Mara Queen of the World

Written by playwright/performer Rebecca Nichloson, this two-act play with music centers on an African-American slave girl named Mara, who lives on a plantation in 1830s Alabama. Mara is given a magical quilt by a Hummingbird and must decode its story to defeat a powerful Warlock who wants to build an army of slave bones. Through mythology and Afrofuturistic elements, the play follows the central character’s journey toward self-worth, knowledge, and personal transformation. The actors in the play are African-American, and they play all 22 characters in the piece (both white and black). In doing so, both the performers and the audience can experience the story of slavery as told exclusively with black bodies — providing a new kind of creative autonomy over how African-American’s relate to the history of slavery in a 21st century world.

Featuring the brilliant gifts of ShaVunda Brown, Vinecia Coleman, Beverly Cottman, Ashe Jaafaru, Jordan Legget, Ricky Morriseau, Kenyai O’Neal, Atim Opoka, Kory Pullam