Whitesplaining

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v c u arts students on stage

Whitesplaining

Devised by The Conciliation Project and VCUarts Theatre

September 15th-24th, 2022
The Basement, 300 E Broad St.

Direction – Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates
Assistant Director: Heather Falks
Choreography and Movement: Christine Catherine Wyatt
Music Composition: Ali Thibideau
Musical / Choral Arrangement: Makeda McCreary
Scenic Design: Tomya Pryor
Projection Design: Dasia Gregg
Costume Design: Amanda Jackson
Lighting Design: Deryn Gabor
Sound Design: Em Bochette
Technical Director: Preston Spence
Dramaturg: Hope Ward
Dialect Coach: Erica Hughes
Production Stage Manager: Emily Ellen

ABOUT “WHITESPLAINING”

The Conciliation Project and VCUarts Theatre present Whitesplaining. This devised piece is the end result of a collaborative process between the local social justice theatre company and VCU Department of Theatre. Members of The Conciliation Project (TCP) and VCUarts Theatre students worked together to create an original script using TCP’s signature approach to collective storytelling. Research such as interviews, stories, and writings from many perspectives were used as part of the process to explore whiteness through the lens of systems like media, religion, and education. Members of TCPVCUarts Theatre students, and local professionals are involved in all aspects of Whitesplaining, including the devising process and acting as performers and designers for the staged work.

Leading the project is the venerable Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, a long-time professor for VCUarts Theatre and the founder and artistic director of TCP.  She says, “Our devising process shakes up all the research and information gathered as we collectively begin to dramatize it, to embody it, and to explore it. We use satire, story, anecdotes, commentary, music, and dance to immerse ourselves in the text, and in the various characters and character ‘types’ as they live the stories they tell. We intentionally engage the cultural ‘norms’ as well as the various mythologies surrounding race, racism, and the truth of white skinned privilege to unpack the truths we find and perhaps generate more questions in the process.” Read more about Whitesplaining from Dr. T here.

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