Our Language
Play: 'action between things (or people) in a space'. Prescribed of our human interdependence and untold possibilities. Edifying, free, entertaining, like children mastering terrain. On stage, we teach what we would learn. Everything, real or imagined is visible, players responsible for what the audience sees. Everything it requires, it facilitates thru its own unequivocal, self-evident principles. Accessing these, players find our fulcrum to remain creative, unbound, and effective thru uncertainty, inevitability, commodification and a host of other potential malignancies. Our 'humor and pathos' are anything but pretense; the 'masks' we skill show us who we are (what we're capable of) and what we mean to each other. Children (and other displaced, diverse populations) are responsible for the progression of all the world’s languages throughout time; change the dialogue. Rarely hesitate to participate; apply themselves with authenticity, rigor. Playground, classroom, screen; heat-seeking exercise, acumen, community to meet individual needs. Instant cohesion, solidarity in a shared priority. Like children maintain their playing space; safe, whatever ruckus; the Workshop is held sacred for whom it's prepared. We train to see with 'eyes-in-the-back-of-the-head’, 360º; turn on a dime and freeze! Sometimes we learn something
and change; perspective, direction, posture,
or the shape of the greater environment.
Any player's slightest move could
change the story for us all;
none of us does it alone.
Background and Work
Daughter of iconic activist and community organizer Dorothy Pitman Hughes; early focus on the working principles of extraordinary outcomes. Trained on New York's theatre stages and at Circle In The Square Theatre School's Professional Program. Later, Chicago's wide stage community, and given Viola Spolin's famous 'theatre games', which form the basis of our work here, along with other expert, interdisciplinary exercises and techniques. 'Grandmother' of the modern improv comedy of SNL and Second City, Spolin derived her games observing children at play (taking notes, as grandmas do). Different from 'form', or 'genre'; fundamental; their proficiency, preternatural, lessons and creative rewards, limitless. 'A path to innovation, inspiration and personal commitment.'
Countless stages; long resume of instruction, including Third Year Acting Instructor, LACHSA (Los Angeles' Arts High School); ten thousand hours practice (including the Singers' Workshop, The World Stage, Leimert Park); and a decades-long collaboration with Mr. Washington and the LA music collective, The West Coast Get Down; currently touring the world indefinitely. (credits and letters of recommendation available on request).