Will Power’s percussive look at one urban community and its seven storytellers, who gossip and riff, declare and reveal, showing off their neighborhood through its stories, from trivial to tragic. Backed by a live DJ and unfolding in rhythm and rhyme, Flow is a call and response through history, from the griot tradition to the next artists who will make the tradition for their times. Will Power toured the piece to Studio in 2004 and Doris Duke Artist in Residence Psalmayene 24 directs a new production for a new generation.
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Studio Theatre's 2020-2021 season is made possible through the generosity of Season Sponsors Susan and Dixon Butler; Dr. Mark Epstein and Amoretta Hoeber; David and Jean Heilman Grier; Arlene and Robert Kogod; Judge Albert Lauber and Prof. Craig Hoffman; Joan and David Maxwell; Teresa and Dan Schwartz; Steven and Linda Skalet; Bobbi and Ralph Terkowitz; and Amy Weinberg and Norbert Hornstein.
Will Power is an internationally renowned playwright, performer, lyricist and educator. His plays and performances have been seen in hundreds of theatres and concert halls throughout the world including Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, The Battersea Arts Centre (UK), and the Sydney Opera House, as well as numerous venues in Asia, Africa, Europe, and throughout North America.
Called “The best verse playwright in America” by New York Magazine, Will is an innovator and dramatic explorer of new theatrical forms. He is known as one of the pioneers and co-creators of hip-hop theater, a late 20th Century artform that led the way for future iconic works such as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, as well as dozens of education programs being established throughout the country. He is also a master craftsman of traditionally based plays and musicals. His straight play, Fetch Clay, Make Man, has been produced in dozens of LORT theatres and regional companies, including the McCarter Theatre Center, New York Theatre Workshop, Round House Theatre, True Colors Theatre Company, The Ensemble Theatre, and Marin Theatre Company, to name a few. Other plays include Stagger Lee (Dallas Theater Company), The Seven (La Jolla Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop, Ten Thousand Things Theater), Seize the King (La Jolla Playhouse, Alliance Theatre), and Detroit Red (ArtsEmerson). He is also the writer children’s theater pieces including Five Fingers of Funk (Children’s Theatre Company), and Honey Bo and the Goldmine (La Jolla Playhouse). Power’s collaboration with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company and composer Julia Wolfe resulted in the performance piece Steel Hammer (Humana Festival, UCLA Live, Brooklyn Academy of Music, plus world tour).
Will has received numerous awards for his work as a writer and performer, including The Doris Duke Artist Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, a United States Artist Prudential Fellowship, an NEA/TCG Residency Grant, TCG Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, a NYFA Award, a Joyce Foundation Award, and a 2020 Elliot Norton Award (Outstanding New Script, Detroit Red).
Power is also a passionate teacher of writing and performance. He has held fellowships, residencies, and faculty positions at the City College of New York, Princeton University, Wayne State University, The University of Michigan at Flint, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Spelman College (Atlanta). Currently, Will is a Professor of theater at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA.
(As of October 2020)
Psalmayene 24 is an award-winning director, playwright, and actor. Directing credits include Native Son by Nambi E. Kelley at Mosaic Theater Company, Words Become Flesh (recipient of five 2017 Helen Hayes Awards, including Outstanding Direction of a Play) by Marc Bamuthi Joseph at Theater Alliance, and The Shipment by Young Jean Lee at Forum Theatre. He has received commissions from the African Continuum Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Imagination Stage, The Kennedy Center, Theater Alliance, Solas Nua, and Mosaic Theater Company. His one man play, Free Jujube Brown!, is published in the anthology, Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy: Theater from the Hip-Hop Generation (TCG).
(As of June 2020)