Spelman College Dance Performance & Choreography Report on the
GEORGIA INCARCERATION PERFORMANCE PROJECT
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Phase II: ​Creative Devising Workshop with Spelman & UGA Students, Designers, Atlanta Artists, and Directing Team
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Overview...

Spelman collaborators were in residence with UGA collaborators in Athens, GA to co-devise a performance draft out of (1) the archival packets created in Phase I by UGA, Spelman, and Common Good Atlanta participants and (2) the UGA Hargrett Library exhibit materials.
Key Collaborators…
  • UGA Archivists: Jill Severn, Chuck Barber, Jan Levinson, Mary Miller
  • Composers: Okorie "OkCello" Johnson, Munie Zakee
  • Visual Media Designer: Charmaine Minniefield
  • Lighting/Sound designer: Erwin Greene, 
  • Creative and Executive Producer: Barbara McCaskill​
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Composers Okorie "OkCello" Johnson and Munir Zakee with Spelman Dance students. Photo by Clay Chastain, UGA
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UGA Archivist Jill Severn with Spelman Social Justice Fellow/Assoc. Photo by Ken Kootin
Workshop Participants…
  • 14 workshop participants/interns via Spelman College, including:
    • 5 Spelman dance students
    • 6 Spelman theatre students
    • 1 Spelman Social Justice Fellow/Assoc.
    • 1 Morehouse theatre student
    • 1 theatre student from North Carolina A&T
  • ​5 UGA graduate students, who served as designers/workshop leaders, including
    • Kellie Murphy, set/scenery designer
    • Jason Grant Woodworth, visual media design assistant
    • Philip Brankin, script writer / dramaturgy
    • Angela Hall, script supervisor / dramaturgy
    • ​Pedro Alvarado, project manager
  • 18 incarcerated collaborators (remotely) via shared archival packets

Additional Supporters
  • Makeba Hill-Dixon, Curator of Education Programs, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art
  • Andre Allen, Production Manager
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Project Manager/UGA Theatre Grad Student Pedro Alvarado with Spelman Theater Student Photo by Clay Chastain
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Photo by Clay Chastain, UGA
Week 1:
  • Co-directors analyzed material generated from Phase I and researched archival materialfrom Sidonia Serafini’s exhibit at Hargrett Library.​
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Co-Directors Dr. Julie B. Johnson and Dr. Amma Y. Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin. Photo by Ken Kootin.
Week 2:
  • Spelman and UGA students encountered the five archives of this project, including:
    • UGA Special Collections Libraries (all three archives, including the exhibit archival material at Hargrett Library)
    • Spelman Dance embodied archives
    • Common Good Atlanta archival packets from incarcerated collaborators
  • They worked with co-directors to begin to devise scenes (including movement, song/music, and scripted scenes) from archival material
  • This included discussions and activities around:
    • the role of the artist
    • ethical implications of aestheticizing narratives and experiences of vulnerable,
      oppressed, or incarcerated people
    • copyright/intellectual property within devised theatre works
    • building/maintaining trust and facilitating emotions within creative processes dealing
      with emotionally challenging content
    • professionalism within hyper-collaborative processes
    • creating with and within the unknown
    • using serendipity as a creative strategy
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Morehouse student. Photo by Clay Chastain, UGA
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Photo by Clay Chastain, UGA
Week 3:
  • Devising continued, and 17 scenes were created
  • May 30: we ran through all the scenes to understand the work generated as a holistic collection of material, and identify what might be missing
  • May 31: we conducted a debrief and reflection/feedback session with the ensemble
  • May 31: co-directors debriefed and began planning for Phase III
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Photo by Clay Chastain, UGA