Last month I gave the keynote address at the National Guild’s Conference for Community Arts Education. This was a gathering of artists and activists from around the nation who are passionate about engaging community. It was like a family reunion, connecting with those that I haven’t seen in a while, and meeting new folks, all of us kindred spirits. Here is a video of the speech.
It’s been quite a season thus far-lots of traveling, performing, teaching and developing new work. In the past six months I’ve gone to Miami twice, Pennsylvania three times, New York City (performance @ Lincoln Center), Dallas, a 5 week stint in Los Angeles, England and Turkmenistan. Next up, I’ll be making my debut in Canada as a featured guest artist in the Festival of Ideas and Creation. The festival is produced by one of North America’s leading theatres, Canadian Stage. For details read on, and thank you for your support!
About Canadian Stage: Founded in 1987 with the merger of Centre Stage and Toronto Free Theatre, Canadian Stage is one of Canada’s leading not-for- profit contemporary theatre companies. Led by Artistic & General Director Matthew Jocelyn, Canadian Stage produces and showcases innovative theatre work from Canada and around the world, allowing its audience to encounter daring work guided by a strong directorial vision and a 21st-century aesthetic. The company prides itself on presenting trans-disciplinary work and work in translation that pushes the boundaries of form and style. The company reinforces the presence of Canadian art and artists within an international context through work that mirrors the cultural diversity of Toronto. Canadian Stage has a long-standing commitment to education and enhancement programs for the public and investing in the art form by nurturing and developing theatre professionals while producing thought-provoking theatre and quality entertainment in Toronto, one of North America’s largest theatre centres. For more information, refer to canadianstage.com.
About Festival: The Festival of Ideas & Creation is an annual artistic festival for artists, youth and the general public. The Festival offers opportunities for local and national professional artists and youth to develop and present new work and evolve their artistic practice. It integrates Canadian Stage’s year-round artistic development initiatives and is programmed in collaboration with a wide array of artists and arts organizations. The Festival is also an opportunity for audiences to look behind the scenes and explore and participate in the development of new work.
Will Power in Festival: Hailed as “The best verse playwright in America,” (New York Magazine), whose work “…combines the complexity of serious drama with the visual and sonic arsenal of MTV,” (The New York Times), Will Power is an award-winning playwright and performer. As one of the theatre world’s shining stars, his recent plays include Fetch Clay, Make Man (McCarter Theatre, Directed by Des McAnuff), Five Fingers of Funk (Children’s Theatre Company, Directed by Derrick Sanders), and the nationally and internationally acclaimed solo show FLOW. This 4-day practical intensive will look at the creator/performer’s approach to cross-disciplinary projects incorporating the urban arts, opening up new possibilities exploring physicality, language and source materials for artists who create and perform new works.
I have returned from the most incredible adventure! Just getting there was an experience in itself. New York to Germany to Istanbul to Ashgabat, the country’s capital city. The people live differently than we do. It made me really value the freedom we have in this country. Of course over there there is no crime like we have, and there is free gas and electricity for all and no homelessness what so ever to speak of.
Will Power with Students at a Music Academy
Are those delinquencies a must in a democracy-in other words if there is freedom of speech, of assembly, and freedom of behavior, does that necessitate a high crime rate? It made me think. In America we value freedom above everything else, in Turkmenistan there is a high priority placed on stability. I traveled the country making presentations, learning so much about what it means to live in Turkmenistan, and of course they had many questions about America, our music, culture, and politics (about one third of the questions were about Michael Jackson, they really wanted to know about Michael Jackson!) These conversations were fascinating-and it wasn’t just me teaching them, it was a true cultural exchange.
The trip culminated with me headlining a sold out concert at the Turkmenistan Theatre. Working with a surprisingly solid jazz-funk quintet, we presented the people with a variety of covers spanning the seemingly infinite gamut of African-American music-a little Sam Cooke, James Brown, Cab Calloway’s Minnie the Moocher. Rarely in
Will Power Live in Concert with the People of Turkmenistan
the States do I get to perform this music, our folk traditional music, so it was a special treat for me. And the people really opened up. Just telling folks they have the freedom to dance and sing along, clap their hands and express themselves, just giving them the permission to be themselves was all it took for the place to explode into a wild scene. In any concert hall in any part of the world this would have been special, but in Turkmenistan it could prove to be momentous, and I am thankful to have been there.
On the return trip home, I ran into Americans that had been evacuated from Libya. They were tired and slightly stooped “hey, yall just coming from Libya?” I asked “Yeah man, whew” one of them said. It got me thinking about how small the world is. In America, a place like Iran or Libya seems so far away. Across the Atlantic ocean, however, you run into evacuated Americans in an airport like you run into a fellow artist you know during a stop over in Chicago. In Istanbul, there were flights going to Iran, Afghanistan, London, Paris, Egypt, and all of these flights not exceeding three or four hours. I started thinking about the revolutions that are taking place, what they will mean for the world, and how we as Americans, and particularly American artists can positively engage the situations.
A Student Teaches Will Power
On the flight back to America I was reading a Time Magazine article in which they brought up the fact that the young protestors in Egypt were collectively expressing themselves not with verses from the Koran, or traditional songs, but with rap music, rap was their rallying cry. This, our sacred verse poetry, coming from the poor in the South Bronx, has now grown and morphed to where young Tunisians and Egyptians are writing their own rhymes and utilizing them as a positive form of rebellion. Surely as American artists we can play a positive, supportive role here, perhaps teaching them to master the forms that came from us. It is their revolution, and it’s up to them to decide how they make our musical forms theirs to gain their freedom. But we can help. All of us have a part to play in shaping this future.
Will Power
3/2/11
This is a three-minute trailer the US Embassy in Turkmenistan put together. Thanks and enjoy!
Just had to share this! Recently, there have been more and more University productions of my work. This year so far there are two-an upcoming production of The Seven, and a production of “Flow” (the picture) at Wayne State in Detroit. ”Flow” was originally a solo piece, and now ensembles of young folks are doing it-who would’ve known. And dig, the brother with the fist in the air is portraying me!
So excited about this one. Click here for details, and we’ll see you down south!
The Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University has selected two recipients for the second annual 2010 Meadows Prize arts residency: playwright and performer Will Power and choreographer Shen Wei.
Inaugurated in October 2009, the Meadows Prize is presented each fall to up to two pioneering artists. It includes support for a four-to-eight-week residency in Dallas, in addition to a $25,000 stipend. In return, recipients are expected to interact in a substantive way with Meadows students and collaborating arts organizations, and to leave a lasting legacy in Dallas, such as a work of art that remains in the community, a composition or piece of dramatic writing that would be performed locally, or a new way of teaching in a particular discipline.
A veteran of theatre, film and television, Will Power has won multiple awards for his work, which bridges the gap between the spoken word of hip-hop and traditional theatre. Power’s work in Dallas will be a partnership between the Meadows School of the Arts and the Dallas Theater Center. He will be in Dallas for two periods of residency – three weeks each – in 2011. During his residency he will lead workshops for Meadows theatre students, for DTC’s resident acting company and for local high school students. He will also write/develop a new theatre piece intended for production at the DTC, possibly in their 2012-13 season.
Teaching at The University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Through Toni Morrison’s Atelier Program, I’ll be teaching a course this Fall entitled “Dramatizing History:Playwriting, Music Theater, Performance.” Joining me as co-instructor will be musical wizard and good friend Justin Ellington, who I’ve collaborated with on the last three plays(Fetch Clay, Make Man, Five Fingers of Funk, and The Seven). Over the course of developing these works, we’ve spent a lot of time discussing how we might convey what we do, what we’ve done, and what we’re still learning to do. This is our first time collaborating at a university-very much looking forward to it. To the students who auditioned and were accepted into this course, yall get ready now!
Will Power Interviewed at Princeton Public Library
With African Television star Kaone (K-1). He and I co-hosted the 5 city, 10 day tour that featured artists in Botswana promoting positive behavior change in the fight against HIV/AIDS
Performing and having fun with students at a primary school in the village of Seruwe
