Very excited about next week’s reading! Professor Sibley is traveling from Arkansas.
ABOUT THE PLAY:
What happens when long-separated siblings reunite after the death of a parent? When successful film actress Venus Kettle returns to Glee, Mississippi, to her mother’s “home going,” she is greeted by her sisters with a wide range of emotions. After airing incidents of sexual abuse in her childhood home a few months prior to their mother’s death, Venus can’t escape the rippling effects of her confession or in this case, the “leaking” of family business. In the meantime, Uprooted explores abortion in a small Mississippi town during the 1980’s by way of the play’s deceased matriarch, who is known as a pillar in the community and nursing profession. This uneasy sibling reunion and the possibility of Venus’s brother, who is incarcerated in a facility in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, coming home for the funeral forces the Kettle family to recall the incest issues stemming from their household. Uprooted is moving tribute to the redemptive power of family.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT:
Clinnesha D. Sibley is a native of McComb, Mississippi and an HBCU alumna. She holds a BA from Tougaloo College and an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Arkansas, where she is currently an assistant professor of Drama. Her play, Tell Martha Not to Moan, received three out of four stars in the Denver Post after its world premiere production at the Aurora Fox Theatre. Uprooted was recently recognized as a 2013 Kentucky Women Writers Conference National Playwriting Prize Finalist play. Other awards include: the 2009 Key Woman Educator in Drama Award from the Iota Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society, Holland New Voices Award, 2012 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist, 2012 Athena Project Voices of Women Artists Plays in Progress Series Winner, and an Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. Publications include: It’s In My Blood: Thicker than Water (poetry) and King Me: Three One-Act Plays Inspired by the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Her plays have also appeared in Black Magnolias Literary Journal and Muzzle Magazine.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
EBONY NOELLE GOLDEN
Creativity is conjuring, is root work, is making a way out of no way, is the practice of radical expressiveness that enlivens, incites and insists on liberation, NOW! Ebony Noelle Golden works at the intersection of art, culture and public education with individuals, communities and organizations seeking to build creative strategy, cultural performance and liberatory learning experiences for progressive social change. Working nationally, Ebony is the Director of the cultural arts direct action group, Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, LLC and the Artistic Director of The Body Ecology Performance Ensemble. She earned a B.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Texas A & M University, a M.F.A. in Creative Writing-Poetry from American University, and a M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. You can find more information at www.bettysdaughterarts.com.
