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Me, Myself and I Series
“There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.” Maya Angelou. Four different tales from theatre/performance artists that will surprise and awaken your imagination and inspire you to write your own tale! With works from featured performance artist D’Lo, and new works by local writers Jeanne Haynes, Rachel Parker and Anthem Salgado, this series will remind us that who we are from moment to moment is just a story ready to be told. Performance Dates, Times and Prices Thursday, November 19, 7pm: The Stove is White, Minor D’Tales, $20
Minor D'Tales A series of excerpts from larger works-in-progress which include story-telling and character monologues will inspire you to know more. Although known for mostly comedic work, D'Lo is honored to also share work that reflects D'Lo's latest ventures in the many writing and performance realms of dramatic theater. D’Lo will be featured opening weekend. Written and Performed by Jeanne Haynes, Directed by Raelle Myrick-Hodges With the turbulent civil rights era as background, Haynes portrays a cast of unforgettable characters who touched her life including entertainers in New York City, her news editor in the Jim Crow South, rioters in San Francisco and her earnest young step-daughter who, when Haynes becomes the only White person in their large Black family, offers the comforting observation, "But the stove is white!" With unflinching candor in this one-woman show, Haynes shares personal experiences of both racial prejudice and the promise of reconciliation. The Stove Is White is a racially themed production dedicated to her African-American stepchildren and biracial children. Haynes impersonates a cast of unforgettable characters in unflinching personal civil rights tales showcasing New York City’s entertainment world, Southern sit-ins and San Francisco race riots. The production features a sound tract of a dozen hallmark musical selections from Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Antonin Dvorak’s New World Symphony, Madame Butterfly and Hair. Examining racial prejudice, including her own, the show dramatically demonstrates how various locations, eras, and experiences affect who we come to be. The Stove Is White, Haynes’ third original theater piece and first one-woman show, had its premiere performance June 25 at The Marsh, San Francisco to a packed. Written and Performed by Rachel Parker, Directed by Matthew Graham Smith A woman’s journey through her life as seen through the most iconic of American holiday rituals—Christmas. Rachel explores the darkly comic threads of her past, digging through the seasonal escapades she survived with her erratic, loving but altogether eccentric and conflicted mother including: a divorce, a wedding, a divorce, another wedding, rot gut wine and tenuously brittle and fragile love. Written and Performed by Anthem Salgado, Directed by Evren Odcikin A warrior's greatest untapped power may reside in his surrender. In this ‘mixtape’ of text and movement, one man dreams himself a fighter and sets off on a mystical journey from the subculture of New York City nightlife to the sun-baked jungle of the Philippines to pursue the meaning of his vision. Filled with fateful encounters with psychics, aliens, and even one man who strangely resembles Mike Tyson, Bare Knuckle chronicles this man's quest for balance between his concept of manhood vs. his relationship with mankind. Biographies About D’Lo: Described as a "jolt of creative and comedic energy", D'Lo is a Tamil Sri L.A.nkan-American, political theatre artist/writer, music producer and director. D'Lo also performs and facilitates performance workshops extensively throughout the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Sri Lanka and India. D'Lo holds a BA from UCLA in Ethnomusicology and is a graduate of New York's School of Audio Engineering (SAE). In 2004, D'Lo had a sold-out NYC run of Ballin With My Bois, D’s queer hip-hop theater piece. Aside from touring the university/college circuit, this year, D’Lo did a Cornerstone Theater production of For All Time at CIW, a staged reading of Terrry Wolverton’s play Embers, sound design for Adelina Anthony’s Brusing for Besos, directed 2 solo shows for Teada's Healing Aloud Season (Raquel Salinas and Shyamala Moorty), wrote and collaborated with Theater Mu in Minneapolis on a Taiko Show and performed at the Bay Area's Fresh Meat Festival. Currently, D'Lo is touring with Ramble-Ations: A One D'Lo Show which received the NPN Creation Fund Grant co-commissioned by Pangea World Theater and New World Theater. Ramble-Ations will be featured at Brava March 17-April 13, 2010. Jeanne Haynes Inspired by a storytelling seminar 12 years ago, Haynes abandoned her media relations consulting business to become a full time performer and teacher. The Stove Is White is her third original theater piece. Her venues in the City include the 2009 San Francisco Theater Festival, The Marsh, ODC Theater and Noh Space at Theatre of Yugen; Julia Morgan Theatre and The Ashby Stage in Berkeley; Bay Area Storytelling Festival, regional Telebrations, KPFA FM Berkeley Public Radio and schools throughout the Bay Area. A former news reporter with a degree in Journalism, she draws from her communication background to tell personal and traditional tales. She teaches weekly adult storytelling classes at Stagebridge, Oakland, and conducts senior workshops. As an artist in residence she has taught the art of storytelling to some 2000 students in 15+ Bay Area schools.Rachel Parker Rachel has performed on stages spanning the East and West—sides of Los Angeles, that is. Her work has been seen at The WeHo Church, The Raven Theatre in the NoHo Arts District, The Electric Lodge and The Complex Theatre on Theatre Row in Hollywood. She is often seen reading essays and short pieces in taverns across the greater L.A. area, including most recently at the Hyperion Tavern. She received her education in Theatre at the University of Southern California where she studied acting, playwriting and controlled substances. Several years ago, her feature film Front (which she wrote and produced) screened to an audience of dozens in the New York Independent Film Festival and then faded into immediate and permanent obscurity. This is her first time performing at Brava. When she’s not busy working in the command center of her home in downtown Los Angeles, she’s either taking or teaching a yoga class and wondering what it is that her dog Toby has against large or small things with wheels and noisy children. Anthem Salgado, a multi-disciplinary artist and educator, has performed his original solo-theater creations on the stages of Asian Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Intersection for the Arts, and Kearny Street Workshop. He made his ensemble member debut as “Man” under the direction of Raelle Myrick-Hodges in Friends by Kobo Abe, which opened Brava’s 2008-2009 season and 2nd Stage Theater. Salgado has presented his spoken word throughout the Bay Area, New York, Honolulu, and Manila. As a literary artist, his fiction appears in the anthologies Field of Mirrors and I Saw My Ex at a Party. He has held teaching artist residencies for Brava and at Downtown High School. Salgado was awarded a Philippines Fulbright-Hays scholarship via Sonoma State University’s North Bay International Studies Program, and was elected Young Leader of Color by Theatre Communications Group.
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Me, Myself and I Series 