THE NEGROES HAVE RISEN

Welcome to the Edwards Estate, as presented by its Living History Interpreters – the group of Black twentysomethings who work there as plantation museum tour guides. As the work of giving costumed tours becomes too much, the Interpreters struggle to stay in character and remember their lines. That is, until they find evidence of a failed slave uprising that appears nowhere in the history of the estate and with it, the chance to make a different kind of Living History.

 

Content Advisory: This play contains strong language and explores themes of the enslavement of people of African descent, anti-Black racism, intergenerational trauma, and violence, as well as other emotionally challenging themes. Recommended for Ages 15+. 

Playwright
Maxine Dillon

Maxine Dillon (she/her) is a playwright and stage manager who is doing her part to Keep Austin Weird. Her plays include THE NEGROES HAVE RISEN (O’Neill NPC Finalist, BAPF Finalist), unbury your gays, and Strange Flesh. Her work has been developed by Broad Theatre, Ground Floor Theatre, and The Road Theatre. She is a proud alumna of GFT Writes and 24 Hour Plays: Nationals. Maxine graduated with a B.A. in English from Yale University, and she is a first year M.F.A candidate in Playwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. 

TICKETS SUN, SEPT 20, 3:00PM
(In Person Reading at The Rueff at A.C.T.'s Strand Theater) SAT, SEPT 26, 7:00PM
(In Person Reading at The Rueff at A.C.T.'s Strand Theater) MON, OCT 19–SUN, OCT 25
(On Demand)

DIRECTOR: LEIGH RONDON-DAVIS

DRAMATURG: TIERRA ALLEN

CONTENT EXPERT: TBA

LEAD PRODUCERS: TBA

Meet the Creative Team

Director
LEIGH RONDON-DAVIS

Leigh Rondon-Davis (they/them) is a performer, dramaturg, director, and producer. They are a Resident Artist with Crowded Fire Theater and an Artistic Company Member at Shotgun Players and Oakland Theatre Project, as well as Producing Director with The Forum Collective. Leigh has collaborated with numerous Bay Area companies, including A.C.T., Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Curran, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Magic Theatre, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Playwrights Foundation, TheatreFIRST, Three Girls Theatre Company, and West Edge Opera. While Leigh wears many hats as a theater-maker, much of their work and personal passion has been to shift the industry and its culture to be more equitable, inclusive, accessible, and sustainable as an anti-racist educator and facilitator. Leigh’s practice draws inspiration from liberation and abolition movements, transformative justice, adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy, trauma-informed care, and their experience as a sexual health educator and rape crisis counselor to create safe and supportive creative spaces.

Dramaturg
TIERRA ALLEN

Tierra Allen (she/they) is an award-winning multi-hyphenate theater maker whose work has braided performance, activism, healing, and critical consciousness-raising at theaters, community-based organizations, schools, and parks, behind prison walls and in the streets. Recent dramaturgy work includes …and cotton by Maria Jensen (3Girls Theater) & othello.exe by Julius Rea (Marin Shakespeare Company’s Seeds of Time Festival). She’s directed for 3Girls Theater, PlayGround, & Playwrights Foundation; choreographed for the National Queer Arts Festival, Spectrum Queer Media, & TheatreFIRST; and performed in Shipping & Handling (Crowded Fire Theater), House/Full of Blackwomxn: This Too Shall Pass (Deep Waters Dance Theater), Josephine’s Feast (Campo Santo/Magic Theater), Babes in Ho-Lland (Shotgun Players), & Sign My Name to Freedom (SFBATCO). Their speculative abolitionist short film THE REMEMBERING TIME screened at the 18th International Queer Women of Color Film Festival. Listen to her podcast THE REAL WORK: A PODCAST ABOUT THEATER CULTURE AND TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE, co-produced with We Rise Production, on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Meet the Cast

Cast TBA Cast Bio TBA.

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