Br'er Cotton E-Book

Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

'We talkin' about life. We talkin' about being treated as equals. We talkin' about not being shot down in the streets and motherfuckers gettin' off scot-free.' Lynchburg, Virginia, on the former site of a cotton mill. Fourteen-year-old Ruffrino is struggling to make sense of his place in an impoverished world filled with seemingly random killings of young black men. As his anger towards reality grows, he moves further away from his family. Losing himself online, Ruffrino's world sinks around him while he battles to wake up the zombies and prove by any means necessary that Black Lives Matter. Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm's play Br'er Cotton was first seen at Kitchen Dog Theatre, Texas, in 2017, and received its UK premiere at Theatre503, London, in 2018. It was shortlisted for both the Theatre503 Playwriting Award 2016 and the Relentless Award, and won the 2019 Off-West End Award for Best New Play.

Leseprobe

Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm

BR’ERCOTTON

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production

Br’er Cotton

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Br’er Cotton was shortlisted for both the Theatre503 Playwriting Award 2016 and Relentless Award. It was first produced as a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere by Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas, TX), Lower Depth Ensemble Theater (Los Angeles, CA), and the Cleveland Public Theater (Cleveland, OH) as part of NNPN’s Continued Life program.

It was first performed in the UK at Theatre503, London, on 12 March 2018, with the following cast:

RUFFRINO/SONMichael AjaoNADINE/MOTHERKiza DeenMATTHEW/GRANDFATHERTrevor A ToussaintCAGED_BIRD99Ellie TurnerOFFICERAlexander Campbell  DirectorRoy Alexander WeiseDesignerJemima RobinsonLighting DesignerAmy MaeSound DesignerHarry JohnsonVideo DesignerLouise Rhoades-BrownMovement DirectorVicki MandersonAssistant DirectorJordan John

Characters

RUFFRINO / SON, fourteen, male, black

NADINE / MOTHER, early thirties, female, black

MATTHEW / GRANDFATHER, sixties, male, black

CAGED_BIRD99, fourteen, female, white

OFFICER, mid-thirties, male, white

REDNECK_SWAG, disembodied white voice

Settings

The cotton field. Timeless.

The kitchen / cotton. A cotton field grows in a kitchen.The kitchen is sinking.

Diaspora. A post-apocalyptic wasteland via Xbox.

Time

Right-right now!

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

ARS POETICA

The cotton field.

MOTHER, a new mother, cradling an infant. Timeless.

This is a lullaby. NADINE fills the beats (…) with music.

MOTHER. Once upon a time out of mind, this land was one great big tall hill.

…

The hill reached up forever; higher and higher. Past the clouds, past the stars, past the moon, to where if you stood on your tippiest-toe on the very top branch of the tallest tree on the highest peak with your arms stretched out as far as it could go, the tip of your longest finger would be just a hair length from touching heaven.

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!