Universes Ensemble's Ameriville - An Overview
2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays
© JD Eames
Mar 6, 2009
The birth of the play Ameriville is New Orleans in the wake of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. Ameriville is not, however, about New Orleans but America itself. Presented at the 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, Ameriville explores America’s troubles. The play shines a spotlight on racism both past and present, the exploitation of the poverty class, and the conundrum of politics. The play weaves together diverse issues such as war, climate change, gentrification, and the mortgage collapse, highlighting their interconnectedness.
Ameriville is a series of American stories, from the citizens of New Orleans to soldiers in Iraq. The play presents a warning of the “storms to come” and a call for change. With powerful performances, lots of humor, the play is also uplifting and is a call to rebuild America itself.
Ameriville Staging at Actor's Theatre of Louisville
Held in Actors Theatre of Louisville's 318-seat arena theatre (the Bingham), Ameriville's set is sparse. The stories are woven together by powerful actors, with the aid of four chairs, two tables, lights, projection, and sound. In one example, the flood and the death it brought to New Orleans is vividly evoked on stage.
Music serves throughout Ameriville and ranges from hip-hop, jazz, Motown, and Spanish Bolero to a variant of “Old MacDonald.” Language and word challenges, body movement and foot stomping are all tools of Universes charismatic performers.
Universes Ensemble
Ameriville’s heart is its creators, Universes, a collaborative group of artists who write and perform their plays. Much as been written about how to define Universes: are they a hip-hop theatre company, or some kind of art-fusion group? Universes defines itself as “multi-disciplined writers and performers who fuse Poetry, Theater, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Politics, Down Home Blues and Spanish Boleros to create moving, challenging and entertaining theatrical works.” While the ensemble may defy definition, they provide a highly theatrical, entertaining experience that is the essence of live staged drama. Universes' states on their website that the group creates "work that is suitable for anyone who lives life."
Based in New York, Universes founders include playwrights Mildred Ruiz, Stephen Sapp, Gamal Chasten. All of the writers act and sing. All writers make up the cast of Ameriville, along with core company member (and Mildred’s brother) William Ruiz.
The group’s 11-year history includes having initially met through the poetry scene. The group has written several plays, which include Slanguages, The Denver Project, BlueSuite, and The Last Word. Universes has performed their work all across the United States. In 2008, as part the U.S. Department of State’s “Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad” program Universes performed overseas, including Romania, Morocco, and the United Kingdom. Theatre Communications Group will print an anthology of Universes’ work, The Big Bang sometime in 2009.
Ameriville runs at the 33rd Humana Festival of New American Plays through April 5, 2009.
Sources:
- Universes (www.universesonstage.com)
- Actors Theatre of Louisville (www.actorstheatre.org)
- American Theatre Magazine, April 2004 (www.tcg.org)
- America.gov (www.america.gov/st/arts-english/2008/April/20080424171946GLnesnoM0.9658167.html)
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