For MASTER, playwright W. David Hancock has created the character of 20th century African American artist “Uncle Jimmy” Clemens, who died poor and alone, leaving behind an enormous body of work for which he was never recognized. Uncle Jimmy’s paintings, sculptures and collected artifacts — created for this production by visual artist, Wardell Milan — constitute Uncle Jimmy’s life’s work: a radical retelling of Huckleberry Finn which he referred to as “The Illuminated Twain.” Uncle Jimmy’s widow, Edna Finn has curated and installed the definitive collection of her late husband’s work to share with the public. And tonight her show will be visited by Uncle Jimmy’s estranged son, James. Written by W. David Hancock in collaboration with visual artist Wardell Milan, MASTER exists between the language of theater and the silence of art as it confronts the inadequacies of our American stories head-on, and imagines another kind of freedom.
Written by
W. David HancockArt by
Wardell MilanDirected by
Taibi MagarDramaturg/Creative Producer
Sunder Ganglani2017 : Installed and performed at The Irondale Theatre Center, Brooklyn, NY
Company
Written by W. David Hancock
Art by Wardell Milan
Directed by Taibi Magar
Dramaturg: Sunder Ganglani
Featuring:
Mikeah Jennings
Annie O’Sullivan
Lights: Thomas Dunn
Video: John Narun
Sound: Mikaal Sulaiman
Props: Gian Marco Lo Forte
Costumes: Tilly Grimes
Stage Manager: Belinda Hardin
Selections of "Uncle Jimmy's" Work
Visual art by Wardell Milan : Wall-card text by W. David Hancock
Self portrait
(unfinished)
“the idea of ‘human’ is an ongoing investigation — to be continued by those who follow. Important visions are impossible to perfect in one lifetime. Rely on your children to make your star shit shine”
– Uncle Jimmy
“Paige was Jim’s last living descendant.”
Paige was modeled after Uncle Jimmy’s own daughter, now deceased. In Uncle Jimmy’s mythology, Paige blows up Monticello.
“Good terrorism destroys a culture’s deepest held beliefs—like how in the 19th century, the anarchists once tried to destroy the clock in Greenwich, England to rattle the British Empire’s assumption that it was the center of time itself.”
Press
“Disturbing…Powerful…the perspectival spirals and the formal riddles announced by the artwork before the play proper expand dizzyingly within it… The drama is something that seems to be leaking from the very forms so elaborately carpentered to contain it.
The New York Times
“MASTER is one of the most fascinating theatrical experiences you will see this season… a mind-bogglingly intricate and multilayered experience that delves into the issue of race in startling, chilling ways”– Theatermania
