Photo Flash: Imani Enterprises Presents SHE SAID/ HE SAID

Imani Enterprises presents the Toronto premiere of She Said/He Said, created and directed by award-winning artist Anne-Marie Woods (aka Amani). She Said/He Said is a play where spoken word, theatre, conflict and comedy join hands for a tragi-comic and complex look at relationships. The female/male rapport is laid bare in this battle of wits with the multi-talented Woods starring as SHE and Dora Mavor Moore Award winner Matthew G Brown as HE. She Said/He Said runs Wednesday, September 14 through Sunday, September 18 (with Media Night September 15) at Native Earth's AKI Studio (inside Daniels Spectrum) in Regent Park.

Through compelling monologues, dialogue, poetry and song, She Said/He Said takes a fresh and nuanced look at a relationship between two people searching for love, despite their troubling past experiences. A fusion of personal experiences and fiction, Woods conveys the vulnerability felt in romantic relationships and the importance of communication in this funny, tender and complex look at love in fast-paced, multi-cultural Toronto.

SHE has lived in Toronto for five years having grown up in Nova Scotia and navigates online sites and meet-up groups hoping to find someone. HE is of Jamaican heritage and ready for love after a long-term relationship and custody battle for his daughter. Together they fight to make their relationship last in a world where the "rules" are always changing.

After running singles events for years called "Blingles" (Black Singles) in Toronto, Woods realized people were having difficulty even acknowledging each other with a simple "Hello," something foreign to a Nova Scotia gal. Woods recognized a social barrier needed to come down - it was time to take her thoughts from the page to the stage: She Said/He Said is the result.

She Said/He Said speaks to the conversations that Black men and women are having but not necessarily with each other. The dialogue focuses on SHE and HE over the course of their relationship, and then deftly shifts to include reflective and introspective monologues, songs and poetry that address a wider perspective. The couple struggles to unearth their authentic selves while working through the pain of past failed relationships and the racial stereotypes that they encounter in everyday society.

She Said/He Said had its world premiere at the MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) produced by Black Theatre Workshop in the spring 2016, directed by Artistic Director Quincy Armorer, where it was a huge success. Imani Enterprises then presented the play at the Stages Theatre Festival at the Dunn Theatre in Halifax at the beginning of the summer where it was also warmly received.

"a modern look not only at relationships and urban dating culture, but at black identity and representation in Canada....On top of a strong script, the play benefits tremendously from its use of spoken word....Woods' script poses relevant and honest questions about the experience of black men and women in the modern dating landscape without providing any easy answers or fairytale endings." - BroadwayWorld.com

"In the cunning SHE SAID/HE SAID, the dialogue is driven by the desire to explore and expose how gender, ethnicity, and culture affect our perceptions of self and our relationship dynamics with those that cross our paths.... Provid[es] a crisp and clear look at the social issues of race and traditional gender roles in the context of family and romantic relationships...poignant." - Camila Fitzgibbon, Montreal Theatre Hub

States Anne-Marie Woods, "I strive to provide audiences with innovative ways to experience theatre beyond its traditional, conventional form. As an actor, singer, dancer, poet, storyteller and playwright, I try to challenge boundaries and seek to encompass a blending of multiple genres to tell a story. With She Said/He Said. I explore the primal power of acapella vocal expression fused with dialogue, music, movement and poetry to create a theatre presentation that hopefully bridges gender, cultural and age divides."

Matthew G Brown has been singing, dancing and acting most of his life. Brown, of Jamaican decent, was born in Toronto and attended the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts, completing their Triple Threat Program. Since graduation Matthew has appeared on stages across Canada including the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Toronto Centre for the Arts (DanCap's Jersey Boys), St Lawrence Centre (CanStage's Hair) and Stratford Festival (Tommy) as well as with Young People's Theatre where he was part of two ensembles that won Dora Awards for Outstanding Ensemble: The Wizard of Oz andCinderella: A RATicall retelling.

Anne-Marie Woods is an actor, dancer, singer, poet, producer, arts educator, playwright and creative consultant. Born in London, England of Trinidadian heritage, her family left Trinidad in the early 70s and she spent her formative years in Dartmouth, and later Halifax, Nova Scotia. She laid down her roots as an artist in Nova Scotia for many years, and is now based in Toronto but continues to make waves in the arts scene both nationally and internationally. She holds the honour of being the first African Canadian to have a featured play (Waiting to Explode) at the National Black Theatre Festival in North Carolina. In 2013, she won the Black Business and Professional Association's Harry Jerome Award for Excellence in Entertainment.

The feminist poet and playwright's work has been performed in the UK, Trinidad, United States and in Canada. She sang for twelve-and-a-half years with Nova Scotia's acapella sensation Four The Moment. She has performed at the Hillside Music Festival, Irie Fest, the Nuyorican Café in New York City, and the Word Power International Literature Festival in London, England. She was the Creative Director and wrote the script adaptation for Mitchell Cohen's (President of Daniel Corporation) original play The Journey, presented at Daniels Spectrum as an annual fundraiser in 2013 and once again in 2015 which starred Jackie Richardson (Canadian jazz icon) and Jeremiah Sparks (Mustafa in The Lion King). She Said/He Said is her latest play. Woods can be seen/heard in the Words Aloud festival in Durham, Ontario in November.

Songs and lyrics for She Said/He Said are composed by Anne-Marie Woods with musical arrangements by Anne-Marie Woods and Jeremiah Sparks. Stage management is by Sharon DiGenova.

Tickets and further information is available at www.imaniartsbiz.com.

Photo credit: Linda Marie Stella

Need more Toronto Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Spring season, discounts & more...