The Brooklyn Rail

OCT 2021

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OCT 2021 Issue
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The Stage

The Stage
Jackie Robinson Park Bandshell (Harlem)
Bradhurst Ave And 148th Street, New York, Ny 10039
October 22 – October 24, 2021

Sounding Board is an experimental play about performativity—performativity in this context relating to all actions that are done for the edification of others or for the social advancement of one’s public facing self. In this play, actor one and actor two are lovers who seek comfort and validation in very different ways. One seeks such affirmation from their partner and the other from their audience. The conflict between the two arises from this issue. Repetition plays an important function in this play as both a means for transformation and disorientation. Stuck within the liminal space of the stage, actor one and actor two use language as a drawing tool—an instrument which allows them to define the boundaries of their psycho-emotional space. Their substrate, the stage, itself functions as a pictorial element, and a moment of aesthetic delight for the play’s audience. The audience which, in many respects, is the third in this ménage. 

Contributor

Tschabalala Self

Tschabalala Self is an artist who lives and works in Harlem and New Haven.

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The Brooklyn Rail

OCT 2021

All Issues