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.