The Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab supports and provides opportunities to artists of multiple theatre disciplines to develop their new work. Each year, the Alliance extends an open call for Atlanta artists to submit their projects for consideration. Three projects are chosen by a panel of judges representing local and national artists of varying disciplines.
Read more about the Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab Round 7 projects and the lead artists below.
Note: These interviews have been edited for brevity and clarity.
HANDS UP: 7 PLAYWRIGHTS, 7 TESTAMENTS
Lead Artist: Alexis Woodward
Across seven monologues written by seven Black playwrights, Hands Up depicts the realities of Black America from the perspective of varying genders, sexual orientations, skin tones, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Hands Up is the third project from the Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab to receive a full production on Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage.
PERIL
Lead Artist: Skye Passmore
Peril follows the parallel journeys of Kevin, an aspiring influencer, and Sessue Hayakawa, the first Hollywood sex symbol, as they navigate existence and the desire to be seen in times of heightened nationalist tensions. This piece is an examination of Asian identity, the limits of representation, and the often blurry line between entertainment, news, and propaganda.
UNEXPECTED ENCORES
Lead Artist: Denise Arribas
This is an immersive performance for audiences of elders in memory care, including day-long residencies at assisted living communities, with pre-show room-to-room visits culminating in a live performance built from the day’s creative engagement.
Why this piece and why now?
Alexis Woodard: Hands Up was the first show I saw when I began at Spelman College. Coming from a town where I graduated one of three Black people in my high school class, I was never exposed to Black theatre. Hands Up was the first time I saw myself and my narratives on stage, and I finally understood why works written for and by Black people are pivotally important in theatre. Hands Up is unapologetic about giving Black people space to express themselves and to tell their stories. This show is uninhibited and lives on the stage for a full 90 minutes without slowing down, and without boundaries. As long as Black and brown people are being inequitably targeted and murdered by the police, Hands Up will be necessary. Unfortunately, in the seven years since Hands Up’s inception, it has not only remained necessary, but become more and more important.
Skye Passmore: I became interested in the history of Asian representation, and that’s when I Iearned about the actor Sessue Hayakawa from the Silent Film Era, a Japanese man who was the first Hollywood sex symbol and the biggest star of his time. I started wondering: “How did we, as Asian men, go from having a negative, toxically masculine stereotype to something much more emasculated over time? At what point did we start getting yellow-faced? What changed over the course of the 20th century?”
Which led me to this link between representation in popular media and nationalism. I learned just how thin the line was between our government and popular media, between entertainment and propaganda. I learned how so many myths and stereotypes about Asian people came from this propaganda, both from our news and in television and movies. As Asian-Americans, we’ve always been at the mercy of how the American state views Asian countries.
Coupled with COVID-19 and the rise of AAPI hate crimes, the play is more relevant than it was when I first started writing it. Over the course of its development, it went from being a narrow investigation into Asian male stereotypes to larger work about the limits of representation, the malice of our media, and the masculine character of war.
Denise Arribas: When my mom was diagnosed with dementia ten years ago, it sparked a passion in me to find ways to connect more with her and other people living with dementia. Re-meeting my mom during her Alzheimer's journey has been one of the greatest heartbreaks, yet one of the greatest gifts I’ve had. I would go pick her up at her day respite center, and they would say, “Oh my gosh, she’s been singing opera and dancing the whole day.” And I’m like, “She doesn’t sing opera or dance?” She found these new colors within her.
My goal with this show is to break the paralyzing dementia stigma and see what happens when we treat everybody with dignity, respect, and focus on the joy and fun we can still have. People think that your life is over when you’re diagnosed with this illness. That you're someone who can’t communicate or function the way you used to, and you are in the background of everyday life. When we are with a baby who can’t communicate yet, we find different ways to communicate with them. Unfortunately, we don’t give the same grace to our elders. There is so much life left even with a dementia diagnosis, which is why we call our show Unexpected Encores. That last number- when you think the show is over, but surprisingly enough, the best is yet to come!
Why are new works important?
Alexis: New Works push us to continue to create art that is relevant and contemporary. They also push us to recognize emerging playwrights who will go on to create the new classics developed in our generation.
Skye: New works are important because they capture current attitudes and push our discussions forward. Old works show our collective consciousness in a moment of time. I think there’s some value to producing old works and reframing them, using them as vehicles to say something new. But if we do not invest in new works – revolutionary new works that challenge our audiences – we do not move forward in our discussions both theatrically and collectively.
Denise: New works are important because they give voice to stories that might not have any spotlight otherwise. You are also diversifying your storytellers which allows for interesting new stories and new topics to be heard. Who the heck wants a rainbow with just one color?
What sets your soul on fire? And how does this inspire your creative process?
Alexis: Truth. Vulnerability. Passion. I try to let these be my guiding principles in creating work.
Skye: Wow, that’s a big question. Different things at different moments inspire me, but when it comes to writing, especially this play, I find a big motivating factor for me is anger. Anger and fear. I’ve got an anger at the injustices of the world and, as an Asian-American living in America, I have an intense fear of what is going to happen in the future if we as a country keep going down this road of xenophobic nationalism. I feel like I need to challenge that with my writing in some way. Theater is an art form that is supposed to be pushing social change.
Most of human history is oral history. Storytelling. It’s how we as a species have survived this long. We're able to teach each other. We all propagandize in different directions, and in many ways our history as a species, as a civilization, are just a collection of subjective viewpoints. Our ability to tell stories is both a survival mechanism and a death sentence.
So, I don’t necessarily write because I enjoy it. I write because I need to. Because if I don’t write this story, I feel like no one else is going to write it. Because I'm angry and scared and it helps me and–I hope other people–choose survival.
Denise: I believe the passion driving this project is the desire to still be able to communicate with my mom. Every time I visit my mom, I try different ways to engage with her. I have a specific playlist of Puerto Rican music I play for her when I go visit. I constantly check-in to see which song sparks something in her. If that doesn’t work, then I try to see if she feels like dancing. If that doesn’t work, I’ll play a stand-up comedy show from when she was younger and see if she enjoys it. I will try several methods to see how I can connect with her at that moment.
I’m passionate about bringing joy to the elderly. I’m always wondering, “How can I do that on a larger scale? How can I bring more joy to them?” I discovered that you have to find the key to open that specific door and connect with someone with dementia. I feel like words get in the way. I’ve experienced some beautiful moments with my mom: no words, just energy. I know she can read and sense my energy; words are not necessary for us to communicate. We’re just two loving people in this world living in the moment. With this in mind, our show is mostly non-verbal. There is more emphasis on being, movement, and the meaning of objects and people. I didn’t want rigid dialogue to be another layer that might add more confusion. I want our audiences to enjoy the music, physical comedy and all the special unspoken moments.
What's your favorite place to get work done?
Alexis: Honestly, my bedroom. It’s the ultimate place of safety, and I work best when I feel safe, held, and supported.
Skye: When the engine is not going, and I need just a different setting from my home, I go to cafes on Buford Highway. I don't have a particular one that’s my favorite. I just kind of “coffee hop.”
Denise: I have to say my closet, mainly between 5am — 8am. It’s quiet, cozy and there’s a sense of privacy and safety. I also love walking my dog, my main girl, Gaby. So, when I walk her, I practice active meditation which always gives me amazing ideas. I also get my best ideas in the shower, mainly because I can’t be distracted by my phone!
How does history inform your work?
Alexis: I've always loved history, that old adage “unless you know history, you are destined to repeat it” has always stuck with me. When dealing with material like Hands Up, it’s also important for me to use blood memory as I attempt to honor the stories of those victims and survivors of racially motivated brutality.
Skye: I'm a history nerd. I'm always reading about history. It bleeds into my work because I feel like we have to learn from history and apply it to our present. And the history I read is revolutionary history. The history that is not taught in U.S. schools. The history that's been colonized out of us while living in this imperial project. The history that’s been stolen and sold back in bleach. Because that’s what the American state, education system, and media have done.
Now, there’s a challenge to that: critical race theory. The push for “representation.” Positive things. A part of me remains skeptical that this reframing of history that is gradually reaching mainstream acceptance, this new push for representation in education and media, will still serve some nationalist purpose. As an artist, one of my purposes is to reject my identity as an Asian being integrated into some U.S. nationalist myth. I’ve turned down auditions. I’ve turned down opportunities because of this. I do it because I know history and I refuse to participate in projects that don’t.
Denise: The show is highly influenced by historical moments that can spark the mind of someone living with dementia. We’ve been researching the culture, music, art, fashion and history from the 1930's-1950's. We are focusing on that time period since that’s when the formative years of the communities we are visiting took place. Formative years in a person’s life are ingrained somewhere in their memory, and even with memory loss, they can still access those memories. Obviously, not everybody is the same, some people might not even have a connection with that, but the majority still have a strong anchor between when they were 5 years old to 25 years old. We studied Vaudeville acts, WWII and how it affected the way of living at that time, and tv shows like I Love Lucy. This research helped us find a common through line we could anchor our show on.
What are your hopes for artists? Both in Atlanta and beyond.
Alexis: My biggest hope is that we, as artists, continue to make work that sets a fire in our souls. That we don’t lose our passion for art in the pursuit of what others might call success. That we continue to do what we were put on this earth to do – to inspire, to be changemakers.
Skye: I just hope that we continue to decolonize and revolutionize our storytelling. I feel like we're in this place now where art has to respond to what's happening. After the past year of pandemic, the Trump and Biden administrations, all the overseas wars that we've had and continue to have—it’s more crucial than ever that art challenges and refines our current mainstream perception of reality.
Denise: That we all get to change the world through art and get paid a living wage to do so. Art has proven to change the world, yet artists are constantly being short changed and under-appreciated.
In seven words or less: why art?
Alexis: Art sets the soul on fire.
Skye: Good art communicates truth without obscuring it.
Denise: I immediately want to say, why not? Art is the poetic version of life, so why would you not choose it?
Learn More About Applying for the Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab Past Reiser Lab Recipients
