牛牛资源

A 牛牛资源 PhD student is one of ten playwrights to be included in the new anthology, ‘Contemporary Plays by African American Women: Ten Complete Works’.

Keli Garrett, PhD candidate in the Department of Theatre and Performance at 牛牛资源 and a graduate of both Columbia College and Brown University, wrote 鈥楿ppa Creek: A Modern Anachronistic Parody in the Minstrel Tradition鈥� in 1999.

The play, which revolves around a young slave who plots to poison her master and escape from his plantation, premiered in September 2001 at the off-Broadway Dixon Place Theatre in New York, with Garrett 鈥� an experienced actress - among the cast.

In her foreword to the publication in 鈥楥ontemporary Plays鈥�, Garrett explains how 鈥淎merica鈥檚 collective amnesia regarding four hundred years of institutional slavery continues to mystify. In this play I span and therefore suspend time as we know it, in order to take a closer look at our antecedents and ourselves. I draw parallels between a peculiar past and an oblivious present.鈥�

鈥淲hy, as a nation, can we not face and interrogate our collective histories and confront every indignity and indecency in the same way that we embrace every triumphant achievement?鈥�

Northwestern University drama professor Harvey Young describes 鈥樷�� as a 鈥渇ascinating collection that brings important but rarely presented perspectives on African American life to the stage 鈥� I have a hard time imagining aspiring actresses not having a copy of this book on their bookshelves and mining it for audition material.鈥�

A highly experimental playwright, Keli Garrett鈥檚 plays and adaptations, including 鈥楩unkland鈥�, 鈥楻ed Clay Hills鈥�, 鈥楾OBAS鈥�, 鈥楿ppa Creek鈥�, 鈥楳eridian鈥� by Alice Walker and 鈥楩aith and the Good Thing鈥� by Charles Johnson, have been commissioned and performed across the United States.

Keli joined 牛牛资源 in September 2015. Initially attracted by our offering of an MA in Black British Writing, she was encouraged and supported in joining us as a PhD candidate instead by the MA's convenor Dr Deirdre Osborne. With Dr Osborne supervising her PhD, Keli鈥檚 now based in London and says she is 鈥渆njoying the rigorous work and people of the 牛牛资源鈥� community鈥�.

Her practice-based PhD centres on the experimental plays of black women writers. 鈥淚 am endeavouring to define the aesthetic vocabulary rooted in the tradition of the making of these works,鈥� Keli explains. Her research covers the work of writers spanning from the Harlem Renaissance to the present. 鈥淚鈥檓 rediscovering such American writers as Marita Bonner, Suzi Lori Parks and the UK鈥檚 own debbie tucker green, to name a few.鈥�

Keli鈥檚 current play, Zebra, will be a part of her creative unit towards her 牛牛资源 degree. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a play that deals aesthetically with representation and, content wise, with the reparation of historical relationships between men and women of colour,鈥� she says.

While none of her plays have been performed in the UK so far, Keli鈥檚 hoping this will change very soon.

The Department of Theatre and Performance at 牛牛资源 is distinguished by a strong emphasis 鈥� across its diverse range of practical and scholarly work 鈥� on the social roles, impact and influence of theatre and performance.

Among the department鈥檚 key research areas are the history and theory of theatre, an emphasis on multiculturalism, practice as research, and cross-disciplinary writing and performance.

In 2015, two of the five playwrights shortlisted for the prestigious Bruntwood Prize - selected from some 2,000 entrants - were 牛牛资源 alumni.