Newsletter 31: In the Press! "Shadows and Light" Takes a Bow

Last week, my new play, Shadows and Light: The M Ensemble Story set sail at the Coconut Grove Theatre Festival. Directed by the incomparable Ali Tallman, the cast gave a stellar performance of nearly 60 years of history. The play theatricalizes the truths, memories, and fictions of Florida’s oldest, longest running Black theater company, the M Ensemble. With my grandmother, Betty Simon, and Shirley Richardson, the play’s real-life protagonist, seated on the front row, I surrendered to the moment of letting the work move beyond myself.

Before reading more about what I have to say, please check out this wonderful article about the reading by the talented Elisabeth Campbell in the Miami Times:

"Miami native’s new play explores the history of Florida’s oldest African American theater company: The M Ensemble was formed in 1971, a decade after the integration of the University of Miami”

I’ve opened paid subscriptions on Black Waves of Thought! Free content, like this post, will not disappear. However, paid subscribers will get the deeper contours of practice and process: the dramaturgical eye behind the work, the theoretical frameworks that animate the research, the behind-the-scenes peeks in the mind lab.

Next week, I’ll share more about what the research-to-performance process felt like from inside the rehearsal room. This deeper dive will be for the paid subscribers.

If you want to go on this journey with me, I’d love to have you.