A burlesque apocalypse in three parts. As the ice melts melts melts, Baby, a punk rock Penguin, leads a revolt. And the clothes can’t help but fall off. But wait, Morgan Freeman’s voice looms, telling us what to do, what not to do, what we must do, what do we want him to do, this Body-Named-Black. Ice melts melts melts. Another layer peels to the ground. It’s so cold that it’s fiery hot. Twenty minutes left: and wait, there’s more… but I thought you said this was a burlesque? Ice melt melt melt. A striptease down to our raw parts.
This performance will be interpreted in American Sign Language by Pro Bono.
Andrew Watring (Andrew) is a Black trans Object-theatre-creator, director, award-winning playwright, producer, performer, and Anarkata-in-training from sweet home Huntsville, Alabama. Andrew’s career has been dedicated to the creation and continued cultivation of Shakespeare is a White Supremacist, a theatrical ritual grounded in Shakespeare’s colonizing effect on the American theatre; most recently staged with Main Street Players (Miami-Dade, FL). Select directing credits include: RENT, Angels in America, The Henriad, Richard III, White Noise, Hamletmachine, Passing: A Stage Play, Coriolanus. Andrew holds an MFA from Brown University / Trinity Repertory Company and a BA in Theatre Arts from American University.
Dhari Noel (he/him) is a Queer Black-Caribbean playwright, performer, and educator born and raised in Harlem. Dhari’s writing often explores the incoherence of race, the failures of gender, and inherited ways of being. Recent plays include: Man Made, Spirit Junkie (Cherry Picking, The Wild Project), Exorcism for The DEI Practitioner (Cherry Picking), Keep The Orange (ECFS). Recent performances include: Black Exhibition (Bushwick Starr), In The Penal Colony (Next Door at NYTW, The Tank), Floater, Ride (Cherry Picking). Dhari has a BA in Sociology from Columbia and is currently pursuing an MFA in Playwriting at Brown.
Ayla Taffel is an interdisciplinary theatre artist with a passion for lighting, stage management, producing, props, and theatre finance. Humanity is at the core of Ayla’s artistic process. Select credits include: All Fall Down (People’s Light – Stage Manager), the book of lucy (Brown/Trinity Rep – Props Artisan), RENT (Yale University – Lighting Designer), Sueño (Trinity Rep – Programmer/Light Board Operator), and The Henriad (Brown/Trinity Rep – Stage Manager/Production Designer). Ayla graduated from American University with a BA in Theatre Arts (Focus: Theatrical Design).
