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Confederates

August 23 – October 29, 2022 Thomas Theatre

An enslaved woman turned Union spy and a brilliant professor in a modern-day private university are facing similar struggles, though they live over a century apart. This play by MacArthur genius award–winner Dominique Morisseau leaps through time to trace the identities of two brilliant Black women and explores the reins that racial and gender bias still hold on American systems today.

Confederates
By Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Nataki Garrett
An American Revolutions Commission
West Coast Premiere

August 23 - October 29
Opening day: August 27
Thomas Theatre

(Approximate running time: 2 hours, with no intermission.)

Immerse

Dominique Morisseau
From the Playwright

PLAYWRIGHT'S PERMISSIONS FOR ENGAGEMENT

Consider this an invitation to be your full and un-restricted selves. But I also want you to know that the theatre normative will be disrupted in this space for the duration of this show. And that means some thangs….

It means you are allowed to laugh audibly and give all the “um hmmms” and “uhn uhnnns” you feel inspired to give.

The subject matter might make you think that there is no room for humor. That is a lie. The humanity of both the folk in the present and in the past during times of enslavement mean that they are full and complex. They are not simply downtrodden or in a perpetual state of abuse.

Just like in the present, the enslaved are multi-faceted. We all carry snark and sarcasm. We are all expert navigators of the systemic fuckeries. And sometimes, navigating that shit is painful. And sometimes, navigating that shit is funny.

As always, the theatre can be church for some of us, and testifying is allowed.

Please be an audience member that joins with the village, either silently or vocally, in support of the journey we will take collectively. Exhale together. Laugh together. Say “oh hell no” or “amen” should you need to.

This is community. Let’s dismantle and let’s go.

peaceandlovedominique:)


PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE

I never know how anything I write is going to go over. For me, theatre is supposed to be a liberation sport. As of late, with visibility and multiple productions comes great opportunity and great scrutiny. Gazes exist everywhere. Toni Morrison talks about the “white gaze,” under which Black writers are constantly restricted and whose stories become qualified by a metrics system outside of the cultural experience from which they write.

I, too, have felt the lash of writing in a continuum that honors this gaze, even when I personally do not hold space for it in my own aesthetic. But there are other gazes as well. As a woman writer, I have also felt the male gaze. As a radical writer, I have felt the gaze of respectability politics. And as a Black writer, I have felt the gaze of Blackness that sometimes is only qualified as one myopic thing, rather than expansive and global as Blacknesss truly is. No matter the gaze, they all feel like one collective thing to me as an artist: oppression.

I believe fervently in freedom. Everyone’s freedom. For me, freedom is not something that comes on the back of other people’s oppression. Real freedom is contagious. In liberating yourself, you liberate others. You inspire acceptance with oneself. You do not seek to restrict anyone else’s existence so that yours can be more comfortable. Freedom is not comfort. Freedom is healthy disruption and positive growth.

It is my desire as a playwright, and our desire as a company, to “get free” in this production.

Hope it’s contagious…

Cast

* Member of Actors' Equity Association (AEA)
** AEA Professional Theatre Intern

Creative Team

* Member of Actors' Equity Association (AEA)
** AEA Professional Theatre Intern

Understudies

* Member of Actors' Equity Association (AEA)
** AEA Professional Theatre Intern

Memorable Lines from the Play

“Good book say only a master get to act on they passion. Not the slave. But then there’s nature...”

“I’m a target. A source of ridicule. Because I don’t give you what you want when you want it, the way that makes you comfortable.”
Suitability Suggestions

Confederates contains profanity, sensuality, and partial nudity. There is no violence shown onstage, but there is a sustained sense of physical and emotional violation, as well as conversations about violent acts involving slavery and rebellion. The sophisticated themes make it best suited for mature high school students and up.

For additional content warnings regarding violence or graphic depictions that may be upsetting to some audience members, please see our Content Warnings page (may contain spoilers).

Accessibility

The Thomas Theatre is outfitted with an elevator to the theatre level.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is committed to accessibility. We recognize the needs of persons with disabilities and strive to make our facilities and productions accessible to all. We are presently planning our Access/Accessibility programs for 2022; please watch our Accessibility for details as they develop.

Our 2022 Season