"Good Body" at New Route -- Back With Another One Shot Deal

Last year, New Route Theatre was all about the One Shot Deal, with Wednesday night performances -- one Wednesday each, once a month -- for all of its shows. Earlier this year, New Route broadened its horizons and moved into a new performance space with longer runs, but that doesn't mean New Route has abandoned the One Shot Deal.

This Wednesday, the One Shot Deal will be back in business with Eve Ensler's provocative play, The Good Body, described as "a passionate, funny, frank, revealing, and shocking look at how women, of all backgrounds, view their bodies."

Ensler is, of course, the author of The Vagina Monologues, which was a passionate, funny, frank, revealing, and shocking look at how women of all backgrounds viewed their vaginas. The Good Body focuses on a broader canvas, from fat and flab to fad diets and fascist trainers, with what exactly a "good body" means explored from various perspectives that cross age and cultural boundaries.

For New Route Theatre, Bridgette Richard will direct a cast that includes Samm Bettis, Connie Blick, Tracy Brasfield, Jesse Caruso, Angelia Mendoza, Dorothy Mundy, Nancy Nickerson, Jennifer Rusk and Sara Schram-Bronson.

If you'd like to see The Good Body, its one performance will take place on Wednesday, September 19, at 7:30 pm at the Eaton Studio and Gallery in downtown Bloomington. Tickets are $5 and available at the door, but be aware that seating is limited at the Eaton Gallery and you should arrive early if you want to be sure to get in.

For more information, you can check out the Good Body event page on Facebook, or email Don Shandrow, New Route Theatre Artistic Director, at: new.route.theatre@gmail.com

New Route Examines the "Willie Lynch" Phenomenon

New Route Theatre is back with a "One Shot Deal" at the Herb Eaton Gallery. This time, New Route is reprising "The Mystical Willie Lynch: A Musical, Poetic and Mental Exploration," which appeared last month in two quick performances at ISU's Milner Library.

Here's what I wrote about the show by way of introduction to its previous performances:

"Is the Willie Lynch letter real? Did somebody make it up in the 1970s as a cautionary tale or a call to arms? Does it really matter?

"Gregory Hicks, who works with the New Route Theatre and has been bringing programming to ISU under the auspices of the ISU Black Actors Guild, directs an examination of those questions in 'The Mystical Willie Lynch: A Musical, Poetic and Mental Exploration.' The cast of  'Mystical,' which includes Trace Gamache, Charlene Ifenso-Okpala, Ariele Jones, Jennifer Rusk, Don Shandrow, and Hicks himself, performed the show once last week, with another performance this Wednesday, February 29, at 7 pm in the AirPort Lounge (APL) in ISU's Centennial West building, and a third scheduled in March for New Route.

"In addition to the poems and songs performed by the ensemble, poems will be handed to the audience to read.

"So what is the Willie Lynch letter? When this letter first showed up, it told a very grim story, about one William Lynch, supposedly a prosperous plantation owner (and slave owner) from the West Indies who had been asked to speak to American slave owners in Virginia in 1712 to share his secrets for controlling slaves not just in the present, but for 'at least 300 hundred years.' Those secrets are unspeakable and horrifying, advising slave owners to divide and conquer, torture and brainwash, isolate and terrorize, in order to manage one's slaves for maximum financial gain. Like I said, horrifying.

"The authenticity of the letter has been much debated on the internet, with several scholars casting serious doubts on the letter and the 1712 speech the letter supposedly reported. If I'm reading descriptions of this new program, 'The Mystical Willie Lynch,,' correctly, Hicks and his cast are treating the 'real' Willie Lynch letter as a 'what if' proposition, not suggesting that the letter is real, but instead looking into the issues and concerns it raises even if it didn't exist in fact. 'Using a bit of theatricality,' Hicks' press materials say, 'a talented group of actors, and singers will present a poetry show. Through this performance, we begin to explore the teaching of The Mystical Willie Lynch. The works of artists such as Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka (a.k.a. LeRoi Jones), Langston Hughes, Billie Holiday, Gregory D. Hicks, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Nicki Minaj, Saul Williams, Pat’s Justice, will help us explore this letter.'

"All of this, Hicks suggests, is to get at the question, 'If knowledge truly is power, what will you do with it?'"

"The Mystical Willie Lynch" will begin at 7 pm tonight at the Herb Eaton Gallery at 411 North Center Street in Bloomington. To see details and a map, visit this page. Seating is limited inside the gallery, so you are asked to RSVP on the page linked, or to email new.route.theatre@gmail.com with your information, including the number of tickets you need.