Director
Jacqueline Moscou, a Seattle, WA resident, is no stranger to Pittsburgh.
She has directed three shows for City Theatre, most recently David Mamet's
Cryptogram. In 1999 she returned to City Theatre's Lester Hamburg space,
to direct Kuntu's production of her play (written with contributions
from Nikki Nojima Louis) Keeper's of the Dream! A Celebration of Significant
Sistahs! The project grew out of a 1991 commission from the Museum of
History and Industry in Seattle. The Museum was hosting Brain Lanker's
photographic exhibit of seventy-five portraits of influential contemporary
African American women, form his book I Dream A World.
Looking
for a way to bring the portraits of these women to life for middle school
children who were visiting the exhibit, the museum commissioned a friend
of Moscou's to develop a play, and the two collaborated on the project,
with Moscou directing and performing in the work. "We had complete
freedom to choose which women we wanted to portray and how. The theme
we selected was service, responsibility and respect. All things we think
are sorely lacking in our young people today. We interspersed monologues
with songs to keep it lively." Adults, as well as kids, were interested
in the show and the play enjoyed a long life, touring churches and schools
for the next six years.
The
play's success inspired Moscou to expand it, shaping it more toward
adults, while retaining the spirited, interactive style of the play
and its structure of monologues, interspersed with song and verse. Where
the original I Dream A World play was designed as an educational journey,
Moscou reworked the text to make it an emotional journey from Africa
to the present, and titled the new work Keepers of the Dream: A Celebration
of Significant Sistahs! "I took out facts and accomplishments and
replaced them with more universal threads of humor, wisdom, and talent."
She sees Keepers of the Dream as portraying the arc of Black history,
"it is really saying that we've had bad times and better times,
but at no time are we not human. Keepers is a thank you note to those
who cam before us and, I hope, encouragement for those of us who believe
that service today for a better tomorrow is neither futile nor out of
date."
Ms.
Moscou has lived in Seattle 20 years and has performed and directed
in all of Seattle's theatres. Work for theatres outside Seattle includes:
The Penumbra Theatre, St. Paul; The Horizon Theatre, Atlanta; Portland
Center Stage, Portland; Crossroads Theatre Co., New Brunswick; a five
year relationship with City Theatre Co. directing From the Mississippi
Delta, Having Our Say and Cryptogram. She says, "Pittsburgh has
become a place of deepening relationships for me. Dr. Vernell Lillie
is among them. Ms. Moscou Keeper's of the Dream had its world premiere
in Seattle in March of 1998. She feels fortunate to have the opportunity
with Kuntu to continue work, and to keep alive this very special theatre
piece honoring the voices of the past and present who help make our
world better.
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