imagin/ing

April 4th, 5th, 6th, 2024 at 7PM in Samuel Wadsworth Russell House (350 High Street, Middletown, CT)

imagin/ing is an immersive exploration into how experimental performance art can serve as a transformative tool on the journey towards QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color) liberation.

Inspired by scholar Marquis Bey, the use of a slash in imagin/ing showcases the radical potential of imagination, a potential that can be unlocked through an ongoing, present process of performance. 

This performance travels throughout different rooms and encourages audience participation.

This performance contains partial nudity.

Full performance (including pre-show and post-show talkback), April 6th, 2024. Filmed and edited by Loren Wang. 

(For full immersion watch from the beginning...or skip to 3:45)

Ensemble

Alisha Simmons ‘24

Alisha is a Caribbean-American theatermaker, experimenter, and freedom-dreamer. Their work prioritizes Black queer imagination as praxis and the power of community-based devised performance. imagin/ing is their second senior capstone of the year, acting as a pseudo-thesis/conversation with their senior essay in FGSS, titled, “Imagin/ing Freedoms: Queer Performance Art as Liberatory Strategy.”

Xiran Tan ‘24

Xiran is a senior in the liminal state of feeling like “I’ve been here for too long” and “I’d just gotten to know this place.” They are also in the midst of exploring their entangled relationship with imperial and colonial history, language, body and place. They are drawn by the audacity to imagine and play.

Xingyan Guo ‘25

Xingyan rolls over many ways of getting closer during her three years at Wes–from performance to documentary to poetry to who knows what. To find new ways of listening, she yearns to traverse the borders of geography, languages, gender, and species–in and out of her flesh. She is here today because she wants to breathe with us and get closer to you. 

Bre Jordan ‘27

Bre Jordan is a first-year who loves male roles and exploring the tensions of identity. For her, performance is a medium for growth, a way to experiment with everything she is and everything she is not. She is drawn to this piece by the lure of play and a desire to resist mundane conformity. 

Nina Kibria ‘27

Nina is a freshman at Wesleyan and the project coordinator for this piece. Having done traditional stage management in high school, she was drawn to this devised performance to experience being on a creative team and to better understand performance as an art form. 

Student Team

Director: Alisha Simmons '24

Project Coordinator: Nina Kibria ‘27

Run Crew: Elizabeth Laurence ‘25

Photographers: Jasmin Wong ‘25, Anika Kewalramani ‘24

Videographer: Erick Buendia ‘26

Sound Design: Negar Soleymanifa MA ‘25, Alisha Simmons ‘24

Production Assistant: Senica Slaton ‘26

Faculty Team

Project Advisor: Katie Brewer Ball

Interim Production Manager/Costume Shop Manager: Robin Mazzola 

CFA Technical Director/Master Electrician: Suzanne Sadler 

CFA Assistant Technical Director: Tony Hernandez 

Technical Associate: Joseph Fonesca 

Theater Dept. Administrative Assistant: Dawn Alger 

Our Collective Poem

Having the power to dream 

I feel free 

In a way that’s less violent 

To dance on the catastrophe 

Being like a little kid again 

Waited for school to start 

I play with my imagination 

We play because we imagine, 

We play to imagine 

Continuing anyways & otherwise & beyond

Consuming 

Wistful intention to attack 

Imagine radical ways of knowing 

I keep going, pushing back 

Where it used to dominate me 

When it’s hard for me 

Gradually looking into the nuanced oppression in my life

Understanding 

Someone is grounding 

To live my life together with many 

Taking care of each other 

In this big, big, world 

Those little moments of beauty 

I know exactly what I have to get done 

In a way that’s slightly shifted 

Sometimes I forget it 

Something settles

Special Thanks

Ethan Philbrick

KBB

Katie Pearl

Marcela Oteíza

Marcella Trowbridge

Loren Wang

Adia, my very cool sister who did performance art before I even knew what it was 

The many artists who’ve inspired me in Middletown, London, Atlanta, and New York

and all of my loved ones