Get ready for our show on Wednesday, April 22nd, immediately following class!With Kim Brockington Denise Burse Eisa Davis
Designers: Clint Ramos, Jane Shaw, Sarah Sidman, Jessica Jahn
Production Manager Mark Sitko
Production Stage Manager Ryan Radeuchel
Assistant Stage Manager Danielle Teague-Daniels
Props Johnson Henshaw
Associate Producer Anna Hayman
Casting Paul Davis/Calleri Casting
Press Jim Baldassare
“On this mixtape, style will dictate, we bounce back and forth in time…”
Using the rhythms of music and memory, Eisa tells the story of a radical upbringing on the dividing line between Oakland and Berkeley, California-- in a family that includes her aunt, professor and activist Angela Davis.
Time shifts between the 70s, 80s, and 90s as smoothly as a DJ fading from song to song. Each track, each memory, has a built-in switch to the next, for theatrical momentum that keeps on building.
The music crosses styles and decades, but it's hip-hop and a b-girl stance that keeps the piece bouncing in the present.
Click here for Angela's Mixtape Sneak Peek Video.
More info about the show is on the MIXTAPE Blog, here: http://angelasmixtape.wordpress.com/
Do some research on Angela Davis before the show!
This will be also behelpful before you go into the show....
All mixed up? A short glossary of terms.
Back to the Future The most popular film of 1985 features Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, a teenager who travels back in time from 1985 to 1955 and accidentally prevents his parents from meeting, putting his own existence at stake. Ronald Reagan quoted the film in his 1986 State of the Union Address.
Communism As codified by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, communism is the ultimate result of socialism, a process occurring only after capitalism has collapsed in on itself. In this stage of social evolution, the working class, bourgeoisie, and the ruling class can no longer exist. From the Manifesto: “Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labor of others by means of such appropriation.”
Davis, Angela Y. American political activist and professor of philosophy. In 1970, at age 26, Davis became the third woman and the 309th individual to appear on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. A target of then-California Governor Ronald Reagan and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s Cointelpro policies, she was first fired from UCLA for her activism and membership in the Communist party, then charged with murder, conspiracy, kidnapping, and interstate flight after a gun registered in her name was used in an attempt to free the Soledad Brothers, political prisoners for whom she had sought justice. She went underground for two months before being arrested in New York City, and was acquitted of all charges in 1972. John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s song “Angela” and the Rolling Stones’ “Sweet Black Angel” advocated for her release. In the 80s, Davis ran for Vice President on the Communist Party ticket. Currently Professor of History of Consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Davis speaks nationally and internationally with a focus on the eradication of the prison industrial complex. Aunt of American playwright and performer Eisa Davis.
Flint’s Bar-B-Q Oakland, CA. Mmm, mmm!
Grenada An island nation peopled mainly by descendants of Africans in the southeastern Caribbean sea. A peaceful socialist revolution in Grenada toppled a dictator in 1979, then President Ronald Reagan and the United States invaded the country in 1983 in response to the government’s close ties with Cuba. Grenada’s population was approximately the same at the time of the invasion as it is now: a whopping 90,343.
Hip-Hop Theater As delineated by the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, live theater written by and about the hip-hop generation. Often using elements of hip-hop culture (including MCing, DJing, hip-hop dance, graffiti, spoken word), hip-hop theater tells urgent stories seldom represented on stage, through language that embraces hip-hop’s multi-literate and poly-lingual vitality.
Macrobiotic From the Greek “macro” (large, long) and “bios” (life), is commonly known as a dietary practice based on the principles of yin and yang. Meals often include whole grains, legumes, vegetables (from earth and sea), and fermented soy. A macrobiotic lifestyle encourages living in balance with nature by eating local, seasonal and organic foods with the belief that this will lead to world peace.
Mixtape Also known as a mixed tape. A compilation of songs recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto a compact audio cassette, it generally reflects the musical tastes of its compiler, which can range from a casually selected list of favorite songs, to a conceptual mix of songs linked by theme or mood, to a highly personal statement tailored to the tape’s intended recipient. Notable subgenres include the romantic mix and the break-up mix.
New York Women’s House of Detention Built on the site of the Jefferson Market Prison that succeeded Jefferson Market at the corner of Sixth and Greenwich Avenues in Manhattan. Mae West, Billie Holiday and Black Panther Afeni Shakur, mother of Tupac, were some of the women arrested and held there before Angela Davis’s arrest. Believed to have been the world’s only art deco prison, it was demolished in 1973 and replaced with a garden and library.
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