Playwrights Horizons continues its 2019-2020 Off-Broadway season with The Movement Theatre Company production of Aleshea Harris’ What to Send Up When It Goes Down, directed by Whitney White.
Performances are staged in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater.
(Photo by Ahron R. Foster)
What to Send Up When It Goes Down is a play-pageant-ritual-homegoing celebration in response to the physical and spiritual deaths of Black Americans as a result of racialized violence. Meant to disrupt the pervasiveness of anti-blackness and acknowledge the resilience of Black people throughout history, this theatrical work uses facilitated conversation, parody, song, and movement in a series of vignettes to create a space for catharsis, reflection, cleansing, and healing. Boundaries between performers and the audience blur as audiences are asked not only to observe the performance, but to participate in the ritual as well.