In his play The Colored Museum, George C. Wolfe used satire to explore how African American lives were shaped by the legacy of slavery. The uncomfortable, absurdist humour of the play allows Wolfe to write, and rewrite the dynamics of race in 1980s America.

How does race become visible in our lives today?

How can we reposition The Colored Museum into a British context?

The global BLM movement in 2020, is not something that started this summer, it’s our daily lives. How can we use this new visibility to explore who we are and how our history impacts our identity? How can we explore through writing and performing?

In this university Drama workshop, artist-performer Vanessa Macaulay will share her practices.

You will:

discover the world of The Colored Museum
use satire as a tool to explore the world
try techniques to write your own scenes
be able to ask about studying Drama and/ or writing at university.

Biography

Vanessa Damilola Macaulay is a performance practitioner and a PhD student and Teaching Associate in the Department of Drama at Queen Mary University of London. Her practice is interdisciplinary often using spoken word, movement, and video to challenge the imbalances of intersectional identities, speaking to contemporary struggles and anxieties about navigating the world in a specific body. Her performances have been programmed in places such as Talawa Firsts festival, The Yard Theatre, Derby Theatre and Camden People’s Theatre.

Drama Yr 12/13 Taster - QM Futures: The Colored Museum & Writing Race