“Afrikan-centered” MPAACT theater company showcases the art of the lone performer with its late-night Solo Jams series. Here’s the full five-week schedule:
In a nod to MPAACT’s current prime-time production, Blackademics (through 11/25), the series is prefaced by a panel discussion on blacks in academia (Wed 10/24, 7:30 PM). The free event features performances by solo jammer Kate McCandless and members of the Blackademics cast.
The actual solos start with The Jozzpel According to Jesse Dean (Fri 10/26), Jesse Dean Stanford’s amalgam of original music and storytelling. Then Jamie Black ponders whether men and women are really all that different in It’s My Penis and I’ll Cry If I Want To (Sat 10/27). A youth activist and hip-hop artist among other things, D-Nick the Microphone Misfit ushers in the second weekend with an exploration of movement, music, and dance titled Mind of a Misfit (Fri 11/2). The following night Dawn Bless pays tribute to legends like Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald in Naked Jazzy Women (Sat 11/3). In a similar vein, Kate McCandless’s Gloria, G-U-I-T-A-R! (Fri 11/9) channels female musicians who made their mark on rock ‘n’ roll. The third weekend ends with Martin M. Morrow looking at his upbringing and relationships in In My Head (Sat 11/10). The “desire to be loved by someone” who hurts you is the subject of week four’s lead-off show, The Love? . . . of Power (Fri 11/16), by Celeste Cooper. Next, Huey Amaru’s For Colored Undergrads . . . (Sat. 11/17) follows a south-sider to a small-town college, where he discovers the “arts, himself, and post-racial liberalism.” Performed by Tramaine Montell Ford, TheTramaineExperience: AnUrbanDramedy (Fri 11/23) offers a comic tour of inner-city stereotypes. And Solo Jams ends with Redd Alert (Sat 11/24), Chris Redd’s tale of “fitting in, standing out, and finding self.”