con flama is a blues based/jazz performance script. It is a migration story. Blues in it’s sensibility and history. Jazz in it’s composition and non-linear exploration of time. Set in Los Angeles in the 1940s –1970s, con flama gives voice to a Black queer gurl’s coming of age story/and the people that shape her reality and dreams. The gurl’s life journey unfolds as she makes her way through the cultural landscape of Los Angeles on the bus.
More about con flama HERE.
Buy the ebook HERE.
I am soooo happy that I got to see Jason Moran perform at the San Francisco Jazz Center!
LISTEN to interviews with Bridgforth and company/on da road with River See
HERE.
I am proud to say that I will be in Residence in The University of Iowa’s MFA Program in Playwriting Spring 2014. Details sooncome! YAYYYEE!
MLPS. PRESS on da River
Article by Shelia Regan, City Pages HERE.
Review by Rohan Preston, Star Tribune HERE.
Review by Betsy Gabler, TC Daily Planet HERE.
More HERE.
River See @ Pillsbury House Theatre
Photo Credit: Michael Daniel
Written and Composed by Sharon Bridgforth
Witness: Virginia Grise
Dramaturge: Nia Witherspoon
Lighting Designer: Michael Wangen
Environment Designer: Eyenga Bokamba
Prop Designer: Kellie Larson
Costume Designer: Clare Brauch
Production Stage Manager: Elizabeth R. MacNally
Producing Directors: Faye M. Price and Noel Raymond
Featuring: Sonja Parks, Kenna-Camera Cottman, Bro. Heru (William Harris) aka Truth Maze, Leah Nelson, Mankwe Ndosi, and Aimee BryantEMAIL FROM AN AUDIENCE MEMBER:
Dear People:
I was in the audience Sunday afternoon for the performance of “River
See,” and was quite bowled over by the force and creativity I found
there. What I want to share is this: I’ve been doing physical therapy
for a “frozen shoulder,” which means range of motion was curtailed in my
right arm. But I elected to be a gesturer yesterday and used my right
arm until it got too tired and then I used my left. Though I’ve been
making slow progress with my exercises, today my arm/shoulder is
considerably better than it’s been in months. So…while I was
gesturing to help See journey to recovery, could I have been being
helped in my own healing by the tremendous energy of the people on stage?
Thank you for an amazing series of feelings that washed over and through me.
Toni McNaronPamela Espeland 4/16/13 MINNPOST
“Playing now at the Pillsbury House Theatre, “River See” is challenging and magical. Challenging because playwright Sharon Bridgforth doesn’t spell out everything for you (and, in fact, changes things up during each performance). Magical because if you let that go, you’ll be caught up in the stories, the blues, the dance and the flow. Sonja Parks is See, a young woman coming of age in the rural South, deciding whether to join her mother in the North as part of the Great Migration. The ensemble – dancers Kenna Cottman and Leah Nelson, singers Aimee Bryant and Mankwe Ndosi, and musician/poet Truth Maze – move fluidly around and across the stage, up and into the audience. Most playwrights stay behind the scenes; Bridgforth is on stage the whole time as participant, singer, and on-the-spot director, guiding the cast through scripted parts and improvisations and also cueing the audience (volunteers only) through its roles: gesturing, quietly reading brief passages and prayers, speaking in different languages. It’s part theater, part jazz, part dreamy dream, lovely to watch and often funny. Through April 21. FMI and tickets (pay-what-you-want).”
Thanks to Megan Monaghan Rivas, Tlaloc Rivas and many others
I’ll be in residence at University of Iowa 4/22 – 4/25, 2013
WOOHOOO!! Can’t wait!
River See Sonja from Pillsbury House Theatre on Vimeo.
MORE HERE.
Duke Ellington is always an Inspiration.
Today I am really digging this:
“There is no art without intention”. Duke Ellington
More about Duke Ellington HERE.
River See MAP FUND Workshop Production
at Pillsbury House Theatre
Open Rehearsals: Sat. 3/23 12PM – 1PM & Fri. 3/29 7PM-8PM
Shows: 4/11/13 – 4/21/13
Details HERE.
Read Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones’ River See Linear Notes (written for the Chicago Links Hall @ Rockefeller Chapel Experiment) HERE.
