shane Ballard, costume design.

This is one of the most exciting times in the process for me, as the play officially moves out of my head and other folks start to shape the look, sound and feel of the production.

* I’m not sure what kind of something CATF has in the works for this year yet, but as soon as I can spoil whatever they’re scheming I will…

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CATF Virtual Sneak Peek

CATF Artistic Director Ed Herendeen

Forced to isolate, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival created a virtual gala on Facebook to announce their new season (including THE HOUSE OF THE NEGRO INSANE). Big up to the amazing actor David Toney, who bravely performed an excerpt from THOTNI into his phone. These are uncertain days, and despite the distance (all participants were in different locations) it was a welcome shot of hope to watch all these folks who are so committed to bringing theatre to the people.

CATF Artistic Director Ed Herendeen closed with these words: “We’re going to keep you posted. I will not give up hope that we do the festival this season, and if things don’t work out that way… you will see all six of these plays later… whether that means 2020 or 2021.”

More info on the CATF website.
Broadway World: CATF Reschedules 2020 Season.

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THE WHIP: the Great Slaver Bailout

Not only did I see some great shows while across the pond, I met Juliet Wilkes Romero, the very cool playwright of THE WHIP. I read about her play in the Guardian and immediately wanted to take the trip to Stratford-upon-Avon to see it (actually I had no clue how far The Royal Shakespeare Company’s base was from London, but it was more than worth the train ride).

From RSC’s page for the play:

As the 19th Century dawns, politicians of all political persuasions gather in London to abolish the slave trade once and for all.

But will the price of freedom turn out to be a multi-billion pound pay off to the slave owners? Even though such a bailout could drive the country into economic and political ruin?

Spoiler alert: the Brits paid out the equivalent of £20 billion to slave owners. But the question of the play isn’t if they paid it; it’s about how colliding forces allowed the ruling class to win at the expense of black and working-class Brits in the end. Check out the infamous (now deleted) HM Treasury tweet from 2018:

Gotta love the distorted affirmation: “… helped to pay to end the slave trade.” Not: you bailed out/paid off slave owners, you made the rich engaged in a brutal trade richer.

THE WHIP does an incredible job to bring this difficult, infuriating piece of history to life. Politicians love to use the old, tired talking point “how will we pay for it?” when it comes to things like free college, or healthcare for all; THE WHIP reminds us they can find a way to pay for anything — as long as it supports their own selfish interests.

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London 02.01.2020

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Just vaulted across the Atlantic for a week in London. From our base in Shoreditch we’ve planned to pack in as much Theatre as possible:

THREE SISTERS, the National

ENDGAME, the Old Vic

THE CANARY AND THE CROW, Arcola Theater

THE WHIP, Royal Shakespeare Company

From our night at the Old Vic:

Drinking in the wilds of the Old Vic bar.

 

 

The view of the Old Vic ceiling from our seats.

 

And from wandering around the hood:

 

 

 

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BURNERS, 2017

A small, amazingly talented crew of artists created a dystopian future in a black box theater for the 2017 production of my play BURNERS (director: Sara Wagner, scenic/prop design: Glenn Michael Baker, lighting design: Martha Carter, costume designer: Michael Mullen, sound design: Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski, helmed by producer Cece Tio).

And as you can see from the video I cut, the actors literally kicked ass every night for weeks.

Check out the BURNERS page for more video, photos and some in-world content.