Antoinette Nwandu, whose “blistering interrogations of race, power, and violence range from symbolic to highly naturalistic works,” is a playwright based in New York. In June last year, Steppenwolf presented the world premiere of her play Pass Over, a mashup of the book of Exodus and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot that sparked a national conversation about bias in the theater community. Her play Breach: a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate premiered at Victory Gardens Theater in February this year.
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An excerpt from Pass Over:
NOTE: This play should NOT have an intermission. If Moses and Kitch cannot leave, neither can you.
MOSES
man what’chu fixta do today man damn
KITCH
man i’on know man what’chu fixta do
got plans you feel me big ol plans
got plans to stand there stroke yo dick
man fuck you man
nigga what kinda plans you got
got plans to rise up to my full potential be all i could be you feel me
left left left right left
yo fuck you nigga dat shit ain’t funny
yo moses man i thought it was
niGGa man i got plans to git my ass up off dis block
off dis block here
yeah nigga damn man i ain’t stutter
a’ight nigga damn
a’ight
cept cept you gittin up off dis block man where you goin
yo what
i sed my nigga you gittin up off dis block where you gon go
kitch
what
dat promised land
niGGa promised land top ten go
nigga
come on my nigga less play
man ain’tchu tired
jess go go
collard greens and pinto beans
dats two
nigga don’t play dat counts as one
yo how you figure
iss one plate uh food
one plate uh—
man yeah a’ight
one hot plate of collard greens & pinto beans
one
brown bunnies
two
my bright red superman kite
three
drawer full uh clean socks
okay see now dats a good one fo
my brotha here wit me back from da dead
five
yo moms here too
six
soft sheets i’m sleepin on em good
seven
my woman next to me she sleepin on em too
since when you got a woman
i don’t
but’chu sed—
iss da promised land nigga if i wanna woman imma have me a woman
okay nigga damn jess askin if you got candidates
man i ain’t met her yet shit but dats a’ight i’ll know her when i see her man bess believe
yo moses dats deep i’ll. know. her. when. i. see. her. yeah yeah i guess i knew rochelle was fixta be mine first time i seent her too
she ain’tchors kitch
i know
yo do you
we git up off dis block she fixta be mine
ya fixta be
MOSES and KITCH breathe together.
a’ight man you got’cho eight
world peace
niGGa
jess playin man lemme see
maaaaaan how da fuck you spect we fixta git up off dis block pass ovuh
yo kitch man first of all i ain’t sed “we”
da fuck you mean by dat
i mean yo ass ain’t comin
you ain’t invited nigga damn
yo moses dat’s fucked up
cuz my nigga damn man you my nigga you got plans mean i got plans right wit’chu moses moses i got plans right wit’chu right
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