CHRONICLE X: A Revival

By Nia O. Witherspoon
January 25 - 27, 2019

CHRONICLE X: A Revival is a concert-installation that applies ancient wisdom to contemporary strife through the power of sound and music. Merging the Yoruba sacred creation story of Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding with the transcripts of Diamond Reynolds' Facebook Live video after Philando Castile was shot by police, and set to a multi-genre African-diaspora soundscape ranging from gospel to vogue, CHRONICLE X takes as its inspiration the revivals of the turn of the century, intended to bring humans closer to the divine. But instead of being tied to one church or tradition, this deconstructed revival is a shedding of white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy on the road to awaken the sacred: the sacred of the body, the sacred that is known and remembered, even in the face of that which is not understood. At CHRONICLE X, worship at black queer feminist church. Decolonize the sacred. Revive.

Creator & Playwright: Nia Witherspoon
Director: Mei Ann Teo
Composers: Troy Anthony & Spaceman
Performers
Danyel Fulton
Nia Witherspoon
Marvel Allen
Shelley Nicole
Narrator: Nicole Deshawn Junior, Nia Witherspoon
Lighting Designer: Tuçe Yasak
Stage Manager: Imani Champion
Musicians: Spaceman, Terry Burns, Tim Angulo

DATES/TIMES:
Friday, January 25 at 8 pm
Saturday, January 26 at 8 pm
Sunday, January 27 at 2 pm
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CHRONICLE X: A Revival is an excerpt from the score of Witherspoon's The Dark Girl Chronicles, a play cycle set in a multi-temporal galaxy, and erected in honor of black women warriors against state violence. Part Yoruba ritual, part collective-manifesto, and part documentary-theatre, each play in the cycle focuses on the interiority and necessary dignity dark girls are so often robbed of in the public arena.

CHRONICLE X is developed in partnership with The Playwrights Realm with generous support from Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX) and Musical Theatre Factory (MTF). The Dark Girl Chronicles is a recipient of The Shed's Open Call Commission.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

NIA O. WITHERSPOON (Writer) is a black queer writer/theatre maker, vocalist/composer, and cultural worker. Described as “especially fascinating” by Backstage Magazine, Witherspoon’s work creates contemporary ritual-space grounded in African-diaspora sensibilities to speak to the issues of our times. Currently in residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Witherspoon has received New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Playwriting/Directing Fellowship, BRIC’s Premiere Residency, Astraea Foundation’s Global Arts Fund Grant, Downtown Urban Theatre Festival’s “Audience Award,” Lambda Literary’s Emerging Playwriting Fellowship, and a Mellon Dissertation Fellowship. Her works, including The Messiah Complex, YOUMINE, and SHE have been developed or featured at BRIC, HERE, NYTW, National Black Theatre, BAAD, Dixon Place, The Fire This Time Festival, and Movement Research. Witherspoon holds a PhD from Stanford University, and is currently a Playwright-in-Residence at University of Massachusetts (Amherst). She has works commissioned in the 2019-20 season by The Shed, Playwright’s Realm, La Mama ETC, and JACK.

MEI ANN TEO (Director) (she/they) is a theatre/film maker who works at the intersection of artistic/civic/ contemplative practice to shift culture towards justice and compassion. As a director/devisor dramaturg, she collaborates across genres, including in multi-form performance, music theatre, and intermedial participatory work. Mei Ann is the producing Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory, a Resident Company of Playwrights Horizons. She was featured at MIT's Symposium Next Wave: The Future of Asian American Theatre, is a National Directing Fellow, and profiled in American Theatre's Role Call: Theatre Workers to Watch. Teo's work has toured the U.S. and at international festivals including Belgium's Festival de Liege (Lyrics From Lockdowni, "Truly polished, meaningful and entertaining" -New York Times). Edinburgh (MiddleFlight. "Stunning" -Scotsman), MI Singapore (The Shape of a Bird, "Superb staging" - Straits Times), and Beijing (Labyrinth - Top 8 in Beijing News). She has developed new work across the country, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Phil Killian Fellow). Goodman Theatre, and Berkeley Rep. Current work includes: the world premiere and 25 city tour in China of Dim Sum Warriors by Colin Goli and Yeni Yeni Woo (composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yuri), collaborating with Diana Oh on Clairvoyance at ART Oberon in Spring 2019, directing Songs of Speculation by Jillian Walker at JACK, collaborating with Nia Witherspoon for Dark Girl Chronicles, her Open Call commission at The Shed. Her short film, Let Me Kill My Mother First, is an official selection of the 2018 Singapore International Film Festival. She holds an MFA from Columbia University in theatre directing.

Pictured above (from left to right): Dani Criss and Wi-Moto Nyoka.