Our production of Flyin' West grew from one of our Table Reads—a reading of a script by actors to gauge audience interest. It was so well received by both the readers and the guest audience that we that we selected it as a teaching tool for our emerging actors. On the page, Pearl Cleage gave us a great set of characters to work with and a story that was an eternally relevant period piece.  We explored the challenges facing strong women, complexities in relationships, family dynamics and the idea of emotional survival behind the scenes and under the lights.  

A collaboration with The City of Greensboro and the Dramatist Play Guild made it possible for Cleage to join us for the run which made it a memorable performance for everyone.

Directed by Kerri Mubaarak

Typically, we write and produce our shows from scratch, but occasionally we bring a script to the table as a study tool.  In this case, one of our acting students Tony Browley wanted to try his hand at producing and our Tech Guru, Linwood Morris wanted to try his at directing. We gave two of our leading men Riff Raff and along with Ronald Lavender (Tony), Hayden Crawford (Torch) and Dwight Carrington (20/20 Mike) they did something really special with Laurence Fishburne's first and only script.  

Directed by Linwood Morris

Black Lives Don't Matter is a devised performance representing the collective view of our community after the deaths of too many black lives as a result of racism and police brutality.  We made a creative call to our theater comrades and used the stage to express the feelings that were deeply painful but necessary to purge while emotions are erupting.  Black Lives as we call it, is a catharsis and a way for the African American community to cleanse itself of the hurt in the midst of politically and racially charged times. 

Directed by Asabi Howard

African American Poetics nudges spoken word firmly into the structure of theater.  Poets and actors honor the literary contributions of African American writers in scenes that move poetry through the generations and encourage the audience to re-frame their memory of the original form.  From Paul Laurence Dunbar to Talib Kweli, Poetics appreciates the writing genius that lives and lived among us.   

Directed by Kerri Mubaarak, Angela Tripp and Linwood Morris

Catalyst

Tragedy

In 2012, a 14-year-old boy was shot and killed at a local carnival. The murder, thought by the police to be gang related was actually the result of an ongoing rivalry between two neighboring cities.  In response to the child's death and the ongoing dialogue about violence in schools, we asked young people to help us write about the rivalries that exist in their everyday lives.

Process

Research & Writing

For 14 weeks, middle- and high-school students conducted "real" research.   They collected the details of their own experiences along with those of law enforcement, social workers, gang affiliates and others whose lives were touched by the perpetrators of juvenile crime to compile an honest script that examines everyday acts of violence among teens and adults.
 

Result

Performance

Multiple stories revolve around Donte, whose father orchestrates violent acts against his mother and Charlie who bears the brunt of Donte's life at home everyday in school.  This simple yet alarming glimpse inside the lives other young people taunted daily by emotional and physical assaults ends with "Talk Back" sessions for audience feedback and reflections.

Directed by Kerri Mubaarak and Angela Williams Tripp

Haiti, the first black independent nation in the world is a place of mystery.  It's culture is enriched by the people who inhabit it and the history is deeply moving, powerful and spirited.  Yet the mention of its name evokes comments of fear or pity.  The earthquake of 2010 that destroyed the physical structure of the country and changed the lives of millions unearthed some very negative reactions about the people who live there.  In order to shift a media driven perception of a country of African descendants this performance was created to educate non-Haitians about a familiar history of political paradigms and create a space to dialogue about this nation of true survivors.  We were honored to have Dr. Patrick Belleguarde-Smith, author of The Breached Citadel and Professor Emeritus of Africology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to share the Haitian experience in and outside of their country with our audience.

Written and directed by Kerri Mubaarak

Survival Stories was written and produced to accompany The Gift of Life Block Walk, an annual breast cancer awareness event hosted by Sisters Network, Inc in Greensboro, NC.  During this event, women canvass a designated neighborhood to encourage and provide free clinical breast exams for uninsured women and to increase awareness of a disease that disproportionately affects African American women.

We asked if we could use this opportunity to explore the subject on stage and set about asking women to share their stories that we turned into a powerful script.  We learned from their fortitude and attitude about surviving this disease and gave the patrons and volunteers a theatrical appreciation for their Gift of Life.

Directed by Asabi Howard

The education curators at Weatherspoon Art Museum asked us to develop something creative with children to accompany their Leonardo Drew exhibit called Existed.  We took a group of our youngest performance students to view his installations and recorded their responses to the material.  The strange and arresting objects in Drew's work lends itself to introspection and the expression of curiosities.  At the children’s direction, we found items that reminded us of the ones they saw in Drew's work and used them as props.  Their unguarded response and natural choreography gave us great material to apply to Charles Mingus' "Freedom" and Rahsaan Roland Kirk's "Blacknuss." The end result was a very moving commentary on life, loss and rebirth all from a child's perspective.  

Directed by Kerri Mubaarak and Angela Williams Tripp.  Photos by Martin Tucker.

Maafa/Kuumba is intended to be an epic performance about the cultural landscape of the countries touched by African presence as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.  It honors the spirit of a people who were once traded and flogged on the shores of Brazil, Haiti, Cuba and America and reminds us of their creative influence on music, dance and folklore throughout the world. Maafa/Kuumba revisits the atrocities held within the collective psyche of the descendants of African people in these places and re-envisions them in context with the power of creativity. 

Written and directed by Kerri Mubaarak

In 2008, we were challenged by a parent  who wanted us to train her daughter, but didn't want her exposed to hip hop music.  As artists, we would neither discredit a canon of music nor our Gen X roots in the art form.  We respectfully declined her request and simultaneously set out to make the point that the message in the music was lost during the media wars on hip hop that tried to overpower the voice of the culture.  This exchange inspired a story told through the words and rhymes of three decades of hip hop music intended to honor the art and the people who lived it. 

Mixed and directed by Kerri Mubaarak.  Photos by Bonnie Stanley

We found the perfect space for Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Greensboro Arboretum, a beautifully landscaped park with an array of color and natural beauty that complemented the performance of these young actors in Children's Theater of Greensboro and Caldcleugh's We Are One. This directoral concept moves the audience with the cast through the gardens and open spaces for each scene, establishing an appreciation for this community's lush green space and the beginnings of classical theater. 

Directed by Rosina Whitfield