FACES IN THE FLAMES – Atlanta Opera
KUMANANA NEW PLAY EXCHANGE PROFILE
COURTHOUSE BELLS NEW PLAY EXCHANGE PROFILE
SUNSET DREAMS NEW PLAY EXCHANGE PROFILE
It all started when Lynette listened to her sister Maryse and agreed to travel to the Caribbean for Thanksgiving. It sounded ok. Distant relatives heading to the beach to get away from work and family strife. At first all is good. But once everyone settles in at the hotel, spats and bickering collide with piña coladas and shared vulnerabilities. To top it off, Aunt Nettie’s mental state keeps everyone on edge. Maryse and Lynette regurgitate old wounds and honor their shared childhood experiences. Eventually, the celebrants reach Sunset Dreams beach and immerse themselves in salty ocean waves. Except they don’t know how to swim. Ancestors and ancient rituals long-forgotten sooth their wounds.
ZORA ON MY MIND: NEW PLAY EXCHANGE PROFILE
Zora on My Mind is a black woman’s chamber musical. Book by Anita Gonzalez, Music and Lyrics by Diana Lawrence. Developed collaboratively by Anita Gonzalez, Diana Lawrence, Shaka Brown, Alexandria Davis, Fredi Walker-Browne and Antonio Disla. The project, inspired by Zora’s Characteristics of Negro Expression, is about a woman named Key who seeks to recognize her own worth. Narrator characters Sophie and Draft, draw her plot lines, pushing her to thrive. Stylistically, the production is a jazz/blues chamber work where composed music reveals internal journeys of self-empowerment.
Zora and Black Women’s Expression – Essay by Anita Gonzalez
WATERFLOW: NEW PLAY EXCHANGE PROFILE
Water Flow a new short play about women’s rights commissioned by Giovanni Rodriguez
YBOR CITY THE MUSICAL: NEW PLAY EXCHANGE PROFILE
Book by Anita Gonzalez /Music and Lyrics by Dan Furman
The Living Lakes
Dance Theatre conceived and directed by Anita Gonzalez and Joel Valentin-Martinez with music by UK composer Jonathan Girling and Andrew John Baldwin. Projections by UK media designer Will Simpson. Migrations and immigrations within the midwest speak to issues of relocation and the unfilled promise of finding home.
Anishinaabe Theatre Exchange
Anishnaabe Theatre Exchange develops theatre and performance events which speak to social concerns and histories of the Anishnaabe people.
Ayanna Kelly
Book by Anita Gonzalez and Richard Aellen/ Music and Lyrics by Errollyn Wallen
Afro-Caribbean Ayanna Kelly travels to Liverpool in search of her lost father. When she lands a pub owner takes her one a time traveling journey through musical encounters between between Black and Irish ghosts. The love she finds is not what she imagined.
Sun and Shadows at the University of Michigan