The TEAM: Reconstructing
A meta-theatrical play that explores how we might move through history together in the aftermath of slavery.
A meta-theatrical play that explores how we might move through history together in the aftermath of slavery.
Onstage is a two-story house. From one angle, it's mucked out after a flood. From another, it's a new development wrapped in Tyvek. And from another, it's "Tara" from Gone with the Wind being transformed into an Airbnb. The piano can't be tuned. Someone is quilting in the corner. Come in.
The work was co-directed by Zhailon Levingston and Tony award-winning Rachel Chavkin, best known for directing the Broadway hits Hadestown and Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. In 2019, she was the only woman directing a musical on Broadway. This spirit of groundbreaking collaboration extended to the writing process, which was led by a collective of 21 Black-, POC-, and white-identifying artists ranging in age from 28 through 98.
Propelled by a quilt-like score, the work slips between fact and fiction, performance and ritual, process and product, to tell a story of historical figures and fictional characters seeking and fleeing intimacy—and how these theater artists are doing the same.
Join us in Top of the Hop for a pre-show panel discussion at 6 pm where members of The TEAM are joined by Dartmouth scholars Deborah King and Nicole Maskiell to discuss the origins of the play, Dartmouth's impact on its development and the history and legacy of slavery in our region. Co-sponsored with Dartmouth Dialogues.
Reconstructing was commissioned and developed during the TEAM's 2020 residency at the Hop, a longstanding partnership rooted in bold experimentation. The Hop remains a proud supporter of this powerful work and its evolution.
