PRODUCTION HISTORY
Under This Roof
World Premiere
by
Barbara Kingsley
Presented by the Guthrie Theater in its Dowling Studio Theater
May 4 - 20, 2018
Directed by James A. Williams
Assistant Direction by Roxane Battle
Set in the late 1940s against the backdrop of post-WWII recovery in America, this four- character, two-act play takes place in the segregated black neighborhood of Central Cleveland, where characters Mamie and Raymond Warren reside. Mamie desperately needs household help after her husband has a serious accident. On the recommendation of a friend, Mamie hires a down-on-her-luck woman named Bessie, whose arrival brings surprises and new challenges. In this setting, Under this Roof explores themes of mature love, family, disability, and race on an ever-shifting axis, with often-unexpected comic, painful, and heartfelt results.
2017 - 2018 Season
365 Days/365 Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks:
A 2017 REmix
Presented at Penumbra Theater, St. Paul
May 26 – June 11, 2017
365 Days/Plays marked the company’s first major production and exemplified our mission of investigating diversity through contemporary viewpoints. The production was co-directed by Full Circle core artists Rick Shiomi, Martha B. Johnson, Stephanie Lein Walseth, and Lara Trujillo and guest co-director Harry Waters Jr. Core artist James A. Williams served as artistic and cultural consultant.
The production intertwined 46 short plays selected from Parks' 365 Days/365 Plays, viewed through a 2017 lens, to create a compelling theater experience and deeply involve diverse audiences in Parks' unique humor and vision of healing in America.
The plays ranged in genre from hilarious parody and theater-of-the-absurd to pieces of powerful lyricism and epic tragedy, and spoke forcefully to past and present issues: major events in American history, racism, anti-war themes, and other pressing social concerns. A racially mixed cast of 10 professional actors tackled these themes, playing multiple roles.
2016 - 2017 Season
Theater: A Sacred Passage St. Paul Tour
By Full Circle Original Core Artists: Martha B. Johnson, R.A. Shiomi, Lara Trujillo,
Stephanie Lein Walseth, and
James A. Williams
Showcasing Diverse Artists’ Paths to a Life
on Stage
Director: Rick Shiomi
Dramaturg: Martha B. Johnson
Five St. Paul community based organizations and venues benefitted from Full Circle’s tour of their play, Theater: A Sacred Passage (see details about the premiere of this production below) supported by a Knight Arts Challenge grant This tour concluded with three public performances at Dreamland Arts on April 22 - 24.
“With our personal stories performed on stage, we hope to inspire youth and adults from diverse backgrounds to feel confident that they have the right and power to enter the theater world, that they can have the talent and calling to pursue a career in theater,” said co-artistic director Rick Shiomi.
2015-2016 Season
Theater: A Sacred Passage
(World Premiere)
By Full Circle Original Core Artists: Martha B. Johnson, R.A. Shiomi, Lara Trujillo, Stephanie Lein Walseth, and
James A. Williams
Presented at Dreamland Arts, St. Paul, November 6 - 22, 2015
Director: Rick Shiomi
Dramaturg: Martha B. Johnson
This production was an original performance piece devised by the original five core artists of Full Circle from their personal journeys into theater. Their narratives embodied their many challenges and transformational experiences in becoming theater artists and how their lives and work reflected the huge changes in local and national theater communities over the past two decades. The piece incorporated acting, storytelling, choreography and music.