Celebration Arts Presents WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN By Aleshea Harris

Celebration Arts continues its 2023 Season with its second production, WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN, by Aleshea Harris.

Directed by Imani Mitchell, WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN is a unique experience created in response to the deaths of Black people at the hand of anti-Black violence. It acknowledges the resilience of Black people throughout history with song and movement and creates a communal experience for reflection and healing.

The cast includes Conrad Crump (DRACULA, DIRECT FROM DEATH ROW - THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS) and Carla Fleming (BLACK PEARL SINGS, SISTER ACT: THE MUSICAL), among others.

Performances begin April 7 through April 30, 2023. Tickets and Season/Flex tickets are available at celebrationarts.net.

Characterized as a play-pageant-ritual-homegoing celebration in response to the physical and spiritual deaths of Black people as a result of racialized violence, WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN is meant to disrupt the pervasiveness of anti-blackness and acknowledge the resilience of Black people throughout history. This theatrical work uses facilitated conversation, parody, song, and movement in a series of vignettes to create a space for catharsis, reflection, cleansing, and healing. Boundaries between performers and audiences blur as the audiences are asked to observe the performance and participate in the ritual.

Aleshea Harris' play Is God Is (directed by Taibi Magar at Soho Rep) won the 2016 Relentless Award, an OBIE Award for playwriting in 2017, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award in 2019 and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

What to Send Up When It Goes Down (directed by Whitney White, produced by The Movement Theatre Company), a play-pageant-ritual response to anti-blackness, had its critically acclaimed NYC premiere in 2018, was featured in the April 2019 issue of American Theatre Magazine and received a rare special commendation from the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Harris was awarded a Windham-Campbell Literary Prize and the Mimi Steinberg Playwriting Award in 2020 and the Hermitage Greenfield Prize in 2021. She has performed her own work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Orlando Fringe Festival, REDCAT, as part of La Fête du Livre at La Comèdie de Saint-Étienne and the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. Harris is a two-time MacDowell Fellow and has enjoyed residencies at Hedgebrook and Djerassi.

Imani Mitchell is a director, writer, and actor. She has worked with various theaters within the Northern California area, including Celebration Arts, Capital Stage, and B Street Theatre. Most recently, she directed LOVE & BASEBALL by Jerry Montoya at B Street Theatre. At Celebration Arts, she directed PIPELINE by Dominique Morrisseau and a virtual production of BULRUSHER by Eisa Davis.

Outside of the theater, Imani is dedicated to the art of filmmaking. In 2019, she founded her film company IAM Studios and wrote her first film, WHIRLPOOL (now available on Amazon Prime). In August 2023, she'll debut her original stageplay, ZORA & LANGSTON, at the Black Box Theater in West Sacramento.

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