Caw - a World Premiere Performance
An apocalyptic ritual of reclamation, mercy, and mischief created by Charles O. Anderson and Troy Dwyer.Friday, March 20, 2009 11:22 AM
Caw is an ambitious collaborative work of dance and theatre that invokes the rich, raucous oral tradition of Southern storytelling, with its roots in both Native American and African culture. The core of the performance piece by its co-creators, Charles O. Anderson and Troy Dwyer is mystery, movement, character and ritual that emerge as an allegory of race and power in America. A fusion of dance, performance poetry, romantic fantasy, dramatic action, and audacious gay cultural expression, Caw assembles and disassembles cultural archetypes and stereotypes, molding them into a pantheon of vivid contemporary characters.
Charles O. Anderson, artistic director of the Philadlephia-based dance theatre X and Director of African American Studies, and actor/writer/director Troy Dwyer say that the idea of Caw emerged from their conversations about their childhoods in the South and their shared relationships with Uncle Remus folklore. What has emerged is a unique collaboration performed by a multicultural ensemble of 20 actors and dancers. Anchored by four diverse professional guest artists – a performance poet, an actor and two dancers – Caw focuses the raw energy and passion of its stories into a hybrid of movement and language.
The explosive world premiere of Caw is a fusion of African-inspired dance and post-modern dance theatre that Anderson has been courting in his professional company, dance theatre X. Bold, provocative, and intensely motivated by questions of identity and ethnicity, Anderson’s choreography expresses a visual and soul-stirring journey. Recently called, “one of the most authoritative dancers on Philadelphia stages” by The Philadelphia Inquirer, Anderson began his investigation of Uncle Remus and the Tar Baby stories with Tar, an evening-length ensemble dance work to which both Troy Dwyer and Philadelphia poet/performance artist Makoto Hirano contributed elements of spoken word. Tar is the ancestor of this journey that Caw takes to bear witness to the history of race relations in cultural folklore.
As native Southerners – one black, the other white - Anderson and Dwyer are collectively reaching to inspire dialogue with their creative view of an inclusive American culture – one that is fully aware of difference, race, sexuality and the South’s contribution to American history and culture. Anderson calls himself a “kinetic storyteller” who seeks out stories that honor what he describes as Testimony in movement, in poetry, in voice, and in character. Testimony is the declaration of truth integral to the African-American oral and literary tradition, going back to the slave narrative and folk practices. Testimonies can give praise and they can boast. They can also attest to the suffering and injustice, but their goal is always to connect the audience to the personal truth of the teller(s). It is used to allow the storyteller to connect with those who hear the testimony, as well as to a higher plane of being.
In collaboration with Dwyer, the spinner of the text for much of Caw, movement is both the punctuation of language and the motivation for action, as well as an experience of distinct meaning. Dwyer has co-written several original theatre productions for the stage, including Body of Knowledge (with Melissa Thompson) and Lures & Snares (with Beth Schachter and Mike Krisukas). In addition to writing and directing, his professional acting credits include principal roles at theatres throughout the United States, including the Georgia Shakespeare Festival and the Georgia Ensemble Theatre. He is drawn to this project because it theatrically examines how popular myths reinforce social inequality in American culture – “especially between white people and people of color.”
Examining the folktale of Uncle Remus published by journalist Joel Chandler Harris in 1879 and recognizing the power of the Disney popularization of the character, Caw returns Uncle Remus to authentic African folklore and then proceeds to weave his story into the lives of several seemingly unconnected characters. The twisted tale turns on the powerful presence of Aunt Eloe, the mysterious Queen of Crows, who has descended upon the earth to challenge history and work her own magic.
A spectacular, feathered goddess who possesses and shadows the characters of three intertwined stories, Eloe is being channeled and performed by guest artist, Ursula Rucker. Rucker, a critically acclaimed poet, activist, and self-described ruckus bringer, is a Philadelphia urban legend and performance artist who has collaborated with such national and international artists as King Britt, 4 Hero, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and The Roots among many other artists. Rucker’s Aunt Eloe, Queen of Crows, embraces discomfort, paradox, interruption, counterpoint, rudeness, exposure and complication.
Aunt Eloe brings with her an army of forgotten spirits called the Auntagonists, who become the storytellers in three parallel tales: Xanthara is a legendary Atlanta drag queen who is an extraordinary creature caught “in between” worlds; filled with fear and hunger, terrified at not belonging and determined to embrace her wildness. Xanthara, played by Holly Cate, a guest Equity Artist who comes to Muhlenberg after more than a decade as a professional actor in New York, embraces the mystery of the Queen of Crows, and shares her cry for justice, for wholeness, for someone to remember her name, and for mercy.
RJ Briarcliff is the contemporary African-American writer whose popular book for young adults is being adapted into an animated film. Attempting to give Uncle Remus an authentic African-American soul, RJ accuses Harris, and later Walt Disney – of making him “a kind of ventriloquist’s dummy” and struggles to find a way to revise history.
Bobby Driscoll, based on the historical actor of the same name who played the young white boy in “Song of the South,” drifts toward death in the East Village in 1968. He encounters Michael Darling, who wants to rescue Bobby from believing that reality is in the Disney story line: “Don’t let it be loneliness that kills us… Silence for celluloid. Different, but the same.”
Eric Thompson is RJ Briarcliff, Zachary Chiero is Bobby Driscoll, and Jeramie Mayes is Michael-Darling. Ami Dowden Fant and Karama Butler, members of Anderson's professional Philadelphia company dance theatre X, are featured in the performance company. Ensemble members include Kadeem Alston-Roman, Chris Alvaro, Jeremy Arnold, Elle Barks, Jason Daniel, Maggie Griffin, Karissa Harris, Taylor Kalinisan, Denise Ozer, Tim Popp, Michele Sasso and Emily Spadaford.
Curtis Dretsch is faculty lighting designer and Alisa Sickora Kleckner is guest costume designer; Cat Davidson '10 is Assistant Director. Deacon Harris '10 is scenic designer.
