WHO ARE YOU
We exist in times where we produce new work, and immediately start to network and post on social media in order to find ways for our work to be seen, expand, and grow. We become saleswomen trying to beat time, yet how often do we sit with ourselves in complete silence? Are we fully listening to ourselves?

WHO ARE YOU
There is the idea of self. For we create work that comes from within, that reflects ones fears, accomplishments, resilience against obstacles – we seek to speak about the times in which we are living. Yet is the self fully centered, capable, ready to delve deep enough to reveal actual truths of the times, not just ideas or theories? Are we being bold enough, risking enough, are we brave enough to widen and challenge conversations beyond a comfortable norm?

WHO ARE YOU
What are you truly wanting to say with your work? What’s the work worth to you in time? How does your work live long after the curtain goes down? Or does the work only matter in form now? Will the self / can the self transcend in order for the work to reach its highest level of truth?

WHO ARE YOU

By: Constance Strickland

The act of telling stories, creating work with strangers, friends or repeated colleagues in the theatre is the greatest gift and seems at times a hard action.

The merging of ideas. The coming together to birth then share a common vision requires an artist to shed old fears, break repetitive habits and go beyond their own abilities to fuse a groups talents into a collaborative manifestation all can stand by.

Active listening, being aware of how my verbal / non verbal communication affects the group, knowing when to be assertive, as well as being able to negotiate are social skills that I continually am practicing.

I do not need to always win nor am I conforming with a loss. Instead, I’ve come to see that I am expanding/growing as a storyteller. Giving the work a chance to be great and since the work cannot be fully done alone; I’m learning to bend with the wind in all aspects of my life. That way the work stays fluid. Making sure that I do not allow fears to get in the way. Trusting the team, relying on practiced social skills and believing in what you’ve created are the first ingredients of theatre magic.

Perseverance. Patience. Old virtues we’ve heard time and time again but are hard to live by in a theatre culture of produce, produce, produce. Yet it has been in going back, consistently to these virtues over the past year, that have allowed me to not get lost in the culture nor time. Instead, they have made me stay present,  focused, and open to the work existing in increments, and honoring that sometimes a good ideas take time to reveal themselves, and to fully manifest quality work you must proceed with care.

I have been working on my new play Medea: A Soliloquy or The Death of Medea for the past five years and developing the idea from the ground up for over a year now, and at times I feel there is no way this will come into fruition. Can I develop and take my work to its next level? Does the story have the ability to engage?  Is the body the best way to tell this story? How am I going to afford rehearsal space? It is within the doubts and fears that I hear an old collaborator state, “Remember the Universe hears you, speak carefully.” So I close my eyes and see the work lives. I begin to speak aloud all that I know is possible with the body, the script and I rely on the talents of my team. I push through and move only forward with the work. Let go of what does not work. Walk away from bad advice as one need not listen to negative feedback. Stay active in your mission to complete your vision, and do only what feels right to you. Hold on to that play but don’t let it linger on a table to gather dust or sit in your files folder on your computer. I was excited for 2018 because I knew there was no giving up. I am ecstatic to be existing in 2019, for the possibilities of how the work can live are endless. Let your work be seen and heard. Be your biggest fan, bet on yourself and let the work…your work, risk failing.

It came to be that what was necessary was for her to jump blindly into an idea so that the words could manifest off the page, be absorbed into the body.

For she  insisted on seeking a higher understanding of what it meant to live – to exist.

Yet what came with that was hauling the weight of the memories, the moments that so delicately dissipate before our eyes.

Slowly she began to let go of control. She gave the work away. She did not let outside voices nor noise keep her work, her goals, from coming into fruition.

She shall. She will. She is.

Constance Strickland

When she finally rose from the ground, her body lifted, she stood tall –

She found herself walking, laughing in a room filled with friends. Some new, then there were those who had always been.

She found a way to live without the fear and suffocation of failure.

She now allowed herself to enter that space of calm. Gave permission for her ideas to simmer, executed them with time.

She’s come to understand what it means to live by ritual.

She knows how much she can bear.

Constance Strickland

As the sun shined through the kitchen window she could see her reflection flickering against the wall.

The light now a bit closer to reach… to touch.

Pieces of broken glass stuck to her hair. Dried blood stained her fingers.

Night had become day.

After hours had gone by she lifted her head –

she could now breathe.

Her hands raw –

she crawled down the stairs,

she crawled across the rough carpet,

she crawled outside onto the cold cement –

She crawled not knowing where she was going.

She crawled until she was able to carry her own weight.

She crawled until she realized she was not alone.

Constance Strickland

Bent over, on her knees, her hands tightly clasped, her body shaking,

head bowed she gasps for air – trying to breathe, yet unable to speak.

She begins to wrestle herself –

Her body contorts into unknown shapes, her voice is unfamiliar to her…

breathe, she tells her ragged soul until she can no longer move.

Battling in silence –

The house remembers her voice can crescendo into an unrecognizable monstrous pitch. Pacing the bare space she’s a wild animal spitting empty phrases into harsh air.

Her face morphs….weathered, wrinkled, worn.

Staring into broken glass she no longer sees the contour lines that once revealed pieces of her history.

She’s an undefined line, curving, not always connecting to solid surfaces as she goes off on tangents as her thoughts explode into tiny pieces of unseen particle.

Constance Strickland

Fort Huachuca:

A debut production, written by emerging actress and playwright Ailema Sousa.

Set in Arizona, on an army base camp. The play is a looking glass into the contributions and sacrifices made by the first African-American women’s army auxiliary corps (WAAC’s) during the Second World War. A concept created two years ago, ignited by the lack of representation of women of color during this pivotal point in history, the playwright discovered some of their untold stories. The stories of five, African American women who were the first among few to enlist in the 1940’s amidst a still-segregated America. Battling racism, sexism, discrimination at a time when a woman’s voice had little to no value. They managed to withstand all of the obstacles and went on to change the course of history, contributing greatly towards the war efforts. But where are they in the history books? In any books? In any movies? For too long the voices of black women have gone unheard, undervalued or quite simply ignored. This is something we no longer to choose to accept. We are resilient and have been for many many years, history proves this and in recent times we have been leaning towards this truth and our strength. With the success of stories like ‘Hidden Figures’ and more recently ‘Black Panther’ a story like ‘Fort Huachuca’ is needed now more than ever. Their success reflects the voice of the people, a people who are hungry for change, a people ready to see a different narrative, to see themselves represented in all aspects, on screen, on stage in the history books. It is our time!

Ailema and the rest of the cast (Natalia Elizabeth, Nicole Sousa, Ashlee Jones, Benjamin Colbourne, Charles Nkrumah Jr, Resheda Terry, and Tiera Dashae with voiceovers by Kandace Caine & Kenneth Shook) will perform at the OMR Theatre @The Complex in Hollywood on Santa Monica Blvd, here in Los Angeles for the Festival in June.

please go to  http://hff18.org/4897 to select your date and get your tickets

By Constance Strickland

This Fringe season welcomes a thrilling group of women from varied backgrounds and experiences, making this an exciting and by far one of the most diverse Hollywood Fringe Festivals ever! I wanted to take this week to share the voices of these women who will be sharing pieces of themselves this June at a variety of local theatres along Theatre Row.

Navigating the Fringe with Art and Healing

We are living in scary times. It often feels like there is no way out with all the shooting, terror and violence happening in our homes, schools, workplace and even our technology and entertainment. These are just symptoms that all this chaos exists inside of us. The only way out is through – through our own pain, our own terror and our own violence. Room No9 at the Chrysalis Inn invites you to experience a healing journey.

Healing is scary. It’s like the future. We don’t know anything about it really, except for what we want the outcome to be. Art is fun. It’s the sugar that helps the medicine we need for healing go down. Using art as a healing tool gives me focus, a sense of accountability to myself, the community and the world. It allows me to heal the wounds in myself share with the world in hopes that it will inspire healing in others. AND it’s fun.

In order to change our world, we are going to have to do something. It’s important to start with self. Creatively addressing our own issues, so that when we get where we want to be, our inner chaos is not waiting for us. It does get easier and easier. Remember “You must go into the darkness to find the light. You are the key. Little ole you.”

Check out my promo video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDREFBg37H0

 

To witness this 30-minute healing journey, please go to hff18.org/4966 to select your date and get your tickets. All Advance Purchases Tickets are PWYC! 

Please allow time for parking. Shows Start On-Time.

 

 

By Constance Strickland

This Fringe season welcomes a thrilling group of women from varied backgrounds and experiences, making this an exciting and by far one of the most diverse Hollywood Fringe Festivals ever! I wanted to take this week to share the voices of these women who will be sharing pieces of themselves this June at a variety of local theatres along Theatre Row.  The power of LAFPI is the ability it has to bring women of all ages and different backgrounds together to share our love for the theatre. It was a wonderful delight see Fringe Femme Francesca Gamez at Samuel French! Her youth, fire, passion, as well as hunger for the work, was energizing and contagious!

The History We’re Trapped In 

“I feel that my white friends are grossly unaware of the racial inequalities that occur within America and it was very clear that white women were a large part of why the president got elected. This was a heartbreaking truth for me to come to terms with as a white woman and I began questioning the role of white women in society.”

It was at this moment, on the first day of rehearsal for our new play, Othello & Otis, I realized that my co-writer, Tinks Lovelace, and I had labored over a piece of theatre for completely different, yet wholly connected reasons.

Othello and Otis is a spoken-word dreamscape that uses the words of James Baldwin, Shakespeare, Otis Redding, Solange and others to explore white apathy towards the African American community and the true history of the racial divide in the United States.

From a young age, my mother began teaching my brother and I how to see and navigate the separate worlds that my white counterparts and I lived in. She made sure I knew that the history we were learning in school, was not historically accurate but had been altered by those in power to minimize their wrongdoings and highlight their “victories.”  That we would have to try twice as hard to scarcely qualify for the same benefits my white friends would receive freely, and that we should always, “Act right! Cause you can’t get away with the same things your white friends can.”

Those fundamental lessons my twin and I learned along with every other black child in America are the reason why I wrote the show. For me, it’s a love story to those who have come before me and who are here with me. It’s my chance to say, “I see YOU, I see what you went through/are going through, I’m here with you & I thank you.” I’m here to tell a history that’s been overlooked. To shine a light on the reality that this country was founded on a system of oppression and continues to thrive off a culture of micro-aggression. To exclaim, that we are here and denying the truth of our existence won’t change that.

As opposite as Tinks and my motivators may seem, they’re actually two sides of the same the coin – history. Director and co-writer, Tinks Lovelace wants her friends to open their eyes, work through their ego & privilege and see the reality of racial inequality in this country and their implicit role in it. I want to validate and my own experiences and represent the experiences of those who look like me. Both of these goals require us to acknowledge an ugly history and explore a 400 year-old, deep-rooted pain in this country.

As James Baldwin once said, “Not everything that is faced is can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

We hope you’ll join us on our journey