Masquerade Theatre Presents NESCIENCE

Masquerade made its debut with Proof in May 2020, one of the first fully-realized, live virtual theatre productions produced during the pandemic. In its review, BroadwayWorld praised how Proof "achiev[ed] the necessary suspension of disbelief needed to bring an audience fully into the world of a theatrical production" in the new virtual medium. Masquerade produced two more fully realized virtual productions in
2020, Constellations and Great Expectations, continuing to push the bounds of virtual theatre.

Recognizing the vital role theatre plays in shedding light on contemporary society,
Masquerade is launching 2021 with its New Works Series. Masquerade Theatre is
dedicated to exploring the humanity beneath our masques by using theatre to
enlighten, to celebrate our diversity as a vital part of our human experience and to
inspire us to think, react and learn. New works by contemporary artists are essential
to engaging audiences in a shared dialogue reflective of our own time.

With the pandemic, production of new works faced difficult challenges. Artistic
Director Megan Knowlton Balne explains, "we are committed to providing a platform
for contemporary artists to present new and thought-provoking pieces that help us
explore and understand our humanity." Since Masquerade successfully launched
three fully realized virtual productions in 2020, "we were ready and excited to share
our knowledge of virtual theatre with local artists that otherwise would not be able to
present new work," Balne shares. "Beatrice Alonna, and her original play, Nescience, needed a platform and we were thrilled to be able to work with Beatrice to bring her
piece to the virtual stage."

Nescience, written and directed by Alonna, is a compilation of stories, taken from
real-life experiences, that have the central idea of the world-wide undesirable
phenomenon of stereotyping. Nescience is defined as "lacking knowledge, or
ignorant." The main objective of the play is to bring to life the misconceptions of a
plethora of races.

"Living as a Black woman in America, race can be an extremely stereotyped topic,"
Alonna explains, and "I personally feel that the world has already put me in a box
before I have even had a chance to define myself." According to Alonna, "After I made
the personal choice to take time to converse with others and hear their opinions, I
realized I was not the only victim of racial stereotyping," and Alonna was driven to
create Nescience.

Alonna is encouraged that Nescience could "very well be an aid to end this epidemic."
Compiling these stories together in a creative way has taught me a lot; and I pray that
some of these truths can be presented in a way where they serve as a revelation to the cultures that experience it."

Nescience is presented through a dedicated ensemble cast, including: Myles Arthur,
Leah Cohen, Grace Crosby, Natacha DeCastro, Icesis Gonzalez-Hughes, Hannah
Hanselman, Emily Little, Isaiah Milton, Aniyal Poole, Giovanni Ramos, Ishanna
Rodriguez, Isaiah Showell, and Abra Watson.
Funding for Nescience has been provided in part through the Black Theatre Alliance of Philadelphia, a coalition committed to supporting and uplifting the Black theatre
artists in the Greater Philadelphia area, while challenging and encouraging the
Greater Philadelphia theatre community to be more proactive in their commitment to equity and equality.

Nescience is a Pay-What-You-Wish performance. Ticket registration is live at
https://www.crowdcast.io/masqueradetheatre and is open until the final performance on February 7th. Peek behind the scenes in the Virtual Rehearsal Room at https://www.masqueradetheatre.org/virtual-rehearsal-room.

Visit their website for information about future productions can be found here:
https://www.masqueradetheatre.org.
Nescience presented online, by Masquerade Theatre, is the original work of local artist Beatrice Alonna.
Streaming Performances:
February 5, 6, and 7th at 8PM and a matinee performance February 7 at 2PM.

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