August 12-13, 2009 Woman to Woman
Directed by Mekeva McNeil
Featuring: Featuring: Rashida Bryant, Duane Cooper, Suzanne Darrell,
DRED Gerestant, Kari Hinkson, Jonathan Payne, and Khiry Walker
StoryCorps Listening Salon @ 7PM
Performance @ 730PM
Talk back hosts!
8/12: Clairesa Clay, Filmmaker
Dr. Wendi Williams, Professor of Counseling, Long Island University
8/13: Robbie McCauley
Theater Professor, Emerson College, and Obie Award Winning Playwright
Fire! New Play Play Festival 2009
South Oxford Space
138 S. Oxford Street [directions]
BAM Cultural District in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Woman to Woman is a comedic drama about black women shape-shifters and love. Two creative lovers, a voluptuous actress and a happily retired drag king, are about to face the most challenging time of their relationship. Evonne wants to be a star but whose hiring size is 14 with an attitude on Broadway. Roni wants to settle down, but her past won't let her. As the comfortable love affair they have wrapped themselves into unravels and clashes with family values, self-image, and dreams of fame, they must decide if playing the part is worth the risk.
Ayanna is a resident playwright at Freedom Train Productions. Aurin Squire, Director of New Play Development, and guest artists began facilitating intensive theatre workshops in March. Offstage Forums 2009, critical discussions inspired by their current work in development, preceded the festival. In August Artistic & Managing Director Andre Lancaster released a festival statement around the state of artist economies.
Ayanna on Family, Blackness, and Her New Play
This clip features Resident Playwright Ayanna Maia and Actress Ayesha Ngaujah. It was produced by Freedom Train Productions, with interviews recorded by StoryCorps, a national initiative to record and collect stories of everyday people: www.storycorps.org.
Come early and hear the full interview during the StoryCorps Listening Salon!
About the Playwright
Ayanna Maia is a Chicago native who currently resides in Brooklyn. She is a MFA candidate at NYU’s Dramatic Writing Program. Artist Statement:
I am a warrior for inner peace. The African Diaspora is the space I claim. My work is seasoned with laughter and tears on a plate of self-recognition. I attack misogyny and caricatures of the black female body through hip-hop and magical realism to re-create social movement on stage. Honoring ancestral lineage, using spirituality, and loving Blackness in post-colonial America fuels my creativity.
