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Cleopatra Boy

Cleopatra Boy uses the historical figure of Cleopatra to illustrate how women, POC, and LGBTQIA+ individuals in positions of power risk losing control of their own images and histories resulting in false narratives.

Leader

Sherrine Abaz

Location

3000 Fenkell Detroit, MI 48238

About the project

A Host of People (AHOP) has been creating a new, interdisciplinary, multimedia performance called Cleopatra Boy to premiere in Detroit, in September 2019. This show challenges the way that women and other non-straight/white/male leaders’ histories are re-written, maligned, or erased. AHOP’s ethos is to create original works that ask the audience the same questions we struggle with in rehearsal; Who and what shapes our idea of historical figures? How might we and U.S./Western society on the whole view Cleopatra if her story was told accurately?


The iconic Egyptian pharaoh’s historic, mythic, and fictional (mis)representations across time inspires our ensemble to create a performance that speaks to the present moment, in light of recent examples of women leaders and public figures being publicly mistreated. Part pageant, part courtroom drama, part interactive party, our audience will shape-shift from spectators, to community members, to witnesses as we collectively address the injustice of non-cisgendered people being stripped of their own narratives, in order to rethink and remake history.

The Steps

We are in the final phase of development of this new piece.  In order to premiere the work we need to:


Raise $5000 to close a budget gap to keep artist fees and design budgets intact.

Finish building sets and costumes

Perform an excerpt at the Sidewalk Festival in Detroit on August 3.

Design and print posters and bookmarks (our signature marketing piece) to promote the show.

Spread the word about the show far and wide!

Create a signature punch for our post-show punch receptions!

Perform the show September 13-28!

Book tour engagements after the Detroit premiere to share this work with a wide national and, possibly, international audience.

Complete curriculum of corresponding workshops in relation to the shows themes and creation.

Why we‘re doing it

Cleopatra is our catalyst for a theatrical thought experiment. We will attempt to see her world and our own through her eyes, in order to raise our collective voices against a system that has excluded too many from leadership for far too long. Through Cleopatra Boy, we work to restore justice for her and her antecedents as we attempt to reimagine the very nature of power and leadership for the future.

$4,185.00 / $4,185.00