Jade Wheeler

Actress/ dramatist
“Something unique about this piece is that Fikry, the writer, is present at rehearsals. He doesn’t say, ‘Look, here are the characters, here’s the script, go memorize it.’ Instead, he utilizes our own stories, and because of this, the script evolves over the course of the rehearsals. It is a challenging and intense process.

Many black women of today still wrestle with the things that Winnie fought against. There are still many labels and stamps put on people and boxes that they are sorted into; that goes for everyone, regardless of what marginalized group you are part of. This piece is important and exciting . . . we hit upon many sore points – everything can’t always be lovely and nice. I really hope that people are able to step out of their comfort zones and come to a performance that they might normally skip. More and more, we have the tendency to only consume things that align with our interests, and that gets in the way of making connections.”