2nd rehearsal / Not All Canoes Sail Back Home

2nd rehearsal yesterday morning, gathered for Femi Osofisan’s work-in-process, NOT ALL CANOES SAIL BACK HOME, took place in Rehearsal Room 3..

..the space collects not only our artists of Sunday, who are performing as “Maya”, “Maryse”, and “Efua” – but now dancers, Cheikh Bassene and Yerodin Sanders, choreographer, Becky Umeh, and musician, 4 Joseph Ngwa!

Director Chuck Mike suggest that there are “Some songs I’d like to try and get,” but Baba Joseph’s drumming starts ceremony with a startling percussion that whispers down to heart beat, where pulsation suggests itself into the company, up feet, ankles, legs – hips – torso – arms – hands -fingers, and smiles, tickling children hiding inside this Troupe.

Leaps, applause and laughter.. dance is celebration before spoken words of dialogue, and suddenly, we are arrived in Accra!

..a moment there, Ms Umeh is adding nuance, a percussive step in gyration of a heel -to see if it can work in the characterization.. and now something more – and as she details each step, her eyes fast on each artist in turn, she says, “Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy”, tone on the sway, detail to the beat; accent to the smile. “Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy. Listen, you make a mistake you know – Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy.”

At a moment’s breath, Mr Mike speaks to the cast – “ok. Let’s set up for that. So that we have our spaces,” but means this more specifically as note of the Stage Manager, Elaine Randolph, who creates the set placements: music stands. Drummer seated. Dancers centered.

Tempo high, rehearsal took off in earnest.

NOT ALL CANOES SAIL BACK HOME is being presented as a work in process at 6pm this evening, 4th February 2020, at the Kennedy Center, in the BOUNDLESS: AFRICA literary series.

..reflections in rehearsal / Not All Canoes Sail Back Home

This morning was the first gathering of an ensemble of women in the Terrace Theatre Rehearsal rooms, who put strong voice to the strong women Femi Osofisan evokes in his work-in-process, Not All Canoes Sail Back Home.

After an initial read through, Chuck Mike, who is directing this presentation in the BOUNDLESS: AFRICA literary series at The Kennedy Center Tuesday evening, allowed a moment’s breath and then asked, “How did it feel in your sprit?”

Mr. Mike’s question is quietly considered,  as the richness of the work speaks through an imagined gathering of Maya Angelou, Maryse Condé, and Efua Sutherland.

In a outline on the concept, Mr. Osofisan states, “As astonishing as it may sound, and by some historical coincidence which I find remarkable, these three women who are considered today to be among the giants of the literary world, lived in Accra at the same time for some years during that turbulent period of the Nkrumah revolution. They were of course only in the early years of their womanhood then, and their careers were in such a budding stage that not even the most gifted soothsayer could have dared predict their future eminence”

Yesenia Iglesias, Temidayo Akibu, and Erica Chamblee speak in the spirt of these great people.

In answering the question of how the experience felt, Ms Chamblee stated, out of the consequence of a historic moment of the play, “Women, out of tragedy, and pain, deciding to alchemize that into triumph, and momentum to do that – must transform the pain, or be dirging forever! It’s about, the future for brown people, after the bottom’s fallen out.”

Tomorrow’s rehearsal brings another layer to the presentation: Gelede dancers. Mr Osofisan outlines that “Gelede dancers appear at various moments in the play, and are a crucial factor in the play’s interpretation.”

..there is palpable power in the shape of this work already, and as each new element is brought into the performance, a narrative of Nigerian history threads into an account that inspires and, yes, invokes a strength of presence for guidance through the dark..