Artist Statement
Theatre MUST be fun. There is fun in heartbreak, in hard work, in sorrow, in focus. I seek an audience who is interested in these things: heartbreak, hard work, sorrow, focus, and in laughter. Actually, huge emphasis on laughter.
Wind and water are crucial inspirations for my art. They both command and respond to those around them. They are all knowing, unforgiving, gentle, all surrounding, and certain. Wind and water rhythmically underscore all life. Their fluidity is something I want to emulate, to channel this life force with its strong properties into my work. I want the opportunity for people to face this fluidity with clarity and peace.
I hope my art is a waterfall of breaking free into myself. I want to become more focused on myself and on the world around me and less focused on the middle hazy part (anxieties, quick serotonin fixes, worries, trying to control the future, obsessing on what we could have done better, passing time until the next opportunity). I am on a mission to move further inwards and further outwards to study myself as a soul and simultaneously understand others as souls. With theatre as my chosen medium, I search for truth, love, focus, clarity, and faith in wordless knowledge with the world as my loving study guide.
Living in the wake of overwhelming changes
We've all become strangers
Even to ourselves
We just can't help
We can't see from far away
To know that every wave might not be the same
But it's all apart of one big thing
-Weyes Blood
I am a theatre artist because I love working with bodies (sand) and time (water). I am a theatre artist for the same reason that little twelve year old Amina was obsessed with orchestra rehearsal. When we came together in that way, we felt the rare unity in the shore washing over us as a collective in unison. I search for feeling human in big waves. I want to resonate through small boxes of rooms via ritual, communication, peace, focus, and argument. It is here that we can truly together. In theatre we are able to both see and meditate on these two fluidities that dictate our lives, bodies and time, as we experience it.
To truly see is to love. When we see ourselves in a combination of words or strokes of paint or in a single blade of grass, we see something beautiful or ugly or maybe something hurt. By seeing ourselves in something outside of ourselves, we can continue to nurture ourselves.
And the first step in seeing ourselves is recognizing OUR inherent humanity in our act of seeing. I don’t want to say something in my art, I want you to say something about yourself in my art.
