She Who Is /  Adrienne Kennedy Fugues

I conceived of this series of short films visually inspired by Classical Hollywood imagery that floods the works of American playwright Adrienne Kennedy. Created in collaboration with award winning filmmaker Julie Wyman. The series explores Kennedy’s body of work focusing on the protagonists, highly educated, acculturated African American academics find themselves teetering on the edge of the  ‘metaphysical dilemma’ that is in the margins where both living inside and outside of the academy are squeezed. Kennedy, interrupts ‘the system’ of the well-made play with long poetic, cinematically described stage directions. I posit that these stage directions are the flesh made word. Often these directions are given short shrift in theatrical performance. By extracting them and following them to the letter, I  make room to contemplate the relationship between the life lived in the Black female body and the demands of the dominant culture.

Woman Made Gallery - 2150 S Canalport #4A-3, Chicago, Il 60608

23rd International Women Made Festival

https://vimeo.com/466404984