The University of Memphis Department of Theatre & Dance is proud to announce their Fall 2020 Jubilee season: A mix of virtual and outdoor performances created specifically for the age of the coronavirus. Join us online for two filmed and streamed theater pieces and a zoom-based comedy show, and walk the campus with us, experiencing site-specific performances inspired by Black Memphis History. UofM joins theaters nationwide in Jubilee: A year-long celebration of performances generated by individuals that have been historically excluded from our country's stages.
Or,
by Liz Duffy Adams
Directed by Moises Hinojos
(For the safety of the cast and crew, social distancing in staging and masks to be
worn in rehearsals as well as other precautions will be taken.)
Sex, Intrigue, Danger, Laughter ... Less than 24 hours after retiring from her spy
life, Aphra Behn must juggle a bawdy new lover, the sudden appearance of an old "friend",
and the temptation to fall in love with her benefactor. Most importantly, she must
finish writing a play that will be her first produced work! This quick-witted, farcical
story, to be filmed and then streamed, transcends period and shows us what it's like
to have free love, self-love, and purpose. Will Aphra save the King from treason?
Will she succumb to her heart's desire or launch her career as the first professional
female playwright?
Streaming Saturday and Sunday, October 3-4 and 10-11
Lest We Forget: Black Memphis History Through Dance/Theatre
Join us on a journey through space and time as we explore 120 years of Black Memphis
history through a series of site-specific, on-campus, outdoor performances. These
pieces will also be filmed and made permanently accessible at the sites via a QR code,
enabling anyone to experience them at any time, and ensuring that we will never forget.
Live outdoor performances October 17, 18, 24, and 25 (QR Codes go live on the 26th.)
Zoom in on Comedy
Directed by Angela Schultz
Integrating solo comedy segments with zoom-based sketches, this team of women will
make us laugh without making us sick. Share the laughter, not the spittle.
Zoom performances October 31 and November 1
Trouble in Mind
by Alice Childress
Directed by Jamie Warrow
(For the safety of the cast and crew, social distancing in staging and masks to be
worn in rehearsals as well as other precautions will be taken.)
Written by Alice Childress, Trouble in Mind is a protest story against flagrant racism
in commercial theatre in the mid-1950's, dramatizing one woman's stand against the
harmful stock stereotypes that diminish African Americans, and more particularly,
have reduced Black women to mere caricatures. A smart satire, Trouble in Mind will
be filmed and then streamed—making you simultaneously laugh and confront the pain
of systemic prejudice. Trouble in Mind is a relevant commentary on the racial divide
that still exists in American today.
Streaming Saturday and Sunday, November 7-8 and 14-15
The Story and the Teller
by Calley N. Anderson
Directed by Holly L. Derr
The University of Memphis has commissioned native Memphian and current New Yorker
Calley N. Anderson to write a new play with and for our students via zoom. Set in
the present moment, The Story and the Teller will follow the resident acting company
of a local Memphis theatre, tasked with devising a play about the impact of the 1878
Yellow Fever epidemic on African Americans and immigrants. Challenging enough on its
own, the process is marred by questions and disagreements about history, race, gender,
and storytelling, issues that played out in both 1878 and 2020 in dizzying ways.
Zoom reading Sunday, November 20 at 2pm
The spring season will be added at a later date.