Prophetika: An Oratorio
Conceived and Directed by Charlotte Brathwaite
@La MaMa
Composed by Courtney Bryan
Scenic and Costume Design by Abigail Deville*
Lighting Design and Video Engineering by Kent Barrett
Video Art by Katherine Cauleen Smith
Artist Assistant Mary Olin Geiger
live sound design Justin Hicks
harp Brandee Younger
piano Courtney Bryan
*2015 Obie Award for Scenic Design
featuring Jadele McPherson, Justin Hicks
Courtney Bryan, Brandee Younger
"Conceptual yet viscerally powerful...“She [Charlotte Brathwaite]'s making theater for and with her generation, with visual and musical sensibility that is a stunningly multidimensional experience.”" –The Wall Street Journal
“Along with telling several people to go see it, I’ve been saying Sun Ra lives! I felt soaked in an understanding of time that pulls from past and reaches through now into what could be.” – CultureBot
PROMOTIONAL VIDEO CLIP
PERFORMANCE EXCERPT
"GAZE IN THE MIRROR"
PERFORMANCE EXCERPT
"WHAT DO THEY CALL ME?"
Part theatrical event, part visual art installation, part ritual ceremony, Prophetika: An Oratorio proposes a mythical cosmology of colliding reflections on freedom and a view of the current state of our world. Inspired by Harriet Tubman’s journey from enslavement to liberation; the cosmic philosophies and improvisational style of Sun Ra; Alice Coltrane’s consciousness rising devotional music and the mysterious invading black monoliths in Stanley Kubrick’s classic sci-fi film 2001: Space Odyssey.
