IU Theatre opens the 2020 – 2021 season with Amplified: A Series of Plays by Black Authors featuring readings of Black Super Hero Magic Mama by Inda Craig-Galván and Time Is On Our Side by R. Eric Thomas.
The Amplified series is dedicated to plays written by Black writers and seeks to magnify their voices, experiences, and stories. Through these stories, we hope to challenge inherited and systemic narratives of the historical western theatrical canon ensuring that these vital voices reach our audiences and our communities. This fall, we commence the series with readings of these two stirring works with two additional works planned for the spring.
Inda Craig-Galván’s Black Super Hero Magic Mama opens the series on October 16. In the play, mother Sabrina Jackson cannot cope with the death of her son by a white cop. Rather than herald the Black Lives Matter movement, Sabrina retreats inward, living out a comic book superhero fantasy, played out on stage. In a comic book world from the mind of a 14-year-old boy, Sabrina becomes superhero Maasai Angel to take on her arch villains. Compared to the pain of her real world, this battle is child’s play. IU alumnus David Koté directs Black Super Hero Magic Mama and the reading features guest artists Anthony Campbell, Richard David, and Tanya Freeman as Sabrina Jackson.
Annie loves the past. Curtis lives for the future. In R. Eric Thomas’s Time Is On Our Side,
Annie and Curtis host a wildly unpopular podcast from Annie's living room in which they "queer history," reinterpreting Philadelphia lore through a modern, intersectional lens. When Annie finds a family heirloom that reveals a buried connection to the early LGBT rights movement, the political suddenly gets explosively personal. The play’s shape-shifting plot bounds gleefully from the Underground Railroad to pop culture futurity, as Annie and Curtis search for answers to the questions "How do we let go of the past? And when will it let go of us?" Professor Leraldo Anzaldua directs Time Is On Our Side and the reading features guest artist Shunté Lofton.
The College of Arts