DEVISED & COMMUNITY-BASED WORK
WIDE OPEN
(A horror screenplay, written collaboratively with high school students in Harlem)
Four friends break into their high school one weekend to scare themselves silly with the story the bloodthirsty anatomy mannequin who escapes from the science room each night. None of them expect the night of terror that awaits them. Or do some of them know exactly what’s going to happen? As the bodies pile up, so do the clues that fill in the cracks of the legend that the girls thought they knew so well…
INKED FOREST
(A dance/theater piece, devised with young people living with HIV, through the WE-ACTx clinic in Kigali, Rwanda)
One morning, Nadine wakes up in Kigali, and discovers that her shoes have been replaced by a magic paintbrush. A wild adaptation of Harold and the Purple Crayon, in which a little girl paints herself to and through the farthest reaches of her own imagination, gets lost in the big city, and finds her way back home.
SPIN
(A dance/theater piece, devised with young people living with HIV, through the WE-ACTx clinic in Kigali, Rwanda)
A daisy-chain of fever-dreams, where giraffes and antelopes let you walk up beside them, authoritarian generals and school teachers rise to power and disappear, and one girl wishing upon a bar of soap turns the dust into an ocean.
TINGARAYO
(A musical theater piece devised with young people living with HIV, through the WE-ACTx clinic in Kigali, Rwanda)
A magical donkey, who can eat with a spoon and fork, takes a group of children on a high-adrenaline trip around the world.
HOW TO BUILD A RADIO
(A triptych of short plays, devised with young people living with HIV, through the WE-ACTx clinic in Kigali, Rwanda)
Three interlocking portraits of people trying to translate the legacies of a violent past into a kind and imaginative present. A cross-gender cast explores the dynamics between a husband and wife as they struggle to accept their daughter’s HIV status; a group of students mounts a clownish rebellion against the tyranny of colonial education; and without speaking, performers experiment with the tender mechanics of repurposing a machine that’s been used as a tool of war to fill the room with music.
COUMBA AM NDEYE, COMBA AMUL NDEYE
(coumba with mother, and coumba without)
(A dance/theater piece, devised with young people at the And Taxawu Talibé center in St. Louis, Senegal)
The beloved Wolof folktale--in which an orphan escapes from a life of serving her cruel step-mother with the help of her own integrity, a powerful sorceress, and three magic eggs--brought to life outdoors with live percussion and traditional Senegalese dance.