Unveiling Exciting New Voices in American Theatre:
Nadia Honary, Magnolia Yang, and Shante’ Sojourn Zenith
MINNEAPOLIS (Nov. 30, 2016) — Pillsbury House Theatre Co-Artistic Directors Faye Price and Noël Raymond have announced the lineup for the presentations of new work by the 2016 Naked Stages Fellows, beginning on Thursday, December 8 and running through Saturday, December 17.
Since its inception in 2009, the Naked Stages program has been part of a vital effort to provide mentorship and support to current emerging performances artists in Minnesota.
This year’s 2016 Naked Stages series will present a full evening of exciting new works from Naked Stages fellows Nadia Honary, Magnolia Yang, and Shante’ Sojourn Zenith. These evenings are the culmination of a seven-month training fellowship that provides time, resources, and mentorship to these three emerging performance artists to help them bring their distinctive visions to life on the stage. This multi-layered program challenges its artists to be their most bold and creative and it challenges artists and audiences alike to push past their previous boundaries.
Tickets for the Naked Stages series can be reserved in advance by calling (612) 825-0459, visiting https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/963881, or by visiting in person at Pillsbury House Theatre at 3501 Chicago Avenue South.
2016 NAKED STAGES SCHEDULE:
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8 -SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15-SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17
7:30 PM
REFLECTION, REVELATION, RELEASE.
Written by Nadia Honary
This is an interactive installation experience that uses mirrors, video images, and live performance to tell personal stories and to explore perception and self-censorship within Middle Eastern and queer identities. Identity is fluid and ever-evolving, but societies often expect us to define ourselves and stay in one box. Nadia, a half-Iranian queer artist, shares her own and others’ stories as she investigates silence as a choice and the catharsis that comes from being honest about who we are. This installation is a space for transformation — for people to witness identities in flux, to reflect on how they perceive themselves and others, and to feel the freedom to safely release a truth about themselves.
she can be seen walking alone
Written by Magnolia Yang Sao Yia (YSY)
This piece is inspired by stories personal and community based that weaves women’s experience with gender identity and their ability to find space, voice, and spirituality. What kinds of expressivity is possible in pushing through constraints upon us? What emerges when we dig into history and mythology to create images for present day survival?
VULNERARIES
Written by Shante’ Sojourn Zenith
Vulneraries is a performative response to a culture that is afraid of our vulnerability—our “ability to be wounded”. In archaic usage, a “vulnerary” was a botanical remedy that created a protective layer over a wound, allowing a body to self-heal from trauma through the instinctual responses of the nervous system. Vulneraries cure not by dulling our pain but by engaging our body’s innate ability to self-heal when supported by the presence of a compassionate witness. A vulnerary could also be a parent holding a crying child, allowing that child a safe container in which to release their emotions. Or it could the forest that you walk through as you are processing a deep grief, returning to yourself through reawakening to natural cycles of growth and decomposition. Vulneraries asks: what cultural and ecological healing would be possible if we felt safe to be present to our own depth of feeling, if we had the support to traverse emotions such as grief, rage, longing, despair—which many of us know only as destructive forces that consume us—transforming what wounds us into creative acts of opening, of liberation?
From the Mainstage series to Chicago Avenue Project and Naked Stages to the Power of Our Voices teen ensemble, Pillsbury House Theatre brings audiences closer—to the edge, to the actors, to affordable, adventurous theatre, to fellow audience members, and to a strong community. Now in its 25th season, Pillsbury House Theatre is proud to be a professional theatre unlike any other. In partnership with Pillsbury United Communities, one of the largest human services organizations in the state, Pillsbury House Theatre demonstrates that the highest quality art is an integral part of all healthy communities, winning awards for theatre across the metro while also inspiring choice, change, and connection through raw, intimate drama.
Visit Pillsbury House at pillsburyhouseandtheatre.org, and on Twitter (@PHouseTheatre), or Facebook.
