MARA, QUEEN OF THE WORLD by Rebecca Nichloson

The piece centers on a Black girl from the Rondo neighborhood of Saint Paul who falls asleep and awakens on an Alabama plantation in 1832. Guided by a green light and a hummingbird, she learns of a prophecy about a Warlock called Mr. W. and the sacred bones of enslaved Africans. Two narrators represent each character. This production invites audiences to engage presence; and asks what it means to speak a story, show a story, and embody a story. Movement, stillness, reading, singing, listening, exertion, and rest are all part of this experience.

PRODUCTION STRUCTURE:

PT. I: The Narrators tell the story of the play, representing all of its characters. A dancer (Juliet) is a witness; responding and not responding with movement against the backdrop of ocean water (s).

PT. II. Three dancers move before a film of images. Recorded music plays (this music is the lone voice of the playwright; no instruments or other vocalists are in the recording. The playwright will collaborate with her own recorded vocals as the dancers move, explore, and witness.

CREATIVE TEAM & CAST:

Written and Directed by: Rebecca Nichloson. Performed by: Ashembaga (Ashe) Jaafaru, Juliet Irving, Rebecca Nichloson and Khary Jackson.

Lighting /Tech: Kat Purcell.

Music Composition, Cinematography, and Vocal Performance (Live/Recorded) by Rebecca Nichloson.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Narrator 2/Vocalist: Rebecca Nichloson (She/Her) is a Black, queer, femme playwright, creative writer, singer/songwriter and interdisciplinary artist. She is the author of 50+ plays and creative works, including Submerged (An Opera); Dear America (libretto & vocals and vocal arrangement; Minnesota Opera); A Very Special Minnesota Garden (Minnesota Opera); Hue and Cry; Hello, I’m Eve; Mara, Queen of the World; The Wild, Bold Enlightenment of Satine; Cooking With Ellise; Jill, Jack & the Martian Lady (a play she created for a children’s educational workshop), Sasha K. Jenkins: Kid Scientist among others. Her fiction and performance pieces include Children of the First Hummingbird, Submerged, Zar-Baby, and Conjuring Transcendence, among others. She has been published in About Journal: Geographies of Justice, The Star Tribune, and anthologies, among others. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting from Columbia University and an M.A. in English Literature. She also studied publishing at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. www.RebeccaNichloson.com.

Narrator 1/Dancer: Ashembaga (Ashe) Jaafaru is an actor + dancer + writer + producer + director who creates art for liberation of the mind, body and SPIRIT + will continue to write + produce imaginative stories. THEATER Regional: Maybe You Could Love Me (Theater Mu); A Raisin in the Sun (South Coast Repertory); School Girls; or the African Mean Girls Play (Arkansas Repertory Theater & Jungle Theater); for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (KC Repertory Theatre & Penumbra Theatre); The Convert (Frank Theater);. FILM/TELEVISION Rhythms of Blackness, Keon, Zuri’s Tree OTHER Mlima’s Tale (assistant director) w/ Ten Thousand Things Theater, HEFFA! by Eponine Diatta (director), Love is Like by Ibimina Dominque Thompson + Mariah Hanson (creative director/AD), SOULQUAKES by Marggie Ogas (dancer/collaborator), BAD AFRICANS: A GUIDE TO BEING OSHEY AND BARDEST IN A FUCKED UP WORLD by Ibimina Dominque Thompson (director). UPCOMING Don’t Ask Me How I’m Doing (Short Film - AD/Creative Director). IG @ashejaafaru

Dancer: Juliet Irving (She/They) aka Sonny Dee is a Black, femme multimedia artist, choreographer, writer, and graphic designer hailing from Monetta, South Carolina. Invested in cultivating radical imagination and practices of tenderness in rural BIPOC communities, her multidisciplinary practice originates from a childhood spent crafting performances with her sister for a dedicated audience of cows. This evolved into a collaborative practice of immersing audiences and performers into fantastical worlds of possibility integrating environmental installation, improvisation, and audience interaction. Their current work is rooted in the exploration of biomythography as a method of recovering the ancestral stories and knowledge of Afro-Carolinians across the diaspora. They also assist in producing the visions of other creatives through their work in dramaturgy, creative direction, and experiential design. Juliet has presented work at Choreographer’s Evening (Walker Art Center), Red Eye's NW4W, NextGen Choreolab, ADF, the Schaefer Center, and CADD. In May 2026, she will present a new work as part of CANDY BOX Dance Festival. She invites collaboration, collective imaginings, and curiosity at www.julietirving.com.

Guest Dancer: Khary Jackson (He/They/Any) is a writer, dancer and musician. Khary has written several plays, one of which (Water) was produced in 2009 at Ink and Pulp Theatre in Chicago. In 2020/21 Khary co-composed a MNiatures commission with MN Opera. As a hip hop/street dancer Khary created and performed work at the 2018 and 2021 Choreographers’ Evening at Walker Art Center. Khary has been a recipient of several generous grants, including the 2019 Jerome Artist Fellowship and the 2022 and 2016 McKnight Artist Fellowships in Writing. Khary is an alum of Cave Canem, the esteemed writing fellowship for Black writers. Khary's poetry book, Any Psalm You Want, was published with Write Bloody Publishing in the spring of 2013. www.liminalevoker.com

Lighting/Tech: Kat Purcell (They/Them) is a nonbinary transexual performer, lighting designer, experimental producer, installation artist, and anarchist. They graduated from the London International School of Performing Arts in 2009, and have performed in London, New York City, Paris, Stockholm and Minneapolis. Kat’s most recent artistic accomplishments include several productions of CASTLES, a modular suite of experimental performance provocations for artists developing collective power formations. In the streets and in the theatre, Kat braces their shoulder to the work of cultivating new/old formations of community reliance alongside many incredible caregivers and culture bearers. With a degree in civil engineering, Kat hopes to deepen and expand this practice.

Acknowledgment: This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC), thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Special thanks to the Center for Performing Arts for providing rehearsal space for this project. Learn more at www.cfpampls.com.

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