Words from the Clouds

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If you choose to do it early, I would prefer if you submitted them here via ask box or submission, just so I can queue them for the day of! If you decide to post now and post early, there is no guarantee I'll even remember to queue it for later to be included. (I have a lot of notifications, I don't catch everything. Help me out here, please 😅)

If you choose to post the day of, posting on your own is fine, just tag me so I see it, and use the hashtag 👍🏾 (or again you can submit here too. It's up to you!)

I would appreciate it if y'all made original pieces, should you choose to participate. Tagging old and/or other people's work, especially when it wasn't done with the intent of participation, feels lazy to me 😅 there's no pressure to participate, but if you're gonna do it, commit. It doesn't have to be the Mona Lisa lmao, it doesn't have to take you a whole week to do! It just has to be something made intentionally and with care!

The day of, ABSOLUTELY share everything you can find that was posted with the tag! That's the flooding the dash part, that's the excitement!

"All you had to do was pay us enough to live"

finally completed my outfit for Alias Chicane! thought I'd better give it a test run before heatwave 3.0 hits us... a dapper chap from the 1920s! please disregard my extremely not period appropriate stove

bonus: foxes gots to wash them soxes

It always fascinates me to see how something gets adapted for the big screen, particularly when the original creator is involved at every step of the process! And even just from seeing the trailer, it looks like there's definitely some differences in there

I'm gonna tag in my resident Theatre Extraordinaire, @toiletpotato for that!

And yes, there are differences! Since Aleshea was involved in the process, you can say that she is allowed to do that to her own story, and I feel like that adds some complexity to it! A universe of options, if you will. Of what ifs! Where you go and how you see it determines the ending. It was certainly an amazing movie.

Due to the release of the film, it seems/it is likely that licensed productions of the play have been put on hold, keep checking the Concord Theatricals website every couple of months or so, and a local production may pop up in your area!! Play bootlegs of modern plays generally are tough, but not impossible to come by.

Now, on to dramaturgical timelines!!! Well, somewhat. Dramaturgical information is provided but not so much in a timeline-esque manner. Nevertheless, I hope it is still interesting/in the neighborhood of what you were looking for.

I found this lovely Vogue interview with Aleshea Harris that, while not super timeline focus does detail some of the thought processes she had whilst adapting her own work for the screen. Be warned, there are plot details within the article and stills from the film. I'll include a quote that may be of interest from the article:

"The culture has also shifted a bit since Is God Is played onstage; in the era of the manosphere, the work’s engagement with violence against women—and misogynoir in particular—feels especially timely. “In my feed, there has been a lot about the acts of femicide specifically against Black women,” Harris says, “because it’s still a bit taboo to call out violence against Black women that’s perpetrated by Black men. That’s a very gnarly conversation that I think people are wanting to have for the betterment of the entire community and for the love of all Black folks."

I also found this enlightening interview with Harris from 2023, in which she discusses how not everyone has the means to see a play, and how that impacted her writing process for Is God Is, as well as themes regarding Black women and violence (and the harmful tropes that can evoke). Overall just a very fascinating piece both specifically from a dramaturgical standpoint and a more general theatrical one!

There's also this article that seems like it would be a lovely read, titled "Signal, noise, and presencing Blackness", a conversation with Harris. Based on the excerpt, it seems that it will have interesting insights on both Harris' personal perspectives that may impact your interpretation of the play and more general theatrical musings.

Lastly, you may be interested in reading Black Pagecraft, an article by Kinohi Nishikawa, which places the play in the context of 2020 and the Black Lives Matter movement, and the recommended reading lists. It specifically mentions the Wilma Theater production and then analyzes how the page design of the text impacts and suggests certain stage directions that ended up being present in this audio production. Given that you were trying to find this production, I believe that this article may be of great interest to you. As this article contains scanned images from the script, there will be plot details within from the play.

While this was not a neat dramaturgical timeline, given that the information does date from around the initial productions of the play moving closer to the film adaptation, I hope it is satisfactory. Happy reading!!!

under the fold, I have included two somewhat related fun facts I wanted to share.

One summer's eve

watercolour on arches paper cold pressed