As a woman of color, a mother and a theater artist, I find that I am constantly looking for projects that offer a means to take an immediate look at our society and the issues that we have not yet managed to fully rectify. It is no surprise that racism, segregation and sexism continue to return time after time, and we still have not found a way to fully turn back in a direction opposite of our former course. We have found ourselves stuck in a rhythm. In response to the rhythm, there is movement.
In all the shows I have had the honor to direct I implement the natural ritualistic need to full-body express emotions such as pride, pain and anger. The African American can trace its very survival to the execution of movement. We as a people have used movement to go forward and do better for ourselves and for the generations to follow. Movement has served as the ritualistic provision of solutions for social problems, as well as to express the central values of our culture.
While my family and I recently moved back home to San Diego, I called Milwaukee home for many years, and acted and directed with Next Act Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Renaissance Theatreworks, and Forward Theatre, among others. I’m glad to find myself back in Milwaukee to direct Kill Move Paradise by James Ijames at Next Act Theatre (running through Oct. 16), a remarkable play that offers a landscape of the African American existence – one that remembers our tragedies, yes, but also one that celebrates our joys and dares to imagine transcendence. It is a play that is dependent on movement—an unconscious ritual that we were all born to as African Americans.
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After this, I’ll move on to projects in Knoxville and Chicago. This play will continue to move within me, though. And I’ll remain connected to Milwaukee—I’m on the board for Marquette’s Voices Included for People of Color program, so I won’t be far for too long. “We who believe in freedom cannot rest”—Sweet Honey in the Rock
Visit: Next Act Theatre
Photo Credit: Erol Reyal
