Sunday, August 29, 2010

My One Woman Show. The Lady Terror Show: I Will Not Calm Down!!



Serenbe Playhouse Solo-Works Festival Labor Day Weekend. I will perform 12 noon on Sunday, Sept. 5, 2010
Check out the website for more details: www.serenbeplayhouse.com


The Lady Terror Show opens the door into the world of an eccentric and pissed off female who attempted to go the regular route to make her community a better place and in the end it never worked. The crime got worse, no one cared about the inequalities and everyone just went about their daily lives unmoved by the violence. At her wits end, she decides to take matters into her own hands. In a mental daze she builds a soapbox, finds a bullhorn and stands on street corners screaming about the problems, urging people to wake up and get mad with her. Ranting becomes the only way to get people to listen. Creating a scene in public places becomes her solution. She is pissed and wonders why you are so calm? Her spectacles include creating yoga studios in the lobby of the numerous fast food, and unhealthy restaurants and that overpopulate her neighborhood. She creates one-night only theatre shows in front of liquor stores since there aren’t any theatres or other avenues for creative expression. She stands on the exit ramps on a soapbox and passes out free poetry to the cars passing by the scene of the recent murder of a teenager because poetry heals and her community needs healing.

The Lady Terror Show is a hybrid of performance and guerilla art mixed with poetry and street theatre that explores the themes of free speech, creative empowerment and rage. This one-woman show experiment is filled with soapbox ranting, bullhorn screaming, interactive poetry writing, spoken word and music. Lady Terror believes that ranting and creating spectacles outside of normal performance spaces can bring about a heightened sense of awareness and solve social issues. The show is a work in progress that is the culmination of guerilla spectacles that I have conducted all over the streets of Chicago. These spectacles have addressed the issues of food justice, inequality and violence. The soapbox and bullhorn become universal symbols for free speech and our innate desire to be heard. I created the character Lady Terror as a direct reaction to feeling helpless and hopeless about the realities of living in a high crime and poverty neighborhood in Chicago. The mission is to spark imagination, creativity and support positive community empowerment worldwide.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Down South are you ready for Lady Terror?


There is no greater joy than bringing it full circle and ranting in the American South.

"Plotting and waiting for the next moment to rant. I got something to say!"

STAY TUNED!!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Why I love the Soapbox?


"Dont' do that, " "What will people think?" "You should.."
"Stop being a hater," "Don't curse if you are mad, " "Don't cry," -Even at a funeral when you have lost a close relative, we in America say, "Don't cry. It will be okay."
The silencing and quieting of America....

I have always been excited by people who make a scene. The unexpected. The organic and untamed. The out of control.
Absurdity and the extreme. I mostly, deeply connect with freedom of expression. Above is a replica of a slave auction block. Slavery being the ultimate act of inhumane silencing. The need to be heard crosses all boundaries. The soapbox will be seen and the bullhorn will be heard. Be heard. Hear somebody!!

Artist Statement

I create art for the ones who lost their voice a long time ago. I believe that impromptu spectacles can bring awareness to social justice issues that paralyze our communities. Lady Terror examines the relationship between public space and performance space and also explores ranting as a medium to address social issues and as a tool to empower communities. My art is local and neighborhood specific in its execution but global in its ideas around poverty, injustice and violence.