The Lorraine Hansberry Experimental Theatre Lab
Cast and Playwright Presenting Gypsy and the Bully Door
The Lorraine Hansberry Experimental Theatre Laboratory.
Lorraine Hansberry’s commitment to cultivating a theater of encounter to address the myriad conditions of life inspires us. Her courage and vision made evident in her body of work affirm a legacy that we are all charged with continuing. In honor of that legacy, Ocean Ana Rising’s Lorraine Hansberry Experimental Theatre Laboratory brings a rigorous community engagement praxis to the development of boldly relevant story-telling such that we spark critical conversations, consider possibilities for change, and deepen our celebration of life as it is illuminated in the theater.
We believe in play and experimentation. We believe in community and the importance of gathering. We believe in place-making and the urgency of continually examining how we relate to each other and the world through storytelling. The Lorraine Hansberry Experimental Theater Laboratory is our offering, our way to activate these values.
This year, we return to a project we first began developing in 2011 - Dr. Nina Angela Mercer’s ritual choreodrama GYPSY AND THE BULLY DOOR. And we have returned with lessons learned and reinvigorated commitment to this work.
Opening the Bully Door
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Our Process.
Click here to discover details about our creative process and view our gallery of rehearsal photos.
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Our Performance.
Click here to view our performance, read our playbill, browse our gallery, and read audience testimonials.
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Our Playwright.
Click to meet our playwright, dramaturg, and producer Dr. Nina Angela Mercer.
A Special Thank You to Our Partners.
This project is being partially resourced by The Black Seed Fund which was made possible by a philanthropic cohort, with a lead gift of $5 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and including Bloomberg Philanthropies, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, and the New York Community Trust. Nina is the Creative Executive Director of Ocean Ana Rising which is part of The Black Theater Mechanics - a collective that is part of the Museum of Contemporary Diasporan Art. We were the largest funded cohort out of this Black Seed initiative.