Stage Door News
Stage Door News
The Watah Theatre is pleased to announce a special workshop reading of the second draft of d’bi.young anitafrika’s dub opera Lukumi (formally titled Bleeders). Following rave reviews of the workshop presentation at the 2016 Summerworks Festival and winning NOW Magazine’s Audience Choice award, anitafrika returns with a reading of the full-length DubOpera on January 27th to 29th, 2017.
An Afro-futurist DubOpera set in Ontario, Lukumi is the culminating play in anitafrika's second triptych of plays: The Orisha Trilogy. The story takes place way into the future - the Pickering Nuclear Plant has exploded, and a group of Black womxn form a small council. How, in the midst of government oppression, repression of the gender revolution, and ecological degradation do we still find hope?
Anitafrika is the winner of three Dora awards for Blood.claat and She, Mami Wata & the Pussy WitchHunt. Other awards include: KM Hunter Theatre, Mayor’s Arts, Vital People, Canadian Poet of Honor, Toronto Leadership Lab Fellow and YWCA Woman of Distinction in the Arts. She is an internationally celebrated African-Jamaican dubpoet, playwright-monodramatist, arts-educator, and Artistic Director of The Watah Theatre, whose trans-disciplinary work (dubpoetry, theatre, music, dance, writing, storytelling) explores themes of identity, gender, sexuality, divinity, the erotic, race, class and the human experience. She is the creator of the human development framework – The Anitafrika Method – which has been employed by The Stephen Lewis Foundation, The Banff Centre, U of T, MaRS, Women’s College Hospital and other institutions globally.
Lukumi will see the return of the original cast: Sashoya Shoya Oya, Raven Dauda, Najla Nubyanluv, Olunike Adeliyi, Aisha Bentham, Nickeshia Garrick, and Ravyn Wngs. This all-star cast will be accompanied by the 2016/17 Watah Theatre Artists-in-Residence and lead by Director d’bi.young anitafrika with Musical Director Waleed Abdulhamid.
LUKUMI: A DubOpera Workshop Reading
Playwright/Director d’bi.young anitafrika
Performed by Sashoya Shoya Oya, Raven Dauda, Najla Nubyanluv, Olunike Adeliyi, Aisha Bentham, Nickeshia Garrick, Ravyn Wngs & the Watah Theatre 2016/17 Artists-in-Residence
Musical Director Waleed Abdulhamid
Executive Producer d’bi.young anitafrika | Producer Brett Haynes
January 27-29, 2016 | Fri and Sat at 8pm | Sun at 2pm | Ticket Price: $20.00
The Watah Theatre | 9 Trinity Street Studio 317 – Distillery District
ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE lukumiworkshop.bpt.me
2017-01-03
Toronto: The Watah Theatre announces a workshop reading of "Lukumi" January 27-29