WELCOME TO DTA’S DIGITAL THEATRE
NOW SHOWING:
***IN THE MIX***
A play about trauma, music and healing written by Nnenna Samson & Bonsu Boaten, produced by Connie Bell and directed by Pam Fraser Solomon.
PRESS PLAY:
TRIGGER WARNING: This play contains themes and direct references of suicide, fire, death and mental health. Mental health among the global Black family is important and something we take seriously. Please remember your well-being when listening to this play.
DISCLAIMER: DTA support the use of traditional approaches to healing and wellness. However, the themes in this artistic presentation should in no way be taken as advice or guidance in dealing with mental health issues. If you, or someone you know is affected by mental health issues, please contact a qualified mental health professional as soon as possible. We recognise that mainstream mental health services are not always appropriate for people from our communities, so we would encourage people to contact organisations like Black Minds Matter and Pattigift Therapy who exist to provide people of African heritage with mental health services.
[Actors]Yinka Awoni (Oyedepo), Princess Ziah Africa (Clara & Grandma), Funlola Olufunwa (Pauline), Richard Shannon (Dr. Munroe), Daniel Ooko (Advert)
[Sound Design]Kayode "Kayodeine" Gomez
[Production]Richard Shannon, Connie Bell
TRAILER:
NOW SCROLL DOWN TO GET DEEPER INTO THE MIX.
The ‘In the Mix’ play was inspired by the events of 1981, including the New Cross Fire. At the beginning of the 80s, Britain was a difficult place to be Black. Before, during and after the events of 1981, music was one of the threads that held our communities together. Apart from the events of 1981, this project was inspired by the thousands of years we have spent mastering the science of music.
Why do sound and music move us so powerfully? And if we know they do, why don’t we use them more purposefully?
THE PEOPLES' PLAYLIST.
This page is all about sound and music and its power to heal. As part of this project, we ran a competition inviting people to submit seven track playlists that represented healing for them. The response was amazing and we had a beautiful week’s healing just listening to them to pick our favourite. Healing is a very personal thing, and so we are not saying this selection was the best, because in this context, there is no such thing…..however, the sounds in the box below definitely resonated the most with us - thank you Barby Asante for the healing - we’re passing it on:
Tracklist:
Turiya & Ramakrishna - Alice Coltrane
Universal Mother - Don Cherry
Black Family (Live)- Angel Bat Dawid
Sankofa - Casandra Wilson
Extract from Furthermore (Live)- Theaster Gates & the Black Monks of the Mississippi
Odenigbo- Sonny Okosun Ozziddi
Eno Brebre- Stan’s Experimental Chorus with Charlotte Dada
SHOWING IN SCREEN 2…
***FRESH OFF THE BOAT**
Fresh Off The Boat is a series of 8 radio plays bringing Windrush legacies into sharp focus through the issues of the moment. Black theatre collective African Tales From The Hip draw on archive collections from the Black Cultural Archives and their own personal experiences to bring some crucial conversations to the table.
Brought to you as part of Black Cultural Archives' Windrush programme, Fresh Off The Boat is written & directed by Connie Bell and co-produced by David Gilbert.
EPISODE 1: BIG UP RUEL LACTAVIA SPENCE!
Big Up Ruel Lactavia Spence is a short radio play/provocation addressing the (mis)treatment of Africans from the Caribbean, the so-called Windrush Generation, on their arrival to the UK. Touching on the contemporary concerns around the danger Covid-19 poses to people of African heritage, this short piece demonstrates the clear, and sometimes troubling legacies of Windrush in the present day.
EPISODE 2: BURIAL
Listen to Episodes 3-8 and support DTA’s creation of bringing a drama radio series addressing historical issues, surrounding the African Heritage communities social inheritance in Britain
(Click on each episode below to access the show)
Episodes:
3. COLOUR BAR
4. RUDE BRITANNIA
5. A TRIBUTE TO NURSE ELEITHIA McKENZIE
6. VALEDICTORIAN
7. COMMONWEALTH?
8. MAMA’S DIARY
What do we do when it feels like we've given everything and things remain the same?... We create!
With Thanks To ATFTH Actors: Oluchi Nwabuwa, Ricardo Bailey, Marica Cassandra, Whitney Asiegbu, Fisayo Run, Kwame Bentil, Olamide ‘Oddboy Ten’ Odubiyi, Rohan Roberts, Rose Briggs, Marlaena Herbert , Tesmond Rowe, Wesley Watson, Princess Ziah, Kharesa K Spence, Naomi Denny, Jonny Wiles.
A very special thanks to Kayodeine for audio production and sound design on all episodes.
Sound is vibration. We are vibration. We are the shape of sound. Many creation stories begin with ‘the word’ - the original sound.
We have known this for a long time. Europeans look to Ancient Greece but we know who taught the Greeks about sound. Pythagoras, Plato and others were taught the science of music in the temples of Kamit (Ancient Egypt).
In ‘The Cultural Unity of Black Africa’ Cheikh Anta Diop showed the inter-connections between Pre-Colonial African civilisations. Just like our languages, the ancient art and science of sound is with us still.
In our cultures, everything is connected. Sound and music are not separate from the knowledge of other forms of healing or from the forces of creation. They all combine to bring about holistic healing modalities.
How does it work? Resonance and Entrainment. Frequencies in the music excite those same frequencies in our being. Bringing forward the characteristics of that particular energy. The biorhythms of our bodies synchronise with the rhythms of the music. Synchronicity is a natural order. Everything is everything and it is designed to work together - as one.
It is time our popular music came back to Black. We should consider composing with a higher understanding of the ancient science of our music. The results will be powerful.
The soundsystem takes this science of sound, makes it LOUDER and brings people together. It is a community healing.
Word is sound too. WORD, SOUND, POWER. When we resonate with the frequencies in the music and our rhythms are synchronised with the riddim we are in a state of trance and more open to suggestion. The lyrics on the track make a difference to the shape of our reality. What are the words we are living by?
There is a science to the dance too. Moving together in time releases chemicals in the brain that help us bond as a community. Think about that next time you drop that electric slide at the family reunion. Healing and movement is a BIG subject - we’ll need a part two to cover it…
REFERENCES & FURTHER READING:
African Music: A Peoples’ Art - Francis Bebey
Chakra Frequencies: Tantra of Sound - Jonathan Goldman & Andi Goldman
Human Tuning: Sound Healing with Tuning Forks - John Beaulieu
Keeping Together in Time: Dance & Drill in Human History - William H McNeill
Metu Neter Volume 1: The Great Oracle of Tehuti and the Egyptian System of Spiritual Cultivation - Ra Un Nefer Amen
Not Out of Greece: The African Origin of Western Civilisation - Ra Un Nefer Amen
The Cosmic Octave: Origin of Harmony - Hans Cousto
The Cultural Unity of Black Africa - Cheikh Anta Diop
The Drummer’s Path: Moving the Spirit with Ritual & Traditional Drumming - Sule Greg Wilson
The Healing Drum: African Wisdom Teachings - Yaya Diallo & Mitchell Hall
The Healing Power of Sound - Recovery from Life Threatening Illness using Sound, Voice and Music - Mitchell L Gaynor
The Mysticism of Sound & Music - Hazrat Inayat Khan
The Prehistory of the Mind: A Search for the Origins of Art, Religion & Science - Steven Mithen
The Roar of Silence: Healing Powers of Breath, Tone & Music - Don G Campbell
Why We Love Music: The Emotional Power of Beautiful Sounds - John Powell