By Kerri MubaarakKerri is managing artistic director of Scrapmettle in Greensboro. Scrapmettle is theatrically investigating their drawn humor - BLOOD - for The Body Project. This is a short montage filmed by Brian Gregory that features the opening monologue (written by Tomeka Collins) of our piece, Bloods. Scrapmettle puts our finishing touches on Bloods, the performance we're writing for Storyhound's The Body Project. The poem heard in the foreground written by Tomeka Collins is the opening monologue that foretells the birth of a child, born of blood into a family of gang members. Based on a true story, Bloods looks at the subject from three angles--medical, physical and symbolic--during a "day in the life" of the expecting mother who is shot by a rival gang member. The script for Storyhound Theatre's The Body Project is finished and we're heading into rehearsal phase. Filmed here: Kerri Mubaarak, Ingram Bell, Tomeka Collins, Adrian Quarles, Ambria Webster, Mandy Messina (guest artist) and Angela Williams Tripp.
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Jessica WilkinsJessica Wilkins is an artist, graduate student and director of UNCG's Art Truck. She is co-producing The Body Project and is creating new work through the lens of the humor YELLOW BILE. See Jess tap into her Bile Side on Storyhound's facebook page here. I had really been looking forward to the night of the Humor drawing at Greensboro Project Space back in November. I knew I wanted to participate with this very alive and diverse group of artists to discover unknown parts of our group and of myself.
I picked Yellow Bile as my fantastic humor and along with our other members we began to learn about our destructive, vengeful, hot-tempered, ambitious, daring, imaginative and confident leader selves! Letting the words sink in and not getting to heady about it all…we explored the untreated onion, lemon, cabbage, pasta, eggplant and cucumber with touch and action. I unboxed the pasta and broke fist fulls of the long rods onto the cement floor, smashing and thrashing, stomping and breaking… I was on my way to some Yellow Bile destruction! Permission given and I took it! I tore away at cabbages and squeezed lemons with gritted teeth. It felt so good to be angry and physical while also knowing I was exploring and testing with the safety of the group. For a long time I’d felt guilty at the temper tantrums I had as a kid and saw my Grandmother’s rage as something I didn’t want to have any part of. I’ve come to find a place for rage and anger. Not needing them to stay too long,,..and yet allowing them to be a part of me. This exploration helped me to playfully choose to embody rage and anger, an exercise, a freedom. And at this moment in time, as a first year graduate student within UNCG’s art department, I am interested in other aspects of the fantastic yellow bile; I am interested in the ambitious, the daring, the imaginative and confident qualities that are needed to see me through this Making process. The Body Project offers an opportunity to use play and inquiry when collaborating with a fellow Body Project participant and writer (I have teamed up with writer Susan Kirby-Smith). I think our teamwork will help keep me accountable and surprised as I learn to trust my self as an artist. Kerri MubaarakKerri is blogging about her theatre company, Scrapmettle's, ongoing process to create a new theatrical piece for The Body Project, investigating Scrapmettle's assigned humor: BLOOD. Sitting in her cube, Ambria Webster, collaborator on The Body Project had a flash of inspiration about how to open “Bloods” (working title). Meanwhile, Ingram Bell works through the emotional drama and memory of being shot, deconstructing the details leading up to the incident and reassembling it in dialogue and stage directions. This is proof that inspiration can come at any moment, but after that is the true work of telling the story honestly, tying it all together and healing old wounds in the process.
Shelley Stolaroff SegalShelley is a playwright, composer, and essayist living in Greensboro, NC. As part of the body project, she is creating a new piece for piano inspired by the humor PHLEGM. When Gabby Sinclair offered to draw a Body Project humor for me last November because I was out of town I was relieved and grateful. I should’ve known better. When I returned and eagerly checked my assignment I discovered I was Phlegm. Really? That snot funny, I thought. I read the description and tried to determine how I would compose music to a temperament so unlike mine. Phlegmatic: Apathetic and Indecisive. Also, Relaxed, Peaceful, and Quiet. My friends would snicker. It didn’t help that I kept picturing that slimy green mucus thug on the Mucinex commercials. Shit, I thought, why couldn’t I have drawn something hot and angry like Yellow Bile?
But with time and consideration I have come to appreciate Phlegm, the watery rock star of the vital fluids. “The Four Humors are the metabolic agents of the Four Elements in the human body. The right balance and purity of them is essential to maintaining health.” I read about Hippocrates, who not only understood the geography of the body, he believed that each humor corresponded with one of the four traditional--and I believe--modern temperaments. The truth is, all humors are special and beautiful, and part of a fine liquid mosaic. Each contributes to one’s sense of balance, physically and emotionally. Phlegm is beautiful and necessary. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to work with. While sitting on the piano trying to compose, my fingers start to underperform. To feel sluggish. My brain, which is usually wound up as tight as a tick, begins to relax. So do my muscles. I just feel like hunkering down inside one of those soft polyester blankets and sipping cocoa. I studied my humor further. (After I’d had coffee.) I was still reticent about my assignment because I typically come up short in the mellow department. I started reasoning. Well, phlegm is associated with water. I’m a Taurus, which is an earth sign, and water nourishes the earth. Voila. It all made sense. (Especially when I noticed the Phlegm drives are comfort and food.) However, my friends would probably agree that I’m more closely aligned with hot air. (Choleric and Sanguine.) I kept reading and looking at medieval woodblocks. I was heartened to see that my phlegm organ was the brain and my age was maturity. (No, really.) But I was embarrassed when I read the quote, and I quote, “The young warrior’s choler gave him courage but phlegm produced cowards.” Oh dear. Well, my music will not be cowardly. It will be bold, (somewhat) and focused, and well, you’ll just have to hear it and judge for yourself. Please be sanguine with your criticism. I’m very temperamental in real life. *** Shelley Stolaroff Segal is a playwright, performer, and essayist living in Greensboro, NC. My Son, her play about autism and race premiered in NYC, and was presented at TEDx East. Other production credits include Bliss, a play about marriage, and Outing Your Autistic Child, which she both scored and choreographed. Segal’s international and regional stage credits include performances at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London, the Classic Stage Company in NYC, the North Coast Repertory Company in San Diego, and the Main Street Theater in Houston. Non-fiction credits include The Washington Post, Blunt Moms, and Autism/Asperger’s Digest. Anthology credits include Voices from the Spectrum, Chicken Soup for the Soul, From Sac Literary Journal, and Multiples Illuminated. Her instrumental music has been used in short films and original stage productions, and was published in conjunction with the Miles Davis Jazz Orchestra in Greensboro. Segal received her theater training at The Drama Studio London and the Classic Stage Company in New York. By Ashley LumpkinAshley Lumpkin is a Georgia-raised, Carolina-based writer, editor, actor, and educator. Above all else, Ashley considers herself a teacher, poet, and changer of fates. She is a lover of mathematics and language. She loves you too. Ashley drew "Yellow bile" for The Body Project and is blogging about her process here. Check out Ashley's work here. Some context: Poems Usually start for me with some concrete image or interesting fact that I can build something larger out of, But this project in many ways feels like starting with the grand idea and working back in words. This frame helped me to organize some of the more abstract ideas floating in my head, and then ask the questions that may lead to a concrete center for my poem. - Ashley |
AuthorsThe Greensboro poets, theatre-makers, visual artists, composers, dancers, and filmmakers of The Body Project. Presented by Storyhound Theatre and the UNCG Art Truck. Archives
March 2018
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