Ameriville Universes Stillwater Ashland, Oregon 2009

Ameriville (From: ATL)

(Image by: Mildred Ruiz (UNIVERSES)

Ameriville

(For ATL Newsletter/Press - by: Sarah Lunnie)


How high is the water momma?
4 feet high and rising

Three years after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast, our memory betrays us. The storm drowned thousands of city residents in their bedrooms and attics, forced more than one million to flee for safety, and put 80% of New Orleans under water. But its images have receded from the covers of our morning newspapers. News of levee breaches and rooftop rescues no longer confronts us when we turn on the television. The barrage of disturbing revelations—shoddy engineering, bad science, decades of irresponsible policy converging in a lethal, man-made maelstrom—has subsided. The country has moved on. But for the displaced New Orleans residents still living in FEMA trailers or scattered across America, the storm continues.

Today the per capita murder rate in New Orleans is the highest in the nation. The Road Home Program, designed to compensate Louisiana homeowners affected by Katrina and Rita, has failed to address the state’s severe housing shortage. Many fear that rebuilding efforts will marginalize entire populations: gentrification neatly disguised as renewal. And although the Army Corps of Engineers is rebuilding the levees, most experts agree that current plans are frighteningly inadequate. In Katrina’s wake lies an interminable sea of questions, about what and whom we value and how we care for our home and each other. In an era of fast news and short attention spans, they are questions we would do well to remember.

How high is the water poppa?
8 feet high and rising

UNIVERSES (Gamal Abdel Chasten, Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, William Ruiz aka Ninja and Steven Sapp) didn’t set out to write a play about Hurricane Katrina. The ensemble’s earlier work, including Slanguage (which played at Actors in 2004) was more local in its scope, exploring the rhythms, voices and landscapes of its members’ New York neighborhoods, with a unique fusion of poetry, theatre, jazz, hip-hop, down-home blues and Spanish boleros. With Ameriville, they pan out to examine not only New Orleans, but the country at large. According to co-founder, writer and performer Steven Sapp, the project has been in the works since before the storm hit.

“After Slanguage, we started to tour a lot,” Sapp explains. “We went all around the country, and the more we saw, the bigger our new pieces became. Because what we were looking at was bigger. In the beginning, we weren’t even trying to write a new piece. Our initial thought was to look at the state that the country was in, this fear about everything. We were interested in exploring the history of fear in America. And then Katrina happened.”

The group wrote some small pieces responding to the disaster, and performed them at venues in New York City. The audience response was overwhelming. After a show at the Apollo, the group was approached by a couple that had just relocated from New Orleans. The couple told UNIVERSES they’d captured the experience of being caught in the storm in a way no one else had, and asked if any of the writers—Bronx and L.E.S. natives—were from New Orleans. It was then, Sapp says, they began to wonder if they’d found their next big project.

“That’s when Mildred suggested we tackle Katrina. And we thought, can we do that? Should we do that? We knew it had to be about more than just the storm. We knew if we were going to do this, we had to do it our way.”

How high is the water momma?
12 feet high and rising

On one level, Ameriville serves as a reminder to the rest of the nation. “We’re a selective country in terms of what we remember,” says Sapp. “Since Katrina, we’ve had forest fires in California and floods in Iowa. It’s like flipping the channel: we move on. But if you go down to New Orleans now, three years later, there are sections that look like it just happened. It’s chilling.” The play also seeks to expose deeply ingrained social inequities that existed before the levees toppled, but which came to national attention only in the storm’s wake.

The writers feel a deep connection with the people of New Orleans, built on the belief that though circumstances vary, people are the same everywhere. The title suggests that New Orleans is America in microcosm, and, by extension, that Katrina happened to all of us. Ameriville also rejects regionalism, making an argument for a more united, inclusive attitude toward citizenship. “We should be looking at each other as though this country were a village,” says Sapp. “We’re one big, giant America here. Wherever I go in this country, I’m an American when I’m there, and I should feel like one.”

UNIVERSES recently travelled to New Orleans to meet with survivors. They spoke with residents, artists, and community figureheads, and got their blessing to move forward with the project. The conversations left UNIVERSES with a feeling of great responsibility toward these people whose stories and experience are Ameriville’s core, and Katrina’s indelible legacy. Three years after landfall, as debris clears and newsprint fades, the survivors labor to repair what’s been broken; to excavate pasts from the wreckage, and rebuild their lives. Ameriville is both a monument to their struggle and a call to action for the nation: let us not forget what happened here.

How high is the water momma?
20 feet high and rising
How high is the water poppa?
24 feet high and rising


—Sarah Lunnie

UNIVERSES at St. Cloud Minnesota

St. Cloud, MN was amazing. Ann and Amy interpreted the entire performance in Sign Language. The young people at both the Apollo High School and at The South Side YMCA were amazing, and the teachers at Apollo were passionate. What an amazing trip. I will come back and build on this post as I have to run off right now, but I just couldn't let it pass me by. Much love to St. Cloud Minnesota. Stay warm. :)

Mils

Universes -'09

Happy New Year fam,

Happy Birthday Michelle Obama.

Happy Birthday Muhammad Ali.

Happy upcoming Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King.

 

Here we go.  The beginning of a new year and with the upcoming inauguration of "President Obama", a new era. :)

We hope you are all well.  We are doing great.

This is a post to let you know how we are launching UNIVERSES into this New Year.

*    Our first 2009 tour stop is:   Saturday January 24th at Petters Auditorium in the Benedicta Arts Center of the college of Saint Benedict, Minnesota.  

http://www.csbsju.edu/news/2009/01/Universes.htm

Brrrr. We are packing heavy, lots of layering and hot chocolate.  :)

Ninja will be flying into Minneapolis from Sunny San Juan, Puerto Rico where he live 4 blocks from the beach and I will great him in MN with a smile, a hug and his NYC coat.  

Gamal will join us post inauguration.

We will be there in residence for a coupe of days and then home for a moment before we head out to Louisville, KY for development and rehearsals of "Ameriville" for the Humana Festival '09.

While we are in MN we will be working on pieces for Humana and will begin to share some developmental moments so that you can join us on the journey if only via blog.  This work is very important to us.  It is crucial that America learn from herself.

We hope you will be able to follow our blogs on this Ameriville journey.  

We will write back soon.  Stay tuned.

Celebrate who we are as America this unforgettable week when a miracle happened on the Hudson and a historic miracle happens in the Nation's Capital.  Congratulations America for what you've done.

Mils

Hi Fam,

Sorry we've been away from the blog for a while.  This year has kept us busy.

Here's what we've been upto since last we wrote.  Here is our Year in Review.

UNIVERSES' 2008 - Year in review

* Rhythm Road Tour w/ Jazz @ Lincoln Center & U.S. State Dept.

Universes @ National Geographic (D.C. – U.S.A.)

Universes @ Jazz at Lincoln Center’s

“Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola” (NYC – U.S.A.)

Universes in Casablanca, Morocco

Universes in Marrakesh, Morocco

Universes in Tunis, Tunisia

Universes in Istanbul, Turkey

Universes in Ankara, Turkey

Universes in Bucharest, Romania

Universes in Ploiesti, Romania

Universes in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Universes in London, U.K.

Universes in Birmingham, U.K.

 

(Return from Intl. Tour)

 

Universes in Madison, WI

Mildred & Steve open “Denver Project” (Denver, CO)

Ameriville Reading @ New York Theatre Workshop (NYC)

Universes @ The Hip-Hop Theater Festival Benefit (NYC)

Universes’ Master Classes @ Abrons Art Center (NYC)

TCG Awards Peter Zeisler Memorial Award to Steven Sapp and Mildred Ruiz

Universes @ opening of Revolutionary Books (NYC)

Ameriville Lab @ New World Theater

Universes @ Union Square –Theater Mania–

to benefit the Hip-Hop Theater Festival

Universes @ The Hip-Hop Theater Festival (DC)

Universes @ Brave New Voices (DC)

Universes @ Trinity College (CONN)

Universes @ Ntl. Black Arts Festival (Atlanta, GA)

Universes @ Curious Theater (Denver, CO)

Universes @ 1st Works (Providence, RI)

Universes & Dana Leone (NYC)

Universes (Indiana, PA)

Universes Awarded NPN Creation Fund Grant for Ameriville

w/ New World Theater (MA) & Helena Presents (MT)

ELECTION DAY (Obama=President Elect)

Universes @ Harlem Stage (NYC)

Universes in New Orleans

Universes @ Flynn Center & St. Michaels College (VT)

_________________________

Can't complain :)

More to come shortly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our own Rhythm Road, beyond the Rhythm Road

Ok, by now you have probably guessed we are no longer in Amsterdam, in fact, we are already a couple of months away.  But some of us wouldn't mind being there right now, perhaps pontificating over the next next in a dark "Coffee Shop", aching from a Brownie sweet tooth. But we're not.  After Amsterdam, we traveled to good old England, ready to make our way over the Pond and it was smashing, just smashing.  The Queen did not get to catch our show and I dreamt, for a moment, that we performed a Jazz Piece in the poets corner at West Minster Abbey, but today I woke to reality as the Little Big Ben Alarm on my night stand woke me up this morning and told me to get ready for the next big two day adventure in, you guessed it, Madison Wisconsin (Tun! Tun! Tuuuuuuun!).

Yes, today we are in Madison.  The American Airline flight here was a trip, as our pilot kept U-Turning.  He turned so far on his side we almost flipped, lost cabin pressure and kissed our Haikus goodbye.  But alas we made it, no worries, and the accommodations are sweet courtesy of Paris Hilton by way of the Overture Performing Arts Center.  If you've never been to the Overture, you should think about stopping by when you are in town.  It is lovely.  The guys are toasting Madison as I speak, and my eyes have glassed over for the night.  But tomorrow morning we do the damn thing for 900 Madison Youths and at night we do it all again for Madison at large.  I'll let you know how it went.  Stay up America and watch over me while I sleep.

Mils

UNIVERSES

Escape from Romania or Welcome to Amsterdam

Hello my friends, the tour goes on and I have to say we are a little tired. We've experienced so much during this tour but its the travel that kicks your behind. We've just performed our last show in Romania, in a rock club called Club Phoenix in Constanza. The sound system was good and we had a good time. It took the audience a minute to figure out what we were doing but once it clicked in, we are off and running. The smoke was killing us, it seemed like everybody in the room was smoking. I can totally appreciate the non-smoking laws in NY. Our hotel was right off the Black Sea.... Simply Beautiful. But we are kind of ready to leave Romania. Kind of gray but the people we met there in the small towns was deep. Many of them loved us but were kind of sad because they had this sense that they were going to be stuck there. But we tried to be positive and tell them that we don't completely understand their situations but we've overcome obstacles, and if you push hard things may happen.

But we're off to Amsterdam.....yes Amsterdam.

ok we're here..in Amsterdam, wasn't that fast.

I'm not.....sure how.......much I will be....able to report.......we are in Amsterdam.