OVERVIEW
Beginning July 7th at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, Dael Orlandersmith will take Los Angeles audiences on an electrifying journey through the spirit and soul of Harlem in her explosive solo piece!
The New Yorker has described her work as "passionate and full of insight" and The Washington Post noted, "One cup of Orlandersmith is worth a gallon of what most other monologists serve up."
In Stoop Stories, Dael Orlandersmith, combines theatre, poetry, music and performance art in a powerful, sizzling, fierce symphony of the diverse voices that make up her neighborhood—people drawn from her life and from her imagination. She transforms with mesmerizing ease into a range of characters—from an elderly Polish Holocaust survivor who has a chance meeting with Billie Holiday; to a poetic young junkie; to a teenage Puerto Rican punk; to a washed-up rock 'n' roll star; to a 70-year-old New Yorker from Harlem heading to the West Village to see Nina Simone.
“There are a few places where people really pour out their souls: in beauty shops, barber shops, and sitting outside on stoops. I grew up in Harlem and the South Bronx, and hung out on the Lower East Side and the East Village. In those places you'd hear a lot of different voices and see different communities, backgrounds and races. All of these people unite on the stoop. That's where you find out who they are, as individuals. I wanted to look at that world in this play." --Dael Orlandersmith
Hailed a "triumph" in its world premiere at Washington, D.C.'s Studio Theatre in 2009, Stoop Stories is written and performed by Dael Orlandersmith with consulting director and Obie Award-winner Jo Bonney.
Praise for Stoop Stories!
The Washington Post
New York City's Under the Radar 2008 Blog
Timeout Chicago
Chicago Theater District
Pittsburgh City Paper
Also by Dael Orlandersmith:
Bones
July 30 – August 8
For more information and to purchase tickets, please click here.
Funding for DouglasPlus is provided by The James Irvine Foundation’s Artistic Innovation Fund and the Leading for the Future Initiative, a program of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
CREDITS
Written and Performed by
Dael OrlandersmithConsulting Director
Jo Bonney
