and now, a word with our playwright...

here's how writer nina angela mercer describes gutta beautiful:
"GUTTA BEAUTIFUL is a multi media, interactive stage play which takes place in the contemporary urban hyper-reality of the nation’s capitol, and tells the tragic and comical love story of Lola, born to Mama Say (an ancestral spirit and guide who lives by the power of food and its preparation), and Papa G (an energetic, cosmic force, who is both trickster and surrogate father to the “word” and its myriad deeds). After her birth into womanhood, Lola meets Mike, a lyricist and seeker inside life’s circumstances, while hanging out on the block with her best girlfriends, Suga Sweet and Orchid.
Together, Lola and Mike dare to make it beyond mere survival in the bitter sweet landscape of Gutta Beautiful, a contemporary urban obstacle course where choices often find them confronting the haunting history of enslavement and imperialism embodied by the alluring and ever-changing Aunty Sam, as well as Aunty Sam’s contemporary masks – the harsh realities of the drug trade economy, violence, and the capitalist demand for consistent cash flow. For Lola and Mike, their home, Gutta Beautiful, becomes a political battle-ground where the most common and innocent choice to fall in love and raise a family is a revolutionary act with no easy path to victory. Though Mama Say and Papa G provide some ancestral guidance, it is ultimately a battle Lola and Mike must wage with the power of their own imperfect wills.
GUTTA BEAUTIFUL does not offer easy answers. There are no mythic heroes here. Instead, it provides a raw and honest depiction of our ordinary and spectacular lives, and the most gutta and beautiful circumstances we all choose to live. Lola finds herself in this journey, and so does Mike. They, along with Suga Sweet and Orchid, are our mirror reflections, asking us to discover our gorgeous imperfections toward a potential shared space of discovery and transformation."

and here's what she says about it in a truly insightful interview for in the people's hands with ebony noelle golden- the gutta is beautiful: aesthetics, politics, the pocket and the pole. seriously, read the interview, totally worthwhile, play regardless...

meanwhile, back@rehearsals, we done rough-blocking the show, now moving into detailing with camille. i wukkin out choreography+soundtrack, tryna bring it fast enough to help the cast on this ride, plus personal homework: making sure i can easy-switch accents from american to british and back as "aunty sam".

hectic, but progress being made, and photoshoot nex' week will build our momentum plus provide imagery for us to play with, so stay tuned...

walk good.

rehearsals underway...

so, we rehearsing nina angela mercer's gutta beautiful a couple weeks now and i been intending to blog the process, but not directing this time making it kinna hard to say...this time i'm not the one with the vision to fulfill, so doh know how much further we hadda reach and cyah really say how big picture tings progressing; i playing "aunty sam" and shaping movement and soundtrack with rawkus' help and warrenman as consultant on the latter, although rawkus eh know that yet, he go find out when he touch down.

i directed griot's staged reading of this piece 2years ago, before this blog existed, and love the script...actually, for posterity, quick timetravel to griot's 1st exposure of gutta [reposted from sweet trini's urban folktales]: of theatre, white women and gutters:

found ourselves a whitegirl for our staged reading of gutta beautiful, so we orn like boil corn. i'm thrilled with the cast and starting to get excited about saturday, cornerbar 4pm:
gutta beautiful tells the searing story of lola, a young black woman who finds herself at a crossroads in love and life after discovering her own role in her man’s choice to surrender to popular culture and the drug trade economy. lola’s journey, as well as michael’s and her girlfriends' suga sweet and orchid transcend time, exploring the history of love and life for people of colour.
"the play represents both the imaginary and fantastic landscape of our collective psyche and the hard-core physical reality of our daily lives,” says playwright, nina a. mercer.
cast: isoke edwards-najeeullah, tracey lucas, tonya evans, mandisa granderson, muhammad muwakil, nickolai salcedo, sophie wight.
parental guidance strongly suggested; mature content.

about the author: born and raised in washington, d.c. and now residing in new york, nina angela mercer is a playwright, essayist, fiction writer and visual artist. her play, gutta beautiful has been produced at d.c.'s warehouse theatre (2005), and for d.c.'s first capital fringe festival at the woolly mammoth theatre (2006). she received her m.f.a. from american university and studied transnational feminist literature of the 20th century in the english doctoral program at the university of maryland. she has taught at american university, university of maryland, and howard university, and is also the founder and artistic director of ocean ana rising, inc., a non-profit arts incubator and outreach project. nina is the proud mother of two daughters.

that was probably where i shoulda start anyway, so i'ma leave you with a very fitting image disa found plus a fuzzy phone-photo of me+danielle wukkin, and pelt off to rehearsal with the promise that juicy details sooncome...


cast+crew thus far: mandisa granderson, danielle lewis, abeo jackson, isoke edwards-najeeullah, marvin dowridge, nickolai salcedo, elisha efua bartels, camille quamina, wendy primus, paulette alfred, sekou charles.

griot productions' gutta beautiful runs the last weekend in november and 1st weekend in december @ little carib theatre.

walk good.