shadow/land
by Erika Dickerson-Despenza

Off-Broadway

Highlights

Female

90 mins Present Day Role(s) for Black Actor(s) Unit Set/Multiple Settings Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes

Synopsis

A harrowing new drama set amid the ongoing devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Ruth coaxes her mother, Magalee, to sell Shadowland, the family business and New Orleans’s first air-conditioned dancehall and hotel for Black guests.

But as Hurricane Katrina begins her ruin, Ruth is forced to wrestle with all that she’s ready to let go.

Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s shadow/land is the first installment of a 10-play cycle traversing the Katrina diaspora in an examination of the ongoing effects of disaster, evacuation, displacement and urban renewal rippling in and beyond New Orleans.

Press Reviews

"A poetic excavation of memory, tracing the ripple effects of triumphs and trauma through generations… Dickerson-Despenza’s language is rich in lyricism and figurative association… her dialogue calls attention to, among other things, colorism, queerness and the cultural imperialism of New Orleans tourism."
— The New York Times

"The interplay of the two realms is sometimes provocative, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes murky, but always pushes the play out of simple realism into something darker and stranger – even as the realistic story contains plenty of emotion all by itself."
— Exeunt

"Lyrical and lugubrious… shadow/land brings the mass destruction into focus by centering on two women."
— TimeOut NY

"Breathtaking… poetic, heartrending."
— TheaterMania

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Magalee “Maggie” Boudreaux Despenza 80, fawn-colored Afro-Creole woman. A decisive, dignified, New Orleans music aficionado with middle-stage dementia. A keeper of the dead. A widow. Ruth’s mother and primary owner of Shadowland.	female	—	80, fawn-colored Afro-Creole woman. A decisive, dignified, New Orleans music aficionado with middle-stage dementia. A keeper of the dead. A widow. Ruth’s mother and primary owner of Shadowland.
Ruth Marie Despenza Hayes 45, Afro-Creole woman whose color may range from bisque to a dark gumbo roux. A queer woman in a strained heterosexual marriage. A former dancer and aspiring photographer. A seeker of abundance. Co-owner of Shadowland and Magalee’s primary caretaker.	female	—	45, Afro-Creole woman whose color may range from bisque to a dark gumbo roux. A queer woman in a strained heterosexual marriage. A former dancer and aspiring photographer. A seeker of abundance. Co-owner of Shadowland and Magalee’s primary caretaker.
Griot Storyteller. Poet. A seer and historian. The City. Omniscient only in her knowing of the past – which has already happened and is happening again presently.	female	—	Storyteller. Poet. A seer and historian. The City. Omniscient only in her knowing of the past – which has already happened and is happening again presently.