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Absence Makes The Heart.../Comb Your Hair (Or You'll Look Like a Slave)

Arena Theatre (Theatre of Arts)
Los Angeles, CA

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Absence Makes The Heart.../Comb Your Hair (Or You'll Look Like a Slave)

SkyPilot Theatre Company, long an incubator of new plays in the Los Angeles area, Jason Weiss and Theatre of Arts presents the Los Angeles premiere of a double bill of two new works by Los Angeles playwrightsABSENCE MAKES THE HEART by Sean Abley and COMB YOUR HAIR (OR YOULL LOOK LIKE A SLAVE) by LeeLee Jackson, each a national finalist (of four total) for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival 2017 John Cauble Short Play Award.

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART by Sean Abley is a modern take on the Hans Christian
Andersen fable The Red Shoes. In the original tale a ballet dancer is driven to her death by an
uncontrollable urge to dance. In this adaptation, the aftermath of the story is told in monologues by twenty different characters affected by her death, near and far.

The production is directed by Chrisanne Blankenship-Billings, and the cast includes: Catherine
Davis Cox, Easton Schirra, Marie-Francoise Theodore, Maggie Manyan, Ian Stanley, Miss Barbie Q, Javier Melgar Santovena, Ian Salazar, Natalie Nicole Dressel, Sarah Lilly, Andrea Ma Gee, Thomas Colby, Francoise Tiadem, Carlyle Coash, Keith Wheeler, Sarah Marcum, Morry Schorr, Kasey Millar, Heather Boothby.

COMB YOUR HAIR (OR YOU'LL LOOK LIKE A SLAVE) by LeeLee Jackson is a beautiful yet painful collection of testimonies from young Black women navigating American society. Through scenes and monologues, COMB YOUR HAIR (OR YOULL LOOK LIKE A SLAVE) explores how Black women, regardless of their curl pattern, hair length or texture, contend with the tension between ownership of the self and others' sense of entitlement to their bodies.

Boasting a cast and production team made up almost entirely of Black women, the production is directed by Kumi James. The cast includes Skye Ellis, Mia Boykin, Miss Barbie Q, Alexa Crismon, Shereen Macklin and Carene Rose Mekertichyan.