the group

I'm very excited to announce the ensemble that will be creating "America (a conversation)":

Performers:
Kristina Acheampong
Gilbert Arias
Eugene Clowney
Cynthia Cyprien
Windia Dieudonne
Francisco Espinoza
Marcus Jones
Edaliz Morales
Emily Munguia
Tabitha Peavey
Stephanie Rampersad
Marielle Suarez
Amanda Williams

Directors:
Dan Friedman
Brian Mullin
Sita Sarkar
Serge Velez

Producer:
Marian Rich

Stage Manager:
Kat Ostrova

Movement Coach:
Judy Myers

Our ensemble is very diverse: The performers range in age from 15 to 23 are residents of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and New Jersey. It's a really exciting group with whom to start this conversation!

We had a great first rehearsal over the weekend. After everyone got to know each other, we got right down to business. Each performer stood up and did an unprepared, one-minute solo performance of their experience of America. They could only use three words. Some of the words people used included: "hiring?," "broke," "freedom," "Food Stamps," "life," "liberty," "happiness," "running," "dream." A theme started emerging even at this early stage: the gap between the ideal of what America is supposed to be and the way it really is. Many of the performers showed that contradiction and showed themselves struggling with it in various ways.

We didn't even get to our poems on the first day, but everyone was assigned to read them before our next rehearsal. On Wednesday, we'll start talking about who Langston Hughes and Allen Ginsberg were and we'll start using their words to create scenes. It already seems like everything's moving quickly!