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(New York Theatre Workshop)
For years before she started writing plays, Mfoniso Udofia had trained as an actor, a trombonist, and an opera singer. These artistic languages inform her use of tempo, rhythm, and composition within playwriting, some more intentionally than others.
Sojourners’ Design Evolution
In the 2016 Playwright's Realm production of Sojourners, the creative team decided on a more naturalistic design. The play features several distinct locations in 1970's Houston, Texas. The specificity of the time period and location inform the set by Jason Sherwood and costume design by Loren Shaw. Below are photos from that production.
Images From the Playwright's Realm Production
It's not often that an entire design team will revist a show together at the same time. While it is the same group of people working on the same show, they had the opportunity to completely redesign the entire production. As Scenic Designer Jason Sherwood discusses in this interview, they chose to revist one of the original impulses they had for the set in the NYTW production.
Set Renderings for the NYTW production
(New York Theatre Workshop)
Mfoniso Udofia is trained as an actor and opera singer, but when she was only seeing roles that fetishized Africa and didn't speak to her experience as a first generation Nigerian American, she started writing her own plays.
(New York Theatre Workshop)
"What do you have to give up in order to be American?" That is one of the central questions playwright Mfoniso Udofia explores in her plays about a family of Nigerian American immigrants. In this clip, she also expresses her attraction to theatre as the right medium for that exploration.
(New York Theatre Workshop)
Playwright Mfoniso Udofia explains some of the circumstances that brought her own parents to the United States. In the 1960's and 1970's, after Nigerian Independence, there was in influx of young Nigerians coming to America to attend colleges and universities, many with the intention of bringing their education back to Nigeria to improve their home country. But political turmoil and having children can make those plans change.
(New York Theatre Workshop)
The Ufot Family Cycle consists of nine plays, spanning generations, by Mfoniso Udofia. These plays can be viewed independently, but putting them together like puzzle pieces makes a bigger and richer story about the family, including questions about immigration, family, legacy, and love.
(New York Theatre Workshop)
Scenic Designer Jason Sherwood discusses the inspiration for the particularly American imagery of the "Sojourners" set and what thematic elements of the play his design is able to highlight.
(New York Theatre Workshop)
Scenic Designer Jason Sherwood chats with our Literary Associate Aaron Malkin about the steps he takes in designing a set, and the thrill of each unique technical rehearsal process.
