Or Does It Explode?
Summer Tour 2019
Audition Dates:
January 16th-18th
6:30-8:00pm
Location:
Balch Street Theatre
220 S. Balch St.
Akron, Ohio 44302
Casting Specifications
Time Commitments
About the Project
Ma’Sue Productions’ original play provides poetic, thought-provoking, and frequently confrontational language in its journey through the psychic and social conditions and contradictions of the contemporary Black urban male experience. Directed by John Dayo Aliya, this show includes dramatic vignettes utilizing music, poetry, and traditional theatrical forms. The play relays stories gathered from men ages 16-35 in Akron, Ohio in 2014. The stories were turned into a play by co-writers John Dayo Aliya and John Smith. The event was produced by Ma’Sue Productions and sponsored by Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture, The W.O.M.B and Stop the Violence Movement.
Last year Ma’Sue Productions re-mounted a revised version of “Or Does It Explode?” Due to much acclaim from the community they were awarded a 25,000 matching grant to tour the show to community centers, schools and pop-up sights throughout the city. The goal is use great art in order to facilitate conversation around race and identity in the city of Akron.
About Ma’Sue Productions
Ma’Sue Productions is a local Akron company producing original material over the past several years that explores and celebrates the African-American cultural experience while creating a bridge between historical and contemporary black voices. The company was founded 2011 by John Dayo Aliya, India Burton and Thurayya Umbaymake out of hunger for more representation in African American original works and performance. The name Ma’Sue honors the family matriarch of siblings, John Dayo Aliya and India Burton. To the family her name was Mama, and to the neighborhood, she was Sue.