jaymez

visual artist | live performance design
video | projection | light | sound | stage

Voice

Prairie Theatre Exchange (2021)

About

Credits

A Digital Production

Presented by Prairie Theatre Exchange

Written by Ismaila Alfa

Directed by Thomas Morgan Jones and Cherissa Richards

Ismaila Alfa is a journalist, a current-affairs radio host and a hip-hop artist who was born in Nigeria but grew up and made his home in Winnipeg. This past spring, while in Toronto for a job interview, separated from his daughters in Winnipeg, two events changed the world. The pandemic exposed so many things that to some had been below the surface, but for others, like Ismaila, had always been much too obvious. The murder of George Floyd and the ensuing global calls for social justice spurred a need to help his daughters understand the world – about race, about culture, about home. So he wrote his first play – a heartfelt, raw blend of powerful prose and poetry with the rhythm of hip hop – to use his voice to help his daughters find theirs.

Co-directors and set design: Cherissa Richards, Thomas Morgan Jones
Lighting design: jaymez
Sound design: Deanna H. Choi

Performed By:
Melissa Langdon, Ray Strachan, Ismaila Alfa

Photo credit: Leif Norman