Plays & Productions
BOLA BLUE-EYES
Bola, a young Nigerian girl with blue eyes living in LA, comes to realize the conflicting responses to her mother's passed-down trait. She must decide if she will celebrate her Black-girl-blue-eyes inheritance or shun its attachment to skeptical superstitions.
THE WOODINGLE
PUPPET SHOW
with Host Mr. C, as Constructed by Mr. Asinine,
with Calculations and Articulations of the Genius Sort:
Mr. C, an elderly Black puppeteer, presents a show for two women--one Nigerian and one mixed--competing for a condo in a wealthy Black community. When the women learn that acceptance requires admitting to sightings of the imaginary, they must confront their own biases and self-perceptions. This play adapts the Spanish Golden Age interlude The Marvellous Puppet Show by Miguel de Cervantes within the framework of contemporary Black authenticity.
SOWN:
Jones and Zora, young Black homeowners, find themselves at odds with their middle-class community when they decide to confront a strict American-only policy by planting a native African violet. While they initially defend this blatant infiltration of a monolithic landscape, a cycle of push-back and copy-cats eventually entangles them in madness. They must decide if they wish to stand up for the roots they’ve sown, or tear them down to maintain the status quo. This story explores the nightmare of contemporary oppression by placing its audience into a middle-class dream-home-turned-battlefield.
CHISEL:
Sal is a seventeen-year-old African American with albinism who made a wrong choice and has landed himself in a juvenile detention center. Alice, a young biracial Tanzanian art student working on her thesis project, is given the chance to meet with Sal and sculpt him. What begin as awkward getting-to-know-you conversations lead to much more than just an art project: they are forced to confront their own racial insecurities in order for their partnership to progress. From flirtation to confusion to argument, the interaction between these two young people explores the universality of social isolation and juxtaposes African albino killings with the contemporary executions of Black Americans.
DENIM:
In 1996—two years after the supposed end of apartheid in South Africa—Levi’s was one of the first multinational corporations to re-initiate business with the newly-desegregated country. Within this backdrop, fictional white American Tom and Black South African Sammie find themselves paired together for the first interracial photo shoot post-apartheid, set in Bakersfield, California. Their interaction begins smoothly enough with an adjustment to “the other” on friendly terms, but a naïve request from one of the pair leads to a painful confrontation of unwarranted assumptions.
ETHIOP-ICA:
African-American Lily and black South American Noe are on a date at an Ethiopian restaurant in L.A. for their one-year anniversary. Noe has brought Lily to this particular restaurant because he wants her to connect with her roots, and this causes her to feel insulted. What ensues is a tug-of-war between the perception of Africa for blacks in the U.S. and South America, as well as a dialogue about food, culture, and relationships.
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Festival blog
BUNK:
BUNK is the story of Nigerian Ade and African-American Wade, competitors for a single job position at a construction site. As they work together for an in-process observation interview while building a bunk bed, they must confront the misconceptions they have about each other's backgrounds if they are to be able to successfully build the bunk. This story confronts the limited nature of stereotypes and the tragedy of their perpetuation from outside sources.
TETHER:
TETHER is the story of teenage mixed-race twins and tetherball-players Lach and Lam. Both of their parents are biracial, and Lach is white in appearance while Lam looks black. When an unexpected event occurs, they must confront the contrasting societal response to their mixed-race predicament if they are to keep the balance of their game.
nat&EM:
nat&EM is an imagined romance between singer Nat King Cole and poet Emily Dickinson. The play's conceit is that both characters suffer from a limited language disability in which he can only speak words from the classic song "Mona Lisa" and her only dialogue is from the words of the poem "Narrow Fellow in the Grass." When their dangerous interracial love is challenged by society, it is up to the young mixed-race Scribe to encourage the bravery of their dangerous union.
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Cal Arts Blog.
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Living out Loud L.A. Review
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Pepperdine Review
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L.A. Female Playwrights Alliance Podcast
