Experience Nescience
Nescience is an original, new work, written and directed by Beatrice Alonna. The performance will stream on February 5th at 8pm (EST), 6th at 8pm (EST) and 7th at 2pm and 8pm (EST). Order your tickets today and check out our Virtual Rehearsal Room.
About Nescience:
Nescience is a compilation of stories that have the central idea of the world-wide undesirable phenomenon of stereotyping. The stories presented in this production are 100% real, and very powerful interpretations of multiple people from different racial backgrounds.
The main objective is to bring to life the misconceptions of a plethora of races. The content brought forth surrounds real-life concerns of many people from different racial backgrounds that have the desire to get the truth out to the public, aside from the false stereotypes that seem to haunt us each and every day.
A Note From Playwright and Director Beatrice Alonna
When people hear the word “Nescience”, they tend to all have a different response.
In my experience, the word is usually met with either a serious eye squint and head nod to show that they are intrigued, or by saying, “oh wow, what an interesting word!” There are some who are bold enough and respond with a, ”What the heck does that mean?!”. The remaining few who choose to respond, respond with a solid ”God bless you”, assuming that the word was a very dramatic sneeze instead of an actual term in the English language.
Hearing this term for the first time made me feel all of these emotions at once, and once defined, it sparked my interest even more. Once googled, I soon found out this word was one meaning ”lacking knowledge, or ignorant”. As soon as this definition came clear to me, I also saw how clearly it fit within a topic that was close to my heart: race.
Living as a Black woman in America, race can be an extremely stereotyped topic. Seeing my life in the eyes of my society can sometimes be very disheartening based upon how the world perceives “people like me” to be. From the assumptions about my character and way of life, to the misconception of my everyday intentions, I personally feel that the world has already put me in a box before I have even had a chance to define myself. After I made the personal choice to take time to converse with others and hear their opinions, I realized something incredible: I am not the only one who has been a victim of racial stereotyping. In fact, to my surprise, it appeared to be a worldwide phenomenon that no one really discussed. Stereotyping is known to have ugly effects that we see everyday in the media (ex: police brutality, discrimination, and even death).
It is extremely interesting to me that such a controversial topic could be found humorous, but Nescience the play does just that, the comedic take on racial stereotypes allows the human race to open their eyes to how they see other people. This production is truly an experience that could very well be an aid to ending this epidemic. Compiling these stories together in a creative way has taught me a lot; and I pray that some of these truths can be presented in a way where they can serve as a revelation to the cultures that experience it.
If you made it this far in the passage, you can see that racial stereotypes affect more than just one person. Believe it or not, we are all in some way, shape or form affected by this. This is why this production was created: Not only to bring us together as a people, but to allow us to understand one another.
Nescience has been pre-recorded and will be streamed. A Q&A with the playwright/director and actors will follow each show.
Nescience PLAYERS
Funding for Nescience has been provided, in part, by The Black Theatre Alliance of Philadelphia, a coalition committed to supporting and uplifting the Black theatre artists in the Greater Philadelphia area while challenging and encouraging the Greater Philadelphia theatre community to be more proactive in their commitment to equity and equality. Please visit their website https://www.blacktheatrephiladelphia.org/ to donate and learn more.
Masquerade Theatre’s New Works Series
Masquerade Theatre is dedicated to exploring the humanity beneath our masques by using theatre to enlighten, to celebrate our diversity as a vital part of our human experience and to inspire us to think, react and learn. New works by contemporary artists are essential to engaging audiences in a shared dialogue reflective of our own time. Masquerade’s New Works Series is committed to providing a platform for contemporary artists to present new and thought-provoking pieces that help us explore and understand our humanity.
Tickets
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