REDCAT Presents Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born: 'adaku, Part 1: The Road Opens'

From May 25 to 27, 2023, Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT), CalArts' center for contemporary arts in downtown Los Angeles, presents adaku, part 1: the road opens, a new, cross-disciplinary performance from Brooklyn-based performer, choreographer, and writer Okwui Okpokwasili and director, visual artist, and sound designer Peter Born.

In this first chapter of a larger speculative mythology, a precolonial African village is at the cusp of a major upheaval. The community is entangled in an argument that could shape the future of all of their lives. This collective reckoning explores the fraught relationship between ancestors, future generations, and the role of ritual. A sonic and visual landscape of reflective textures, contouring shadows, and thrumming facilitates an intimate exchange between performers and the audience.

The performance is a collaboration between mayfield brooks, McKenzie Frye, Audrey Hailes, Samita Sinha, Stacey Lynn Smith, AJ Wilmore, and Okwui Okpokwasili.

adaku, part 1: the road opens was commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It was developed in a Studio Residency at The Museum of Modern Art, as part of the Hyundai Card Performance Series; a 2023 Summer Stages Dance residency at The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Summer Stages Dance at the ICA is made possible, in part, with the support of Jane Karol and Howard Cooper, George and Ann Colony, David Parker, The Aliad Fund, and Stephanie and Leander McCormick-Goodhart. adaku, part 1: the road opens was also developed during a residency at the Brown Arts Institute at Brown University and a residency at the Mercury Store in Brooklyn, New York.

The REDCAT presentation of adaku, part 1: the road opens is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

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