DIGNITY to be Presented at 2025 Uprise Experience: Houston Black Theatre Week
Performances will take place at the historic DeLUXE Theater: 7 PM, Saturday, October 25, and 3 PM, Sunday, October 26.
"DIGNITY" is a 60-minute, three-part re-imagining of the impact Black women had on specific historical experiences. "DIGNITY" has been selected as a featured production in the 2025 Uprise Experience: Houston Black Theatre Week. Two performances are scheduled at the historic DeLUXE Theater: 7 PM, Saturday, October 25, and 3 PM, Sunday, October 26.
Playwright/director Alexus Grace (Rhone) understands the anxiety of the current milieu. She also believes that history has given us a blueprint for hope. "A world desperate for solutions can find them in two places - in women and art," Rhone insists. For that reason, she is excited that "DIGNITY" was selected in the competitive submissions process.
"DIGNITY" is divided into three vignettes set in three different centuries. Each vignette explores the dignity embodied in African/African American women alongside the degradation of specific historic experiences. The 19th-century vignette "When Mortal Puts On Immortality" is an amalgam of tradition, religion, and sexuality, with colonialism dancing around the periphery of 1886 Uganda.
The 20th-century vignette "Purse Fulla Peppermints" is set in 1930s Harlem, New York. One year into the Great Depression, Aunt Clara invites a white German theologian to dinner-a choice that ignites tensions with her niece, Carrie Ann. In the clash between hospitality and history, a deeper question emerges - What do we owe the strangers at our table, and what do we owe ourselves?
The 21st-century vignette "Aborting Betrayal's Baby" is set in 2015, in Los Angeles, California. Almost 15 years after the 9/11 terrorist attack and the Dotcom fallout, Carrie Ann still feels the financial consequences of a "love project" gone wrong. In her struggle to resist bitterness, she confronts the violence of memory and the cost of hope.
Rhone has cast Trina Francis (Carrie Ann) and Barbette Hunter (AUNT CLARA) to translate her "raucous history lessons." The runtime is 60 minutes, including a talkback after each show facilitated by Houston native Tracie Jae (IG: @TheQuietRebel).
"DIGNITY" was originally mounted in the 2023 National Women's Theatre Festival, where it won "Best Storytelling Award." It was also a runner-up in the "Best Direction" and "Best of Fringe Overall Outstanding Production" categories.
"DIGNITY" is not just a play-it's a mirror held up to history and a balm offered to the present. At its core, it is a meditation on the ways Black women's sacred strength continues to carve pathways toward possibility. For more information and for tickets to "DIGNITY," please visit https://www.1989dreams.com/dignity.
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