"What to Send Up When it Goes Down" is a community ritual created in response to the deaths of Black people as a result of racialized violence. More…
As lines between characters and actors, observers and observed blur, a dizzying series of vignettes build to a climactic moment where performance and reality collide, highlighting the absurdity of anti-blackness in our society. Through facilitation and dialogue we must decide how to cope, resist, and move forward.
See it if If you want to participate in the show, chant,write, scream etc. Some good acting in it. If you want a much different kind of piece.
Don't see it if Stories tell sometimes half truths at best. If your white, you feel uncomfortable and are made to be. If you dont like over the top rage.
See it if ..to participate in a moving group-circle experience to honor and remember those killed in racial shootings in the U.S. A call to help
Don't see it if you don't like participatory theater
See it if you are genuinely interested in engaging with ritual, confronting the nature of oppression, and making yourself small when necessary
Don't see it if you enjoy escapist entertainment
Also Aleshea Harris has created a sacred space. Although I felt that I was ... Read more Read less
See it if you need to process today's racial climate; to understand safe spaces; to be a non-black ally; to experience compelling performances.
Don't see it if you want pure escapism; you really hate audience participation; you don't want something "intense."
Also This is the first theatrical piece I've seen that puts the Equity, Div... Read more Read less
See it if you’re not afraid of truth, you don’t know how to process recent events/climate
Don't see it if you’re easily made uncomfortable either physically or emotionally.
See it if You want to have a moment of collective healing, if you want the chance to be in a room full of Black people celebrating themselves.
Don't see it if You're uninterested in Black people and I really mean that.
Also Aleshea Harris has crafted a ritual that is dedicated to the broken bl... Read more Read less
See it if You appreciate ritual, holding space for the black community, you are comfortbale with an interactive experience
Don't see it if You are only interested in narrative, fourth-wall drama
See it if You want to see experimental theater that illustrates the black experience with great actors and writing
Don't see it if You are a white person that would be uncomfortable being called out or want to see a traditional play
See it if you like relevant, meaningful, thought-provoking theater that sticks with you long after the "curtain goes down."
Don't see it if you don't like to be challenged by what you see.
Also What a potent combination–The Movement Theatre Company and Aleshea Har... Read more Read less
See it if You seek a space to commune with the Black community, to greive, celebrate, memorialize, remember & cry out against injustice & oppression.
Don't see it if You're white and can't deal with feeling uncomfotable. Or don't like audience participation.
See it if You like extraordinary directing and are interested in work that speaks to the Black experience in America today.
Don't see it if You don't like intimate spaces where you have to participate and own your racial identity.
See it if you want to take part in a commemoration of black people killed because they were black, & witness a community expressing its rage & sorrow.
Don't see it if you do not want to participate: the piece begins with a commemoration ritual to which performers & audience alike contribute.
Also This is a hybrid form of ritual, testimony, drama, dance & song. If yo... Read more Read less