Events: Cartons of Ultrasounds by TS Hawkins

photo credit: Imani Clovis

ABOUT THE PLAY

Cartons of Ultrasounds, by TS Hawkins and directed by Cheyenne Barboza, unpacks how the societal machine churns embryos, girls, and womyn, into seclusion; waterboarding their freedom and manufacturing their wombs with assembly-line legislature. Prisoners to their gender, society has become the parasitic conjoined twin of the dogmatic cycle extending life sentences of female identified invalidation. With scantily clad images, pejorative song lyrics, and abusive homes heightening the maltreatment of the female form, we teach womyn to be the missing, the raped, and the forgotten.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Cheyenne Barboza is a local playwright and director with a great passion for fostering new works. A graduate of The University of the Arts, her credits include: Our Hands are Up (Philadelphia Young Playwrights), NIGHT (Philadelphia Young Playwrights), Secret Life of Wonder: a prologue in G (reFOCUS FEST), Trade (Inis Nua). Currently, Barboza is a fellow for the Director's Gathering (DG). Additionally, she's tickled pink to be working on another TS Hawkins creation at (re)FOCUS FEST!

ABOUT THE ACTOR
Iman Aaliyah is an actor-poet from Baltimore, Maryland who relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to obtain her BFA in Acting at the University of the Arts graduating in May 2018. She is excited and honored to be a part of TS Hawkins' choreopoem Cartons of Ultrasounds.  Iman often does staged readings around the city as well as workshops for new plays in development. Some credits include: The Fisherman and the Flounder (Fisherman's wife) at Enchantment Theatre; TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever (Pam) at PlayPenn; Cutting It (Muna) at Inis Nua reading series; Trade & Generation (Novice) at Inis Nua reading series; Really (Girlfriend understudy) at Theatre Exile; Coriolanus (Titus Lartius) at Shakespeare in Clark Park; Running Numbers (Temptation 2) at Theatre in the X; Pocatello (Isabelle) at University of the Arts. For more information, visit www.ImanAaliyah.com

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

(re)FOCUS FEST 2018 brings together four theatre makers to explore what it means to reclaim and to celebrate diversity through shared performance. Through poetic dialogue, immersive soundscapes, and lyrical movement, Kaleid Theatre, Pratima Agrawal, Alma's Engine, and TS Hawkins meditate on gender, race, sexuality, class, and everything in between. (re)FOCUS FEST is a chance to (re)focus on themes that are all around us, but difficult to see, explore, and discuss. It is a celebration of our ability to confront ourselves, learn from each other, and rejoice in the myriad of experiences that make us who we are.