UW Drama Confronts Police Brutality with Kia Corthron's FORCE CONTINUUM, Beginning Tonight

The University of Washington School of Drama continues their 75th Anniversary Season with playwright and novelist Kia Corthron's explosive socio-political drama, FORCE CONTINUUM. Second-year MFA directing candidate Malika Oyetimein will helm the project, which she chose for very personal reasons.

"Since the acquittal of Michael Brown's murderer I have been full of rage, confusion, passion, and heartbreak," states Oyetimein. "I have vacillated between being hopeful for this country and full of despair. I knew I wanted to DO something, make something, but lacked the proper outlet. I felt impotent and that's why I knew my next production needed to address how I was feeling. Though FORCE CONTINUUM is 14-years-old, it is accurate, relevant, and important. This play makes us question why we are in this seemingly helpless cycle of police brutality in America. And, most importantly, it humanizes the people that are being affected by this systemic violence."

FORCE CONTINUUM revolves around three generations of African American police officers torn apart by the very organization to which they have dedicated their loyalty and working lives. It is an unflinching and deeply felt story of tragically flawed human beings trying to do the right thing in difficult circumstances and getting it very, very wrong.

As timely now as it was when first produced in 2001, FORCE CONTINUUM stands as a potent theatrical criticism of modern day police brutality and the relationship between police and the black community.

FORCE CONTINUUM previews tonight and tomorrow, April 27 and 28 and runs April 29 - May 8. Performances are Wednesday-Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm. Tickets range from $10-20 and are available online or over the phone through the ArtsUW Ticket Office, 206-543-4880 / drama.uw.edu/performances. The ArtsUW Ticket Office is located at 1313 NE 41st Street, open Monday-Friday, 11 am-6 pm.

Performances are in the Jones Playhouse, located at 4045 University Way NE in Seattle's University District.

Malika Oyetimein is a recent transplant to Seattle by way of Philadelphia. She served as Artistic Director of the Philadelphia based Ademide Theatre Ensemble and was a member of the Directors Lab at Lincoln Center Theater. In Seattle, she recently directed Intiman Theatre Festival's acclaimed production of Bootycandy and was featured in City Art Magazine's 2016 Future List. Select directing credits: Hoodoo Love (Yancy Girl Productions & Ademide Theatre Ensemble), Young Voices (InterAct Theatre Co. & Philadelphia Young Playwrights), and Topdog/Underdog (GoKash Productions). Select Assistant Director credits: Pinocchio, Three Penny Opera, Blue Door (Arden Theatre Co.), and A View from the Bridge (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Malika is in her second year of the MFA Directing program at the University of Washington School of Drama.

Kia Corthron is an accomplished playwright whose works include Light Raise the Roof, Slide Glide the Slippery Slope, The Venus de Milo is Armed, Breath Boom, FORCE CONTINUUM, Splash Hatch on the E Going Down, Seeking the Genesis, Digging Eleven, Life by Asphyxiation, Wake Up Lou Riser, Come Down Burning, and Cage Rhythm. She is also the author of the novel The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter, which was released by Seven Stories Press in January 2016.

As a playwright, Corthron has received numerous awards, including several for her body of work: the Windham Campbell Prize for Drama, the United States Artists Jane Addams Fellowship, the Simon Great Plains Playwright Award, and the Lee Reynolds Award. In addition, she has written a bit of television. (Edgar and Writers Guild Outstanding Series awards for The Wire.)

Among the theatres that have premiered her plays are Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Atlantic Theater Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club (New York City); Yale Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Children's Theatre Company, Alabama Shakespeare Festival (regionally); Royal Court Theatre, Donmar Warehouse (London).

The UW School of Drama develops innovative and courageous artists and scholars poised to be the creative leaders of tomorrow.

For 75 years it has served as one of this country's leading training institutions for theatre artists and scholars. The School of Drama offers MFA degrees in acting, design, and directing, a four-year undergraduate liberal arts education in Drama, and a PhD in theatre history and criticism. Faculty and alumni have founded theatres such as ACT-A Contemporary Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Empty Space Theatre, Jet City Improv, and more recently, the Washington Ensemble Theatre, Azeotrope, and The Horse in Motion.

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