Folklore as Communication

I had the great pleasure of spending a couple of hours with 25 energetic and determined young professionals from various countries in sub-Saharan Africa.  The topic was Folklore as Communication.  We engaged in dialogue around the varied definitions of folklore but the highlight was the creation of their own Origin stories.  There was music, dance, call and response, testimony, pain and laughter.  Thank you Department of African Studies for hosting the Mandela Washington Fellows in the Civic Leadership Institute.  I received much more…

Potluck & Play

Potluck & Play is a series of play readings hosted in my home with good people, good stories and good food.  I utilize these readings to engage with new material and/or prepare for full production. Next Up: A reading of Adam P. and Adrienne Kennedy's Sleep Deprivation Chamber in preparation for its full production at The Station Theatre in the spring of 2017.

Water and the Common Good

I facilitated a workshop hosted by Prairie Rivers Network with the support of the Illinois Speaks micro-grant through Illinois Humanities. Working with the local Girl Scout troupe in Springfield, the workshop was shaped around the issue of a just transition from coal to alternative energy sources - the people affected and the coal ash left behind.

Texas Theatre Journal

My performance review of SPILL by Leigh Fondakowski (TimeLine Theatre, Chicago) is published in the 2016 issue of Texas Theatre Journal. SPILL documents the community affected by the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill of 2010.  

Rethinking Fanon

Rethinking Fanon was a day-long workshop hosted by Planners Network.  I led an Augusto Boal exercise and a writing exercise as part of their larger discussion of Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth focused on power and violence.

rise

The first solo performance piece I created for Pre-sent/Pres-ent was rise in December, 2008.  From my responses to a questionnaire, a theme of a woman’s role emerged and I transformed those ideas into an 8-minute piece about my witnessing (as a child) my grandmother’s work as a domestic for a white family in the South.  It is, in part, an exploration of the distance between my grandmother bearing eight children and my child-free existence – the hopes she had for me and all her…