writing is live
cheeky little brown
by Nkenna Akunna '23 MFA
Directed by Kiebpoli Calnek
Thursday, April 21, 8PM
Friday, April 22, 8 PM
Saturday, April 23, 8PM
Saturday, April 30, 8PM
Sunday, May 1, 4PM
Fishman Studio, Granoff Center
154 Angell Street, Providence RI 02906
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS
Lady is in the middle of crashing (and ruining) her best friend Gemma’s birthday party. The two haven’t spoken for six months, Lady’s presence is a surprise, and over the course of the play we untangle the reasons why. cheeky little brown is a failed night out, a musical, and also a one-person show about heartbreak, tending to a body, and the shifting realities of the city they call home.
Nkenna Akunna is an Igbo playwright and performer from London whose work primarily explores dimensions of Black femme life. Plays include Some Of Us Exist in the Future (Papatango Prize; Neukom Institute Literary Award for Playwriting second place; UK audio tour: Bush Theatre, Everyman Theatre Liverpool, Theatr Clwyd, Leeds Playhouse, Laurels Whitley Bay, Chichester Festival Theatre, Stephen Joseph Theatre, an Tobar & Mull Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Bristol Old Vic, Southwark Playhouse, Oldham Coliseum, Trinity Theatre Tunbridge Wells, Lyric Theatre Belfast), cheeky little brown, good god (VoxFest, Brown University), Good Fit (Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award second place, Theatre Renegade, The Dare Tactic), a meal (Polaroid Theatre). BA in Economics and African Diaspora Studies from Dartmouth College, MFA Candidate in Playwriting from Brown University. nkennaakunna.com
Kiebpoli Calnek (they/them), a non-binary queer Black creative, born and raised in New York City/ Lenapehoking, has generated nuanced performances and artistic direction seeped in poetic elements for over two decades.
They’ve practiced physical theatre, co-created fiscally sponsored, large-scale, site-specific, community devised productions, and taught aerial rope acrobatics as a way to empower bodies tapping into universal somatic guidance. Their social enterprise, Black*Acrobat, produces interdisciplinary programming sharing stories of, for, and with fringe communities, celebrating authentic visions and a spectrum of viewpoints through research, access, and collaboration. Curator of The Reparations Show 11/2021- The Kraine Theatre, NYC. Black Trans Stories Matter - TMI Project. Member of the Up Until Now Collective.
Kiebpoli’s works received generous funding and support from Elizabeth Streb, Astraea Foundation, Asian Arts Initiative, and The New York Foundation for the Arts. Member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, SAG-AFTRA, and Actors’ Equity Association. www.kiebpoli.com