ANGELA’S MIXTAPE
By Eisa Davis
Directed by Liesl Tommy
April 6 – May 2, 2009
Mondays through Saturdays at 8 PM
At the Ohio Theatre, 66 Wooster Street, Soho
ANGELA'S MIXTAPE
Using the rhythms of music and memory, Eisa tells the story of her
radical upbringing -- in a family that includes her aunt, professor,
and activist Angela Y. Davis. With a legacy like this, what do you
take, and what do you leave behind? The title itself forges an unusual
theatrical form: just like a mixtape, pace is primary, flow is
foremost, and the text is not just spoken, but danced and sung. Time
shifts between the 70s, 80s, and 90s as smoothly as a DJ fading from
song to song. Crossing cultural borders as it scratches through time,
the play moves from Angela's hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, to the
House of Detention where she was once held prisoner, to the playgrounds
of Eisa's Bay Area public schools, the dorm rooms of the Ivy League and
the shores of Senegal. The music crosses styles and decades, but it's
Hip-Hop and a b-girl stance that keeps the piece bouncing in the
present.
Tickets: Premium (Reserved) Seating - $35
General Admission/Seniors/Students - $20
About New Georges
Since its founding in 1992, New Georges has gained a reputation for
innovative productions of ambitious new plays, and as a productive home
for the country’s most promising and accomplished women theater
artists. New Georges is interested in the creativity and vision with
which artists theatricalize the world, and in expanding the boundaries
of contemporary theater in ways that challenge both artists and
audiences. www.newgeorges.org
About Eisa Davis
Eisa Davis's plays include BULRUSHER, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
in 2007 (Urban Stages, Shotgun Players fall 2007, published in New
Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2006), WARRIORS DON'T CRY (Cornerstone
Theater Company), HIP HOP ANANSI (Imagination Stage), ANGELA'S MIXTAPE
(Synchronicity Theatre, 2008), SECRETARY OF SHAKE (in Point of Revue,
Mixed Blood), PAPER ARMOR, SIX MINUTES, UMKOVU, and THE HISTORY OF
LIGHT (commissioned by the Geva). Eisa is a resident playwright at New
Dramatists. She is also the winner of the Helen Merrill Award, the
Whitfield Cook Award, the John Lippmann New Frontier Award, and has
received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Cave Canem, and the Van
Lier and Mellon Foundations. Her work has been developed by the Hip Hop
Theater Festival, New York Theater Workshop, New York Stage and Film,
LAByrinth Theater Company, the New Group, Soho Rep, the Flea,
Rattlestick, the Cherry Lane, Portland Center Stage, Hartford Stage,
Cleveland Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Yale University, Nuyorican Poets
Café, the Schomburg Center for Black Research, and the Culture Project,
among others. Eisa's writing has been published in American Theatre,
The Source, To Be Real, Everything But The Burden, Step Into A World,
Role Call, and Total Chaos. As an actress, Eisa's recent work includes
the rock musical Passing Strange at the Public Theater, the films Robot
Stories, Apparition of the Eternal Church, Happenstance, Confess, and
The Architect, television appearances on The Wire and Law and Order, as
well as numerous theatre credits in New York, regional theatres,
development centers, and in her own plays.
2009 FESTIVAL DATES
Washington DC : July 7 - 12, 2009 Details Coming Soon
