Co-Writer & Co-Creator with Amma Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin & Khalil Sullivan. At Buffalo.
U.C. Berkeley / Berkeley, CA / Apr. 2011
Race was on display at the 1901 World’s Fair at Buffalo, New York. In exhibits like Darkest Africa, Old Plantation, and The American Negro Exhibit, larger-than-life showmen presented unique, and often conflicting visions of blackness in America at the turn of the twentieth century, leaving behind a fragmented archive of descriptions, newspaper articles, photographs, and film clips that sheds new light on a critical moment in the construction of modern black and American identity. At Buffalo, a new musical I'm co-creating with Amma Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin and Khalil Sullivan, brings this archive to life, making present an experience of the past when definitions of race were literally written, directed, choreographed, and performed in order to reconstruct the American character in the wake of the Civil War. Performing verbatim text from the archive of actual historical events, the musical resurrects the interwoven storylines of the individuals who populated the fairgrounds and exposes the impact that such performances continue to have on our everyday enactments of racial and national identity.
At Buffalo is based on Amma Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin's pioneering research. I’m working across book, music and lyrics with her and Khalil Sullivan. After its run at U.C. Berkeley, At Buffalo has gone on to many other workshops and readings at The University of Colorado Boulder, the New York Musical Theatre Festival, CAP21, the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, the University at Buffalo and Apples and Oranges’ THEatre ACCELERATOR. Its current development is being supported by a MAP Fund Grant. Amma Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin also took the show to the 2019 TED Conference, where it met with a very enthusiastic reception. Check out the video below and visit http://www.atbuffalomusical.com for more information.
These photographs were taken at the 2011 Black Theater Workshop production of At Buffalo at U.C. Berkeley. This iteration of the project was directed by Amma Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin. I assistant-directed. It featured undergraduate and graduate student performers. All photographs courtesy of Joshua Hesslein at TDPS.