QUEEN

In Queen, a grandmother suffers the loss of a grandchild, navigates grief, and retrieves memory — sharing it in a new world run by, loved by, kept whole by a solidarity of grandmothers. The emotional heart of the piece is fired by compassion for the death of so many young African Americans at the hand of civil power.

A robust cohort of collaborators, horizontally arrayed, present a full-length puppet-play that inverts a convention, putting a grandmother’s wandering, transformation and adventures at the center, rather than leaving her in the parentheses. The piece involves contemporary accounts of flight and exile, with special attention paid to the witness, report and transmission of story and memory.

Co-written by Erik Ehn and Junauda Petrus

Directed by Alison Heimsted

Narrated by Laurie Carlos

Musical Direction by Taylor Johnson & Matt Larson

Created by the Ensemble

 

Queen features performances by Steve Ackerman, Julie Boada, Masanari Kawahara Taylor Johnson, Matt Larson, Selah Obinrin, Mari Fitch and Junauda Petrus. The Queen team also includes the skills of Gustavo Boada, Patty Gille, Daniel Polnau, Anna Cerelia Battistini, Quinn Rivenburgh, Madison Mellon, Heidi Eckwall, and Mimmi Sjoberg.