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| Photo Credit- Joanna Austin |
I
came to see the play, Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale, running now through
March 7 at the Wilma Theater, not as a theatre critic-which I am not-but as an
aging African-American resident of a neighborhood that is rapidly changing.
Mine is a neighborhood changing in ways that will seemingly guarantee the erasure
of my community and its collective history. I came dejected and cynical.
But
in deft hands of director Jaylene Clark Owens, who also wrote and performs in this
multilayered performance piece, along with co-creators Hollis Heath and Janelle
Heatley, Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale delivers what art should; brazen commentary
laced with lots of hope. This trifecta of masterful actresses takes the
audience on a journey through time and a changing Harlem, which could easily be
so many Philadelphia neighborhoods. And on this adventure through dance
battles, song, old school hand games and rhymes and powerful spoken word, the
central characters asks of themselves and of us- how do we, as longstanding
communities, in transition, against great economic pressures, preserve what we
have known and love. Difficult questions are raised and explored with joy and
fierce honesty.
“Although Killer Whale is a personal love letter to Harlem, so many people who are not from Harlem have said they can relate to it because it reminds them of their neighborhood, their sense of community, their childhood memories," said Owens, a member of the Wilma HotHouse acting company and this year’s winner of the F. Otto Haas Barrymore Award for an Emerging Philadelphia
Theatre Artist.
The show originated after Owens posted on Facebook about the
burgeoning gentrification of Harlem in 2010. “Harlem is looking more and more
like the belly of a killer whale,” she wrote. A former teacher encouraged her
to expand the post into a spoken word play.
Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale has since received dozens of presentations, most recently a successful limited engagement at Theater Horizon. “I love how these three women bring their humor, energy, and sarcasm into a very serious subject that every city, particularly Philadelphia, is grappling with,” Wilma Theater Artistic Director Blanka Zizka.
In addition to the public performances, the Wilma
will host four student matinees of Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale, reaching hundreds of students at Philadelphia public high schools. Many of these students will go on to create their own original works in response to the show through Wilmagination, the Wilma’s school residency program.
RENAISSANCE IN THE BELLY OF A KILLER WHALE
Extended by popular
demand!
February 26-March 7,
2020
Wilma Theater
265 S. Broad Street (Broad
&Spruce Streets)
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Box Office: 215-546-7824
*Chyann Sapp is also a co-creator
of this project.
*Philly- Come this Saturday, November 5th at 7 PM, for the launch of “Heart on Your Sleeve”, a year-long poetry and public arts initiative meant to bring poetry into public spaces in fun and playful ways. My daughter and poet Sojourner Ahebee is the featured. poet for the month of November. Poet Sojourner Ahebee
Curators Greenberg and Gross
