- CONCEIVED AND WRITTEN BY SEKOU SUNDIATA
- DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER MCELROEN
NOV 8, 10 & 11 AT 7:30PM
BAM HOWARD GILMAN OPERA HOUSE
TICKETS: $20, 30, 40
PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH HARLEM STAGE/AARON DAVIS HALL, INC.
BAMDIALOGUE WITH SEKOU SUNDIATA
NOV 10, POST-SHOW
(FREE FOR TICKET HOLDERS)
DAYS OF ART AND IDEAS
NOV 3 & 4
HARLEM STAGE/AARON DAVIS HALL, INC @ THE GATEHOUSE
WEST 135TH ST & CONVENT AVE
The events of 9/11 changed America. We all know this. But what exactly does it mean? How have our cherished notions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness been called into question? Is there room in this radically altered landscape for compassion, solidarity, and love? And where, if anywhere, is God? Cosmic questions, these, and as posed in vanguard poet/monologist/composer/musician Sekou Sundiata's
the 51st (dream) state, they are a thrilling clarion call to civic and artistic action.
Aided by composer Graham Haynes, Sundiata and his musical ensemble take us on a galvanizing soul search for our identity, all the while asking questions via a rousing cycle of songs, poems, monologues, and projected images. A work for the people,
the 51st (dream) state comes from the people. An artistic residency in Harlem and public engagements with college and university communities all over the country yielded a dizzying spectrum of opinions, beliefs, anxieties, and passions. And they've found their way into Sundiata's astonishing work, granting even more immediacy to this urgent investigation of who we are, what the rest of the world thinks of us, and what keeps us going.
APX. RUNNING TIME: 90MIN, NO INTERMISSION
SCORE COMPOSED BY GRAHAM HAYNES
CHOREOGRAPHY BY DAVID THOMSON
PROJECTION DESIGN BY SAGE CARTER
SET DESIGN BY TROY HOURIE
LIGHTING DESIGN BY RODERICK MURRAY
COSTUME DESIGN BY LIZ PRINCE
SOUND DESIGN BY LUCAS INDELICATO
VOCAL DIRECTOR RICHARD HARPER
Lead commissioning & development support provided by HARLEM STAGE/Aaron Davis Hall, Inc. Major commissioning support provided by Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Stanford Lively Arts, and Walker Art Center. Major support contributed by Association of Performing Arts Presenters Ensemble Theatre Collaborations Grant Program, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. A dance and be still arts production.