Exclusive: Catching Up With Semblance Playwright Whitney White
Currently streaming on New York Theater Workshop’s website after its initial in-person limited run at 79 East 4th Street, NY, NY 10003 location is Semblance, written and directed by Artistic Instigator, NYTW Usual Suspect & former 2050 Fellow Whitney White,
Performed by Nikiya Mathis, SEMBLANCE is a filmed theatrical experience that asks us to examine how Black women are perceived and how we interact with the Black feminine.
In your everyday life, how do you encounter Black women? As the first voice you hear when you bump your favorite diva’s new song? A millisecond of eye contact with the lady who made your salad? A brief conversation with the woman watching your kids? A coworker? A politician on the screen? Perhaps you simply have to look in the mirror.
What do you see? What do you assume?
Whitney White began developing SEMBLANCE as a 2020/21 Artistic Instigator. An incredible team of artists gathered in the NYTW theatre this summer to film the performance of one actor—Nikiya Mathis—who portrays all seven women for this hybrid opportunity.
Streaming passes are now available! If you can’t make it to the theatre to see SEMBLANCE, we hope you’ll watch it from home on your own schedule through October 24, 2021.
BlackFilmandTV.com’s Wilson Morales recently caught up with White as she discussed the concept of the play and how it can now be viewed online for those who couldn’t see it in New York. Her other theatrical works as a director include Off-Broadway - What to Send Up When it Goes Down by Aleshea Harris (The Movement); This Land Was Made by Tori Sampson (Vineyard Theatre Lab); Macbeth in Stride (Joe’s Pub) and Regional - Br’er Cotton by Tearrance Chisholm (Endstation Theatre); Rita Tambien Rita by Tony Meneses (Juilliard); Othello (Trinity Rep).