Dido feels torn between two worlds; one human and one cyborg, this workshop production of an original script by Kendra Dobson will take you on a journey into an Afrofuturist prototype play. Included with each ticket is both a comic book AND access to an augmented reality app with illustrations by Lakeem Wilson, a local artist whose work explores themes presented in this allegorical play. Come EARLY to participate in an interactive adventure as Dido navigates her world as a human in a cyborg society! Show begins at 6:00; doors open at 5:00.
“Turst Me, Love” has been adapted for stage from the third episode of Kendra’s radio drama, “Columbus Myth.” The stage performance is a combination of interactive augmented reality, music, projection, and story that follows a girl named Dido as she navigates her existence as human in a cyborg society. You can listen to the audio version, here, (link goes to:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXvO1xog3gU) or at kendradobson.com.
Artist Bio:
Kendra Dobson writes science fiction through an African American perspective. She uses symbolism to speak her truth that would otherwise be debated or labeled “political” if one were to casually bring up this reality as a side-note in a story. In her project entitled “Columbus Myth,” Dobson uses her perspective as a foundation to build a speculative world depicting how our society would look centuries in the future if we mixed and were all brown with curly hair. In this prospective existence, beauty standards are standards of power and tan skin and curly hair are most desirable, all-the-while white supremacy is still an active agent controlling systems of society, though hidden and under-the-surface. Instead of focusing on proving that white supremacy exists, Dobson writes stories of characters who are living their everyday lives in this environment. The conflict, moreover, does not revolve around white supremacy, but might instead present itself as a love story, or a coming of age, or mystery where white supremacy hangs in the background as a tapestry throughout all three. “This is, in fact, how we experience white supremacy in our real lives,” Kendra says.
Kendra Dobson is a grandchild of Rev. Vernon Dobson, a Baptist minister and civil rights activist in Baltimore, Maryland. She attended Drexel University and has her Bachelor’s of Science in Screenwriting and Playwriting from Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts and Design. She was born and raised in Lake Jackson, Texas and spent her teenage years in Wilmington, Delaware. She’s lived about an even split of years between the state of Texas and states on the East Coast, and her writing is informed by her unique experience of living as a black woman in these two vastly different environments.
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