By Erik Ehn
Produced by Soulographie: A Commemorative Performance Cycle & Ruth Moe
LaMaMa ETC
Original Music composed and performed by Eric Lindley
Scenic, Lighting, Projection Design by: Jeanette Yew
Sound Design by: Julian Evans
Costume Design by: Whitney Locher
Stage Manager: Megan Schwarz Dickert
Featuring: Birgit Huppuch, Andrew Garman, Jocelyn Kuritsky, Emman Galvin, Jan Leslie Harding
Developed with the support of New Dramatists, Arena Stage & New York Stage & Film/Vassar Powerhouse
One of 17 plays written for Erik Ehn’s Soulographie: Our Genocides play cycle. Burnt Umber bridges Tulsa, Rwanda and Bosnia, telling the story of a family suffering the consequences of neglect on several levels. Though the play takes place in 2007, the characters are haunted by the events of the Tulsa Race Riots (1921), Rwandan genocide (Hutu mass killings of Tutsis, 1994), and the Bosnian ethnic cleansing campaign and genocide in Srebrenica (1992-1995). The characters somnabulently orbit around this domestic American drama in an atmosphere of neglect, denial, and communication breakdown-elements known to successfully break a family apart, or in a different context, allow a genocidal act to occur. Or anything that might happen when some of us aren’t looking or others simply decide not to look.
Pictured here: The ensemble performing music from the LaMaMa production at the Cast Recording Celebration at The Brick
Read the feature about Soulographie on HowlRound