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Black Light

Black Light

A.R.T. Subscription Season
  • Sep 19, 2019 - Sep 29, 2019

  • OBERON

  • Run Time: Approximately ninety minutes with no intermission

Recommended for ages 18+. $15 standby tickets to Black Light may become available the night of the performance, and will be released on a first-come, first-served basis at OBERON beginning a half hour prior to the performance time.

Tickets

From $25

Recommended for ages 18+. $15 standby tickets to Black Light may become available the night of the performance, and will be released on a first-come, first-served basis at OBERON beginning a half hour prior to the performance time.

  • Run Time

    Approximately ninety minutes with no intermission

  • Tickets

    From $25

Learn more:

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★★★★! Jomama invites us to see her, to witness her, and to go from Black Light back out into daylight with our senses somehow both sharpened and softened: more able to hear others, more able to see ourselves.

Vulture

Jones has been channeling storytelling chanteuse Jomama since the ’90s; but if we ever found ourselves living in a time that needed humor, honesty, and wisdom, all wrapped up in a cabaret featuring original songs, it’s right now.

Edge Boston

Daniel Alexander Jones performs as the iconic Jomama Jones in a spiritual revival for turbulent times. This intimate journey through the darkness of personal and political upheaval and the shards of shattered illusions is illuminated by spontaneous humor and what The New Yorker calls Jones’ “very particular radiance.” With all original music, drawing influence from Prince, Sade, Diana Ross, and Tina Turner, Black Light is marked significantly by the Black American Freedom movement, Afromysticism, goddess mythology, and divination. This immersive performance piece removes the barrier between artist and audience through inquiry, story, and song.

 

Created by Daniel Alexander Jones
Original Songs by Jomama Jones
With Bobby Halvorson, Laura Jean Anderson, Dylan Meek, and Josh Quat
Additional Music by Samora Pinderhughes & Tariq Al-Sabir

Notable dates

Opening Night: 9/20

Additional Production Support
Jonathan Glazer and Hadley Leach

 

Press Coverage

Features

Credits

Creative Team

Created by

Daniel Alexander Jones

Daniel Alexander Jones’s critically-acclaimed performance pieces include Black Light (Public Theater, Greenwich House Theater); Duat (Soho Rep); An Integrator’s Manual (La MaMa and Fusebox Festival); and Radiate (Soho Rep and National Tour). Jones has recorded five albums of original songs as his alter-ego Jomama Jones. He is recognized as a key voice in the development of Theatrical Jazz and has made a significant contribution to Black Experimental Theatre and Performance. Jones creates his own distinctive dramaturgy. His roots reach deep into Black American and Queer Performance traditions, and his work explores ideas of the Afromystical (awakening awareness of the numinous in the everyday through ritualized performance). Over more than two decades of professional practice, Jones has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to civic healing through vulnerable presence, truth telling, and collective critical engagement. Jones first appeared as his performance alter ego Jomama Jones in 1995; since her “comeback” in 2010, Jomama has released four albums, Lone Star, Radiate, Six Ways Home, and, in 2017, the double album Flowering. Jomama premiered Radiate to rave reviews and sold-out houses at Soho Rep in 2010 and the piece subsequently toured to cities including Los Angeles, Austin, Minneapolis, and Boston’s The Theater Offensive. Jones received a 2015 Doris Duke Artist Award in recognition of his risk-taking practice and a 2016 USA Artist Fellow. He was also named an inaugural Mellon Foundation Creative Research Fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle for 2017-2019. He is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Fordham University in NYC, where he lives. Jones is currently at work on Waves, a book fusing memoir, philosophy, and performance theory, detailing experiences with his vanguard artistic mentors including Robbie McCauley, Laurie Carlos, Rebecca Rice, Blanche Foreman, and Aishah Rahman.

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Original Songs by

Jomama Jones

Original Songs by

Jomama Jones

Jomama Jones is a legendary performer. She made her triumphant comeback to recording and the stage in 2010, after having left the USA in the mid-1980s for personal and political reasons to live abroad. She has been featured in the touring stage show Radiate; the Off-Broadway play Duat; and now Black Light. She lives between Switzerland and the USA (NYC and LA) and raises goats. She and her collaborator Josh Quat have just released the album ANEW, available on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, and streaming outlets.

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With

Bobby Halvorson

Laura Jean Anderson

Dylan Meek

Josh Quat

Josh Quat

With

Josh Quat

Josh Quat is a musician, actor and writer based out of Brooklyn. He’s thrilled to be back with the talented, inspiring cast of Black Light and the amazing Jomama Jones! In addition to his work as a performer and songwriter, Josh fronts the rock trio The Kristys and frequently collaborates with other theatrical and musical artists. Graduate of the Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts and The New School University.

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Additional Music by

Samora Pinderhughes

Tariq Al-Sabir

Costume Design

Oana Botez

Oana Botez

Costume Design

Oana Botez

Oana Botez’s New York credits include BAM Next Wave, Lincoln Center, PS122, Soho Rep, Joyce Theater, BRIC Arts Media, Classic Stage Company, Public Theater, and Bard SummerScape. Her regional credits are the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Wilma Theater, Montclair Peak Performance, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Hartford Stage Company, Shakespeare Theatre (DC), Berkeley Rep, ArtsEmerson, Broad Stage, MCA Chicago, ODC (San Francisco), and the Walker Art Center. Her international credits include the Old Vic, Bucharest National Theatre, Arad National Theatre, Bulandra Theatre, Théâtre National de Chaillot, Les Subsistances, Budapest National Theatre, Cluj Hungarian National Theatre, Bucharest Operetta Theatre, International Festival of Contemporary Theater (Adana, Turkey), Le Quartz, La Filature (Mulhousse, France), and Exit Festival/Maison des Arts Creteil (Paris). Ms. Botez is currently an Assistant Professor Adjunct in the Design Department at Yale School of Drama. She resides in Manhattan, New York.

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OBERON Lighting Design

Justin Paice

OBERON Lighting Design

Justin Paice

A.R.T.: Alice in Rainbowland, The Conjurors’ Club (Digital Systems Programming), The Triad (Video Projections), Black Light, Greater Good, Clairvoyance, Endlings (Associate Lighting Designer), and Wig Out!.

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OBERON Sound Design

Alex Giorgetti

Company

Performed by

Jomama Jones

Performed by

Jomama Jones

Jomama Jones is a legendary performer. She made her triumphant comeback to recording and the stage in 2010, after having left the USA in the mid-1980s for personal and political reasons to live abroad. She has been featured in the touring stage show Radiate; the Off-Broadway play Duat; and now Black Light. She lives between Switzerland and the USA (NYC and LA) and raises goats. She and her collaborator Josh Quat have just released the album ANEW, available on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, and streaming outlets.

View full biography

Trevor Bachman

Vocals

Trevor Bachman

Trevor Bachman is a composer, vocalist, and writer of socially-focused musicals. Creator of Shapeshifters: A Queer Comic Book Musical (MTF, Joe’s Pub, The Delacorte Theater, Afterglow) and FARMED: A Live Podcast Album (Joe’s Pub, The Greene Space/WNYC, Kickstarter HQ). Off-Broadway: Black Light (Public Theater, Greenwich House Theater). They are part of the 2019 Joe’s Pub Working Group and New Dramatists 2019 Composer-Librettist Studio. #shapeshiftersmusical #farmedpodcast

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Drums

Sean Dixon

Sean Dixon

Drums

Sean Dixon

Sean Dixon is a composer, producer, drummer, bassist, and educator based in New York City. He has performed, touredm and/or recorded with Gotye’s Ondioline Orchestra, Maxwell, Aloe Blaac, Doyle Bramhall II, Amy Helm, Miyamoto Is Black Enough, Andy Akiho, Helga Davis, and many others. Venues include National Sawdust, The Park Avenue Armory, The Kennedy Center (DC), The Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), MASS MoCA (MA), festivals such as The Sydney Festival (Australia), MONA FOMA (Tasmania), River To River (NYC), and Trans-Musicales (France). 2018 also brought on his first Off-Broadway experience as a collaborator and performer in Jomama Jones’ Black Light presented at The Public Theater and The Greenwich House Theater.

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Michelle Marie Osbourne

Bass

Michelle Marie Osbourne

British-born bassist Michelle Marie Osbourne has worked with various recording artists and producers alike. Her resume includes artists Gloria Gaynor, Jessie J, Jocelyn Brown, and Emeli Sandé, to name a few. Michelle studied at the BRIT Performing Arts & Technology School and The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in the UK where she underwent formal training. Michelle, now based in New York, continues to work within NYC’s thriving music scene.

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Keyboard, Vocals

Sterling Overshown

Sterling Overshown

Keyboard, Vocals

Sterling Overshown

Sterling Weldon Paul Overshown, a native of Houston, Texas, has called New York City home since 2012. The son of professional guitarist Lawrence Overshown, Sterling’s gifts are in the areas of jazz and classical piano. He has had the pleasure of performing and working with Frank Foster, Dr. Billy Taylor, Erykah Badu, Ellis Marsalis, and the Count Basie Orchestra on various projects. Since moving to New York, Sterling has served as organist and choirmaster at various churches throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan, and has also been in charge of directing music for several Off-Broadway musicals. He has served as Artistic Director of Lavender Light since 2016 and is also a student at the New School University, pursuing dual majors in Economics and Jazz Piano Performance. Sterling holds any opportunity to perform as a sacred occasion because he believes that artists have deep power to impact audiences and transform society.

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Guitar, Vocals

Josh Quat

Josh Quat

Guitar, Vocals

Josh Quat

Josh Quat is a musician, actor and writer based out of Brooklyn. He’s thrilled to be back with the talented, inspiring cast of Black Light and the amazing Jomama Jones! In addition to his work as a performer and songwriter, Josh fronts the rock trio The Kristys and frequently collaborates with other theatrical and musical artists. Graduate of the Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts and The New School University.

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Clarissa Marie Ligon

Vocals

Clarissa Marie Ligon

Clarissa Marie Ligon is a self-proclaimed ‘Renaissance Woman’ who makes art because she believes it can change the world. When she’s not singing her heart out, you can find Clarissa behind the scenes stage managing around NYC. Recent production work includes: Before The Meeting at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Jack & at BAM Fisher, Cruel Intentions: The Musical at Le Poisson Rouge, 3/Fifths at 3LD, and Penny Arcade’s Longing Lasts Longer at St. Ann’s Warehouse.

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Production Staff

Stage Audio Engineer/​Deck Manager

Kat Sistare

Lighting Programmer

Sean Pieroth

Sound Engineer

Michael Policare

Wardrobe

Emily Damron

Spotlight Operators

Kay Coughlin

Kaley Bachelder

New York premiere produced by Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater on February 12, 2018.
Originally produced Off-Broadway by Diana DiMenna at the Greenwich House Theater, September 30 – November 11, 2018.
Developed in association with the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Theater Residency program.

 

Special Thanks

Hibernian Hall
Abe Rybeck