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Theater segment:
- An American Ma(u)l by Robert O'Hara
Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, Stage Director
Click here to go to the website for Department of Theatre & Drama production of An American Ma(u)l.
An American Ma(u)l
With the country in recession and the nation mired in war, the newly elected
President of the United States needs to kick start the economy. Suddenly a
miracle solution appears. A new form of cotton has been cultivated, and
with it the promise of prosperity returns, but labor is scarce. With no one
to pick this new breed of cotton the President takes what he considers the
only logical action: He rescinds the Fourteenth Amendment and re-institutes
slavery. In this deconstruction of American history, playwright Robert
O¹Hara uses scathing satire, outrageous humor, and soaring theatricality to
address the tenuous state of racial harmony in America today.
Robert O'Hara received a 2006 Obie Award for his direction of Danai Guirira and Nikkole Salter's In The Continuum. O'Hara has directed at New York Shakespeare Festival, Primary Stages, Yale Repertory, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Kirk Douglas Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Magic Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Market Theatre in Johannesburg, Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, The Culture Project, The Flea, Athenaeum Theatre and Perry Street Theatre. He has also developed work at Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Seattle Repertory and Theater Emory.
He wrote and directed the world premiere of Insurrection: Holding History at the New York Public Theater in 1996, after serving as a 1995-96 Artist in Residence at the Public, during which time he served as Assistant to the Director of Bring in 'da Noise/Bring in 'da Funk and Blade to the Heat, both directed by George C. Wolfe. Insurrection: Holding History received the Oppenheimer Award for Best New American Play.
O'Hara received his M.F.A. in Directing from Columbia University. His recent projects include Des McAnuff's revival of The Wiz at LaJolla Playhouse and Good Breeding, his new adaptation of the Oresteia. He is the recipient of Mark Taper Forum's Sherwood Award, the John Golden Award, Newsday's 1996 Oppenheimer Award for Best New American Play, and the 1996 NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights with American Conservatory Theater.
Adapted and modified from <http://www.goodmantheatre.org/News/PressRoom/Releases/051107_InTheContinuum_Release.aspx> and a biographical note in the published version of Insurrection: Holding History (New York: TCG, 1999).
Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe's national directing credits include Trinity Rep in
Providence, RI; Woolly Mammoth in DC; WaterTower in Dallas; Curious Theatre
in Denver; Mark Taper Forum in LA; Southern Rep in New Orleans; Alabama
Shakespeare Festival and Capital Rep in Albany, NY. Locally, she has
directed at TheatreWorks, Magic Theatre, Exit Theatre, Theatre Rhinoceros,
Lorraine Hansberry, American Conservatory Theatre¹s MFA Program and with the
company she founded, Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience. She
has received a Dean Goodman Award for Excellence in Directing and two Rabin
Award (Dallas) nominations. She served several years on the selection
committee of the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and is an Artistic Associate
of The Medea Project; Theatre for Incarcerated Women. Her work as an actor
goes back to her childhood and she has appeared onstage at Downstairs
Cabaret Theatre in Rochester, NY; Dixon Place, New York City; San Diego Rep;
Baltimore Theatre Project and Clarence Brown Theatre in Knoxville,
Tennessee. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Edris has worked onstage at
Theatre Works, Magic Theatre, Sacramento Theatre Company, Theatre Artaud,
Lorraine Hansberry and toured nationally and internationally with the Tony
award-winning political theatre company, San Francisco Mime Troupe.
She holds an M.F.A. in Directing from the University of Iowa and is an
alumna of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors. Additional
training has included theatre research and performance at the University of
Ibadan, Nigeria, and at Shakespeare & Company in Tanglewood, Massachusetts.
She has directed two films, The Green Goddess for Enlightenment Productions
and her own independent series of satirical PSAs entitled ³The Third Side.²
She is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. Edris
has just received a New Frontiers Fellowship to develop a Black Play Lab and
symposium at IU in the Summer of 2008.
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