The Big Mzungu of Kilwa Kivinje -Theatre In Exile
This was a HUGE treat for me. I am now Musical Director of Theatre In Exile a new theater company.
Theatre in Exile is a new theatre company based in Brooklyn, NY, whose purpose is to uncover timeless and hyper-immediate narratives of global relevance with a socio-political context that lives in the spirit of the time.
Founded in the winter of 2013 by writer and director Samuel James Wilson, TIE was designed to give artists greater autonomy in the structural and visual development of the pieces they are called to work on. By allowing artists greater freedom, we encourage risk taking and imagination, turning our view towards the origins of theatre as a living art created by all humans that crosses ideology, borders, time and space.
Created and directed by Samuel James Wilson, with music by Lon Kaiser, performed and developed by a cast of four intrepid actors, The Big Mzungu tells the story of a white New Yorker gone to Tanzania to bury the body of his African wife in her homeland. Along the highway B2 that runs from Dar-Es-Salaam to Mozambique, the truck in which he travels is stuck in the mud, and the Earth begins to swallow the vehicle…
Blending fable and raw storytelling, music and movement, The Big Mzungu is a timely exploration of the politics of death.
The music and sound design I prepared (70 minutes worth) could only be described as “Tanzanian traditional music folded within a healthy dose of western classical modernism and served with a side of crimson-esque improvisation that invokes the cracking of the earth and all that is Gaia!”
We are waiting on video and are looking forward to performing this work again. Hopefully we can take this outside the City to theater festivals and explore new venues and avenues of approach on the piece. It was performed live with:
The Cast
Bradley J. Sumner as The Big Mzungu
Joy Notoma as The Narrator
Rhonda Khan as The Mother
Dwayne Daniels II as The Toymaker
The Musicians
Lon Kaiser Composer/Pianist/Sound Design
Wayne Smith Cello
Ben Tyree Guitar
Phil Kester Marimba/Percussion
Again Pictures. These taken by Bob Coulter during dress rehearsal.