WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT...
By JACKIE SIBBLIES DRURY
Directed by LIZ FISHER
An idealistic theatre ensemble comprised of 3 black actors and 3 white actors rehearses a devised piece that tells the little-known story of what is regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century perpetrated by the German Empire upon the Herero and Nama indigenous people of German Southwest Africa (now Namibia). But as the ensemble seeks to find a unified voice and common ground, their own cultural proclivities and prejudices threaten to boil over and redirect their idealism into the all-too common territory of racial tension. Hilarious and audacious in its presentation, audiences should expect to laugh so hard it will hurt, but for many, probably uncomfortably so.
“90 minutes of original, enlightening, pulse-pounding theater”
– Backstage
“A genuine thunderbolt … devastatingly funny … dangerous and primal”
– The Washington Post
“Incendiary...inventive...impressively navigates the tricky boundaries that separate art and life, the haunted present and the haunting historical past”
– The New York Times
November 30-December 15
2018
at hyde park theatre
synopsis
CAST
Jeremy Rashad Brown
Zac Carr
Judd Farris
Matrex Kilgore
Valoneecia Tolbert
& Amelia Turner
REVIEWS
"Devastating and illuminating... sharp, powerful, and exact... some of the best ensemble work and direction (by Liz Fisher) that you'll see in Austin... Theatre's power lies in its ability to show us things that can't be understood by telling. Here is a play that begins with the intention of presenting facts and ends by showing us ourselves." (Entire Review)
Elizabeth Cobbe, The Austin Chronicle
"Vital, necessary and ultimately inescapable theatre... a seduction of the audience, followed by a violent mugging of the spectators' emotions... This production and these performances shook me deeply..." (Entire Review)
Michael Meigs, CTX Live Theatre
"Sharing in the grief, and daring the audience to join in the exploration, WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT... is a truly transformative experience both teaching audience members, while giving voice to others about the darker periods of human history. Shining a light on the forgotten and stained past, the experience of The Herero people of Namibia is explored with grace and true care." (Entire Review)
Amy Tarver, Broadway World.com
Winner
Austin
Critics Table
OUTSTANDING
PRODUCTION
Winner
Austin
Critics Table
Outstanding
Director
Liz
Fisher
Winner
Austin
Critics Table
Outstanding
Ensemble
playwright
Jackie Sibblies Drury
bio
Jackie Sibblies Drury is a Brooklyn based playwright. Her plays include WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT A PRESENTATION ABOUT THE HERERO OF NAMIBIA, FORMERLY KNOWN AS SOUTH WEST AFRICA, FROM THE GERMAN SUDWESTAFRIKA, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1884-1915, REALLY, and SOCIAL CREATURES. Jackie’s plays have been presented by New York City Players and Abrons Arts Center, Soho Rep, Victory Gardens, Trinity Rep, Matrix Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Undermain Theatre, InterAct Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Available Light, Company One, and The Bush Theatre in London, among others. Her work has been developed at Sundance, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ars Nova, A.C.T., The Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, New York Theatre Workshop, PRELUDE.11&14, The Civilians, The Bushwick Starr, The LARK, The Magic Theatre, The Bay Area Playwrights Festival and The MacDowell Colony. She received a 2015 Windham-Campbell Literary Prize in Drama, a 2012-2013 Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists, and was the inaugural recipient of the 2012-2014 Jerome Fellowship at The LARK. Jackie is a NYTW Usual Suspect and a 2015 United States Artists Gracie Fellow.
cast & creative
Judd Farris is an educator, actor, and co-creator of Seam Project. He is a primary collaborator with The Hidden Room Theatre and Arcos Dance. He has also worked with RudeFusion, Present Company, paper chairs, and Capital T in Austin.
Judd
Farris
Actor 1
Matrex Kilgore is an international theatre performer, director, teaching artist, and arts administrator based in Austin, Texas. He has taught theatre for social change to students ranging in age from elementary to senior citizens. Several of his acting students have been selected into the programs at: New York University, University of Michigan, Liverpool School of the Arts, Oklahoma City University, and Julliard. He has worked internationally performing and creating bilingual performances based on classical pieces of theatre including the works of Chekhov and Shakespeare. Matrex is currently on the Board of Directors for Ground Floor Theatre. He is a Company Member of The Vortex Rep Theatre, En Route Productions, and Spectrum Theatre Company.
Matrex
Kilgore
Actor 2
Zac Carr is an actor, improviser, comedian, and educator who recently returned to Austin, Texas. He performed with American Berserk Theatre in the original devised play FOR TIME AND ETERNITY: THE SECRET HISTORY OF MORMONISM’S ELECT LADY AND HER SISTER WIVES. He began acting in Austin with the group Poison Apple Initiative in such plays as NEIGHBORHOOD 3: REQUISITION OF DOOM, AN OBVIOUSLY FOGGOT, and HOLIER THAN THOU. He also played a wizard in The Vortex's production of CHANGELINGS by Reina Hardy, directed by Rudy Ramirez. In 2014, he played John in Theatre En Bloc's award-winning play, COCK. He performs in Austin's only musical meta-comedy duo named SNACKS. He is currently thrilled to be with Street Corner Arts and to be working with such incredibly talented and kind artists.
Zac Carr
Actor 3
Jeremy is excited to play with this amazing ensemble of actors in WE ARE PROUD and work with Street Corner Arts for the first time! His recent work includes The Hidden Room’s BOOTH’S RICHARD III where he played Lord Mayor and Blunt at Austin Scottish Rite Theatre, and Different Stage’s THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING where he portrayed T.T. Williams at The Vortex Repertory Theatre which earned him a 2018 B. Iden Payne Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Drama. To learn more about Jeremy, please visit his website at www.jeremyrashadbrown.com. Enjoy the show!
Jeremy
Rashad
Brown
Actor 4
Amelia Turner is an actor, artist, yoga and physical acting teacher, and makeup artist. She is a company member of the Vortex Rep Theatre, Shrewd Productions, En Route Theatre, and Hidden Room Theatre. She is grateful to be part of such an incredible community of artists, activists, and trail blazers in Austin, TX.
Amelia
Turner
Actor 5
Valoneecia Tolbert is an Austin homegrown stage, film & voice actor/dancer who obtained her BFA from Texas State University @ San Marcos. Her most recent roles include Henrietta Swan Leavitt in Reina Hardy's new work, THE AFTERPARTY directed by Liz Fisher and Marianne Angel in THE REVOLUTIONISTS directed by Rudy Ramirez. She is a company member of Hidden Room Theatre, Shrewd Productions and Sade Jones’ Presents: Ashe Arts. She is grateful to have the opportunity to work with Street Corner Arts and is proud to work with such a dynamic collective as the Austin artistic community. #representationmatters
Valoneecia
Tolbert
Actor 6
Liz is an interdisciplinary theater artist based in Austin. She is an MFA Directing candidate at Texas State University. Directing credits include: The Afterparty (Shrewd Productions); Constellations (Street Corner Arts); Deus Ex Machina (Whirligig Productions, Fusebox Festival, Shrewd); Please Don’t Feed The Trolls (Whirligig); Vodka, Fucking, and Television (Breaking String Theater). University directing credits: Hamlet, Lyon’s Den, Belleville, The Countdown, Akashic Permutations, The Demolition Downtown, and Tennessee Waltz (Texas State). She won the 2018 Princess Grace Award in Theatre, the Stage Directors and Choreographers National Directing Award (Kennedy Center), and a fellowship to the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. She has presented at numerous conferences on blending technology and theater, including SXSW Interactive. She is the founding Co-Artistic Director of Whirligig, and Program Coordinator for Shakespeare at Winedale.
Liz Fisher
Director
Ashton Bennett Murphy
Stage Manager
Ashton is a recent graduate of the University of Texas Theatre and Dance Department, and this is her first show with Street Corner Arts. By day, she works at the Texas Performing Arts Scenic Studio as Assistant Scenic Charge Artist, and she spends her nights stage managing, projection designing, and watching endless amounts of recorded reruns. Ashton is thrilled to be working on We are Proud to Present, and her recent credits include stage management for RICK SAID SO (Frank Wo / Men Collective) and THE MADRES (Shrewd Productions), and projection design for TURN UP: MULTIMEDIA FESTIVAL FOR WOMEN and MIRROR (Dance Repertory Theatre). She'd like to thank the cast & crew, her friends & family, and her boyfriend, Kyle- without whom she'd surely go mad. Visit ashtonbennettmurphy.com for more information.
Chris is an Austin-based designer and artist, and graduate of SFUAD in Santa Fe, NM with a BFA in Technical Theater design in 2014. Since graduation, he has focused on expanding his skill sets, and exploring the intrinsic connection between art and the viewer. He is interested in creating original work that challenges the viewer, institutions of normality, and perspectives of reality. Chris has designed, served as technical director, built, and/or painted over 50 shows in Austin, Santa Fe, and Los Angeles. Chris has designed for critically-acclaimed directors and producers, including Jon Jory and Robert Benedetti. He was the recipient of the 2017 Austin Critics Table Award for Best Set Design and the 2016 B. Iden Payne Award winner for Outstanding Set Design. For a collection of Chris’s work, please visit Jchrisconard.com.
Aaron Flynn
Costume Designer
&
Props Designer
A recent inductee into the Rude Mechs Theater Company, Aaron cut his teeth on their original production, FIELD GUIDE, and returned for last spring’s NOT EVERY MOUNTAIN, working both to costume the players and on the construction team for the large-scale modular set. This year he has also had the great pleasure of costuming the Hidden Room Theatre’s glam rock take on HENRY IV, “a showcase of spectacular pants.” In addition to theater, Aaron works as a window dresser and event designer, and his award winning windows can be seen at Blackmail Boutique.
Megan Reilly
lIGHTING dESIGNER
Megan is a lighting and media designer based in Minneapolis. Her work there includes ORANGE and HOODED OR BEING BLACK FOR DUMMIES (Mixed Blood Theatre), IF MY FEET HAVE LOST THE GROUND (Torry Bend & Open Eye Figure Theatre), THE SPARROW (Live Action Set), WHILE YOU WERE OUT (Red Eye Theatre), BUYER AND CELLAR (New Century Theatre), and THE CHRISTIANS (Walking Shadow Theatre). Other recent designs include JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (Firehouse Center for the Arts), MARY POPPINS (Prescott Park Arts Festival), LADY NA MASTER AND THE SYNAPTIC ROOM (Collaborative Artists Company in Dublin), TRANSMISSION (Toasterlab/Edinburgh Fringe), THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS and REASONS TO BE PRETTY (Playhouse San Antonio). Prior to moving to Minnesota, she worked extensively in Austin, including designs for Whirligig Productions, Hidden Room, Trouble Puppet, Glass Half Full, Salvage Vanguard, the Rude Mechanicals, Rubber Repertory, the Butler Opera Center, the Fusebox Festival, and the Cohen New Works Festival. Megan’s research outside of design centers around immersive and mixed reality theatre and the ethics of participatory performance.
Nick Hart
Sound Designer
Nick is a currently Austin-based sound designer that’s getting ready to graduate from Texas State University. Recent sound design credits include THE AFTERPARTY (Shrewd Productions), TALES OF THE LOST FORMICANS (Texas State University) and HAMLET (Texas State University). Additionally, he was the recipient of the Meritorious Achievement Award in Sound Design for the work he presented at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. He couldn’t be more thankful to be working with such an amazing cast and crew.
Indiia Wilmott
Assistant Director
&
DRAMATURG
Rommel Sulit
Publicity
Indiia is an actor, educator and director. She recently assistant directed BOOTH’S RICHARD (Hidden Room Theatre). Her most recent acting credits include: LUCIA BERLIN:STORIES (Word for Word Theatre, San Francisco and France), BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL (Playwrights Foundation), BOOTYCANDY (Brava Theatre) and ZENITH (San Francisco Playhouse) She is extremely grateful for the honor to tell this story with this talented and skilled cast and crew. Indiia is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
Rommel is a film and stage actor, producer and architect immersed in the creative culture of Austin. He has numerous film, commercial and theatrical credits, most recently as King Henry IV in HENRY IV (Hidden Room Theatre) and Dr. Toby Sealey in THE EFFECT (Capital T Theatre). He trained at the School at Steppenwolf, is a co-founder of Street Corner Arts and Forge Craft, an architecture firm dedicated to the design of affordable spaces for live, work and creative play. He has been nominated for and received Austin Critics Table and B. Iden Payne awards and serves as a board member with the Austin Creative Alliance and thanks you for your continued support of the arts in Austin.