A Number

(2010) by Caryl Churchill

Hailed by Tony -Kushner as “the greatest living English language playwright,” Churchill has turned her dramatic gifts to the subject of human cloning — how might a man feel to discover that he is only one in a number of identical copies. And which one of him is the original. . .

I Sing Earth

(2009) by Pan Morigan

A multi-disciplinary theater work celebrating, challenging, and deepening our relationship to this one home we all must share, our planet Earth.

Dispatches

(2008-2009)

A poetic news report brought to you by the Underground Griots. Included are tales of a burnt-out Rescue Pilot, a Monster stuck in TV ads, a Pregnant Teen Poet in Springfield, MA, a Grandmother/Warrior Woman/Novelist from Atlanta, and 60’s Throwback Former Radical Born-again Firebrand. Hairston juxtaposes these with non-human dispatches from: “smart” traffic lights, quorum sensing bioluminescent bacteria, dying soldier ants, African deities, and the Aliens at Intergalactica.orb.

More Songs from the Spirit Café

(2007-2008)

Pan Morigan in concert with Ben Butler, guitar, Richard Hammond, bass, and Beth Bahia Cohen, violin and yayli tanbour.

Mindscape

(2006-2007)

A staged reading with music based on Andrea Hairston’s novel.

Voices Across Borders

(2005-2006)

Pan Morigan &Greg Alexander in a spoken word music piece.

SPINDOWN

(2005) by Liz Roberts.

A Sci-Fi multimedia theatre piece with music about a future America struggling with the legacy of its ‘spinfull’ past. Are the powerful communication techniques of the public relations industry essential to the proper functioning of a vast, diverse democracy such as our own? Or do PR techniques hinder effective, reasoned debate and its ultimate aim—the building of public consensus?

Songs From The Spirit Cafe

(2004) Pan Morigan, Rachelle Garnier, and Greg Alexander

Vampire Dreams

(2004) by Suzy McKee Charnas.

A modern psychoanalyst finds herself strangely attracted to her patent, a renowned anthropology professor who claims to be a vampire.  The doctor knows there are no such things as vampires, but his sophisticated and erudite manner becomes an obsessive fascination… An unsettling mixture of romance, mysticism, and fantasy.

Archangels of Funk

(2003-2005)

A Sci-Fi Theatre jam broadcast from the asteroid belt. A collection of dancing /singing, get up off the page, spoken word poems. Code sliding in the tradition of Rappers, African American Baptist Preachers, and West African Griots.

Castles of Gold: Songs and Stories of Irish Immigration.

(2002-2005)

Text, Kara Morin; original music and music collection and direction, Pan Morigan; dramaturgy, Andrea Hairston. A radio show for Public Radio International, narrated by Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes, and Roma Downey, actress in television’s Touched by an Angel. Songs performed by Pan Morigan.

Fire Moon

(2003)

Pan Morigan in concert with spoken word artists Janet Aalfs, Andrea Hairston, and Lenelle Moise reflecting on the seeds of war, the seeds of peace. Pan’s band includes guitar virtuosos Ben Butler and John Putnam, string bassist, Richard Hammond, and accordionista Rachelle Garnier.

Jar The Floor

(2003) by Cheryl West

Four generations of Black Women deal with “making peace: with one’s scars, with one’s history, and of course with embodiment of oneself—one’s mother.” Produced in conjunction with Smith College and Jelupa Theatre.

Soul Repairs

(2002) by A. Hairston

At the funeral of her revolutionary, engineer father, Ameera Davis is in the bushes having sex with a public relations hack sent to smear him. Ameera’s father was killed in an explosion on a bridge he was constructing between regions at war. The bridge does not topple, however people are stranded and continued fighting makes rescue difficult. Beah, Ameera’s mother, is on the bridge, threatening to jump when she spies her daughter in the bushes. Ameera tries to talk her mother down from the bridge, while Beah tries to convince Ameera to take over her father’s bridge project–all before the bridge collapses or the terrorist/freedom fighter/visionaries blow them away.

World Rhythms

(2001-2006)

Concerts at the Northampton Center For the Arts, Iron Horse and Smith College featuring Tony Vacca, Massamba Diop, Sekou Sylla, and Abiodun Oyewole

Songs For Drum And Voice And Other Mysteries

(2001)

A concert featuring local and international musicians in An evening of outrageous and innovative original music, Irish, Turkish and Ladino songs.

Communicating Doors

(2001) by Alan Ayckbourn.

A time-traveling comedy thriller.

Hummingbird Flying Backward

(2000) by A. Hairston.

A woman claiming to be from 13th century West Africa is in a present day video store (once a church) singing for the unborn, the future, as out­side a gunman shoots up the streets. The woman opens up the video store to a diverse group who don’t know who the gunman is shooting at or why, but paranoia runs high. The gunman is closing in, the police have yet to appear, and one of the characters has been seriously wounded. Will they be able to overcome their differences and work together to save themselves and the wounded man?

No Frontiers

(1999)

A musical performance by Pan Morigan featuring Irish, Arabic, North African, Sephardic, and original music for Westfield State College’s “Women Envision Peace Conference”.

Get With The Rhythms Of Diversity

(1998)

World Rhythms Concert at the Northampton Center For the Arts and Smith College featuring Tony Vacca, Steve Leicach, Massamba Diop, and Sekou Sylla

Chrysalis Cabaret

(1998)

A concert with Pan Morigan, Jim Armenti, Spectrum in Motion and friends produced in Northampton and New York.

Lonely Stardust

(1998) by A. Hairston.

The play follows the adventures of an extra-terrestrial exiled into space until it discov­ers sentient life willing to journey with it. The alien lands in Springfield, MA hoping to find a good catch. This Sci-fi comedy celebrates the funky & passionate possibilities of a post-industrial American small town supposedly in decline. Among ordinary citizens struggling with love, drugs, family, crime, and hope, the alien discovers all manner of dream technicians and impossibility specialists. Performed in Northampton and Springfield.

What Looks Like Crazy on an ordinary day

(1998) by Pearl Cleage at StageWest and Smith College.

Exiles

(1997) by Joy Voeth.

The turbulent journey of a Barbadian single mother through the labyrinth of valley politics & sex as she writes her thesis and finds true love. An investigation of women’s solo performances and African-American, Caribbean, and African performance idioms

Chrysalis Cabaret

(1997). A concert with Pan Morigan, Jim Armenti, Spectrum in Motion and friends in Northampton and New York.

From Senegal to Northampton

(1997). World Rhythms Concert featuring Tony Vacca, Massamba Diop, Steve Leicach, Joe Sallins, and Tim Moran at the Northampton, Springfield and West Chester, PA.

Spirits From the Common Book

(1997) by Kara Morin.

A staged reading of Morin’s magical realistic play about an African-American woman struggling with the impact of crack on her family and community. She is haunted by a Native American ancestor who sold his bones to research doctors in order to by the alcohol that eventually kills him. Based on a true story.

Strange Attractors

(1996, 1997)

A comedy with music and dance by A. Hairston about an overworked, but tenacious and artistically ambitious, multicultural theatre group (not unlike Chrysalis) who very modest economic resources struggle to produce live theatre in a social/cultural environment somewhat hostile to the arts and imagination. Produced in Northampton, Greenfield, Holyoke, and StageWest.

Get With The Rhythm

(1996)

World Rhythms Concert featuring Tony Vacca, Massamba Diop, Steve Leicach, Joe Sallins, and Tim Moran at the Northampton Center for the Arts.

Dancing With Chaos

(1995)

A multidisciplinary, cross-cultural political murder mystery by A. Hairston that explores the challenge of creating community in a polarized America. Produced in Northampton and toured to Boston, Turners Falls, Greenfield, Springfield and Holyoke.

Miss Ida B. Wells

(1994, 1995) by Endesha Mae Holland.

An historical drama about the famed civil & women’s rights activist who risked her life to challenge lynching, Jim Crow, and the oppres­sion of women. Produced in Northampton and toured to Dartmouth, Springfield, and Holyoke.

It’s Not Too Late

(1994)

A play with music about young people and Aids created by A. Hairston and Pan Morigan with The Peer Educators of Northern Educational Services, Inc. Springfield, MA

Polywise

(1993-4)

A multidisciplinary, cross-cultural production by A. Hairston that presents the stories of women refugees from Eastern Europe, North and West Africa, and the Middle East who are struggling in Germany to create a meaningful future in the turmoil and chaos of exile. Produced in Northampton and toured to Greenfield, Springfield and Holyoke.

Vision of Fire

(1992-3)

A musical performance piece by A. Hairston juxtaposing the lives of an Eastern European Refugee and an African American woman from LA who are both trying to escape ’the violence of difference’. Produced in Northampton and toured to Greenfield Community College and StageWest, Springfield’s resident professional theatre.

Gallery of Women

(1992)

A musical poetry performance by A. Hairston and Pan Morigan that toured New York and New England.

Festival

(1991)

A celebration of the Northampton and Smith College communities involving city residents, students, faculty, and staff in a carnival-like parade performance all over campus.

People, People, My People

(1991)

A storytelling piece with music commissioned by the Smith Art Museum for the Betye & Alison Saar Exhibit. West African, Caribbean, and African-American stories and music selected and created in response to the Saar artwork and performed with the artwork as setting.

If You Don’t Like This Dream, Wake Up!

(1990)

A musical performance piece exploring the insularity, alienation and optimism of ‘average’ Americans in an increasingly tumultuous global reality.

Flight From Meaning

(1989)

A touring Choreopoem production by A. Hairston focused on denial.

Eating The Night

(1987-89)

A touring storytelling piece with music, drawing on the creative survival experiences of South American Refugees, Yugoslavians, Angolans, Germans and African-Americans.

Signs of Life

(1987)

A play by A. Hairston with music, sculptural paintings and dance concerning the homeless and the voiceless in urban America and Germany.

Tribute to Martin Luther King

(1987)

Music performed by Don Cherry, Tim Moran, and Tony Vacca, and Pan Morigan and storytelling by Andrea Hairston celebrating the spirit of Dr. King.

Incantations

(1986)

A music-theatre piece by A. Hairston with sculptural paintings calling up the spirits to shake us from our death like trances into action. Performed at the Boston Women’s Theatre Festival.

One To Many

(1986)

A one woman show written and performed by Emma Missouri investigating the reality of an adult child of an alcoholic.

World Music

(1986)

A Jazz & World Music Concert with Don Cherry, Tony Vacca, and Tim Moran at the Iron Horse in Northampton.

Dreams Without Boundaries

(1985)

Fictional documentary by A. Hairston using slides, music, sculpture, and dance, concerning ten people from various walks of life, e.g. janitor, scientist, housewife, waitress, who must decide whether or not to aid foreign refugees in their flight to freedom.

Improvisation/Interaction

(1984)

A music theatre piece by A. Hairston and Tony Vacca exploring the impact of nuclear uncertainty on our dreams and capabilities for future action.

Innovations: Traditions in Change

(1984)

A Jazz and World Music concert series featuring Leroy Jenkings & Sting, Clyde Criner & Omar Hakim, Tim Moran & Tony Vacca, Leo Smith & the New Delta Ahkri Ensemble, and Tim Wolfe Ensemble.

Men Moving

(1984)

A collective dance piece exploring and redefining cultural images of masculinity.

Awake Sleeping Heart

(1983)

A collage for five women based on the life of Frida Kahlo conceived by Emma Missouri.

Rage: From Medea To Marilyn

(1983) by Liz Roberts.

An exploration of violence and repression in women.

Prime Time

(1983, 1982)

A music theatre piece by A. Hairston investigating the conflict between moral integrity and the creation/production process of films.

Command Performance

(1983)

A concert of West African traditional dance and music featuring Eno Washington and Bamidele Osimarea.

Nanny

(1981, 1982)

An exploration into an old woman’s memory. Written by Katherine Sanderson performed by Emma Missouri.

The Original Child

(1982) by Judith Katz.

A dance theatre piece based on a Thomas Merton poem, part of the Nuclear-Free Tour of New England

Teatro Viola

(1980)

An Italian feminist theatre performing a hilarious comedy about women and shoes.

Stone Children, Soft Targets

(1980)

A nuclear power play collectively conceived and produced.

Boundaries

(1980) by Judith Katz.

A touring production about child sexual abuse.

Whatever Happened To Debbie Kraft?

(1980) by Judith Katz.

A play about women’s choices in the work force.

Mixed Messages

(1979-1981)

A touring production about peer pressure and alcohol. Collectively conceived and realized.

Tribes: A Play Of Dreams

(1979)

A music theatre piece by Judith Katz exploring family dynamics in an extended family of women.

A Piece Of The Media

(1978)

A satire on television and image-makers. Collectively conceived and produced.