Affirmative (Re)Action

Welcome back to Affirmative (Re)Action! Join us now for a new format of your favorite show!

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This one's for the fans and the hosts. Tune in to hear Ryan's most genuine laugh, a second shout out to communism, and Annika's editing notes get incorporated for the first time. Podcast cover was made by Kyra Tantao @klasticdayz in Brooklyn, N Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

Disgraced is a 2012 play by novelist and screenwriter Ayad Akhtar. It premiered in Chicago and has had Off-Broadway and Off West End engagements. The play, which won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play is centered on sociopolitical themes such as Islamophobia and the self-identity of Muslim-American citizens. It focuses on a dinner party between four people with very different backgrounds. As discussion turns to politics and religion, the mood quickly becomes heated. Described as a "combustible powder keg of identity politics, the play depicts racial and ethnic prejudices that "secretly persist in even the most progressive cultural circles. It is also said to depict the challenge for upwardly mobile Muslim Americans in the post-9/11 America. Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

M. Butterfly is a play by David Henry Hwang. The story, while entwined with that of the opera Madama Butterfly, is based most directly on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a Peking opera singer. Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

A Doll's House, Part 2 is a 2017 play written by Lucas Hnath. The play premiered at the South Coast Repertory, in April 2017, before transferring to Broadway at the John Golden Theatre. The play "picks up after Henrik Ibsen's 1879 play A Doll's House concludes" Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

The story is set in the mid 1950s in the Upper West Side of New York City, then a multiracial, blue-collar neighborhood. The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The members of the Sharks, from Puerto Rico, are taunted by the Jets, a white gang. The young protagonist, Tony, a former member of the Jets and best friend of the gang's leader, Riff, falls in love with Maria, the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in musical theatre. Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

The Frasier family is gearing up for Grandma's birthday, and Beverly needs this dinner to be perfect. But the silverware's wrong, the radio's on the fritz, Jasmine is drinking, Dayton isn't helping, Keisha's a teenager, and Tyrone might not show up at all! Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

First staged in 2011, the play is a “satirical” examination of the beliefs and practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The musical ultimately endorses the positive power of love and service. Parker and Stone were best known for creating the animated comedy South Park; Lopez had co-written the music for the musical Avenue Q.

Company is a 1970 musical comedy with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth. The original production was nominated for a record-setting 14 Tony Awards, and won six. Originally titled Threes, its story revolves around Robert (a single man unable to commit fully to a steady relationship, let alone marriage), the five married couples who are his best friends, and his three girlfriends. Unlike most book musicals, which follow a clearly delineated plot, Company is a concept musical composed of short vignettes, presented in no particular chronological order, linked by a celebration for Robert's 35th birthday.

The Band's Visit is a stage musical with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and a book by Itamar Moses, based on the 2007 Israeli film of the same name.

Once on This Island is a one-act musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty. Based on the 1985 novel My Love, My Love; or, The Peasant Girl by Rosa Guy, it is set in the French Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. It concerns a peasant girl on a tropical island, who uses the power of love to bring people together of different social classes.

The musical is about Usher, coincidentally named the same as his day-job as an usher for The Lion King on Broadway, a fat, Black, gay writer who tries to navigate the heteronormative white world. He is backed by a six-person all-black-queer ensemble who voice his inner thoughts as he begrudgingly ghost writes a new Tyler Perry stage play.Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

Rent is a rock musical with music, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson, loosely based on Giacomo Puccini's 1896 opera La Bohème. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan's East Village in the thriving days of bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

In the Heights is a musical with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story is set over the course of three days, involving characters in the largely Dominican Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City.Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naïve Midwestern townsfolk, promising to train the members of the new band. Harold is no musician, however, and plans to skip town without giving any music lessons. Prim librarian and piano teacher Marian sees through him, but when Harold helps her younger brother overcome his lisp and social awkwardness, Marian begins to fall in love with him. He risks being caught to win her heart.Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

Dear Evan Hansen tells the story of a young man with social anxiety disorder who so yearns to make a connection with his peers that he fabricates a relationship with a deceased student to become closer to the boy's family.Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

It's the first play of Shakespeare's history plays!

Blending epic tragedy, the Spaghetti Western, hip-hop and Afropunk, Is God Is is a revenge tale about twin sisters. In this award-winning work by playwright Aleshea Harris, emotions are laid bare through dialogue and visual gaps in language.

Les Blancs ("The Whites") is an English-language play by American playwright Lorraine Hansberry. It debuted on Broadway on November 15, 1970 and ran until December 19, 1970. The play was Lorraine Hansberry's final work and she considered it her most important, as it depicts the plights of colonialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is her only play that takes place in Africa, and it uses both dance and music as signifiers of black and African cultures, a concept called the Black Aesthetic.Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

In this innovative play blending real life and online culture, a young Black woman takes to Twitter to voice her frustration with white women profiting off Black culture and stereotypes. When The Discourse turns on her, the line between internet personas and IRL relationships blurs, and the heightened scrutiny she comes under puts her real-life friendship under strain...seven methods of killing kylie jenner combines theatre with gifs, memes and emojis to explore stereotypes of Black womanhood, white capitalist exploitation, and the politics of social media activism.Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

Using the framework of a play within a play, it exposes racial prejudice and stereotypes while exploring black identity. As a troupe of black actors re-enact the trial and ensuing murder of a white woman before a kangaroo court, the Queen and her entourage look on and comment. Five of the 13 black actors don Whiteface to play establishment figures. The Queen (a whited-up woman) comes to a Command Performance, but the proceedings are far removed from any Royal Variety Show.Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a 1982 play – one of the ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle by August Wilson – that chronicles the 20th-century African-American experience. The play is set in Chicago in the 1920s, and deals with issues of race, art, religion, and the historic exploitation of black recording artists by white producers. The play's title comes from Ma Rainey's song of the same name, which refers to the Black Bottom dance. Rainey, whose life as a well-known blues-singer of the 1920s is an inspiration for the play, is also the titular character. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was published in the early 1980s and premiered at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Its Broadway debut at the Cort Theatre in 1984 won a New York Drama Critics' Circle award and garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Play.Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda is a play by American writer Ishmael Reed. It critiques the acclaimed historical musical Hamilton (2015) through a depiction of a fictionalized version of Hamilton's creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is visited by several historical figures missing from the musical in a style similar to Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. The play echoes many critiques made by historians, such as the whitewashing of Alexander Hamilton.Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

Death of a Salesman is a 1949 stage play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a two-act tragedy set in the 1940s New York told through a montage of memories, dreams and arguments of the protagonist Willy Loman, a travelling salesman who is disappointed with his life and appears to be slipping into senility. The play contains a variety of themes, such as the American Dream, the anatomy of truth, and betrayal. It explores the psychological chaos of the protagonist and the capitalist society's impact on his life. Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk

In this first episode of Affirmative (Re)Action we meet the team and learn just why this podcast exists! Then we dive head first into the world of 'Slave Play' by Jeremy O. Harris and try to unpack some of it's intricacies and why Jacob almost passed out at the end of Act 2. This, and all episodes, contains spoilers and make sure to listen for trigger warnings as we're getting into the convo. Enjoy!

Affirmative (Re)Action is a critical theatre pod from a BIPOC theatre squad that will be releasing new episodes every Monday. Don't miss out!