Presented by Company One Theatre in partnership with Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and the City of Boston’s Office of Arts and Culture
By Eliana Pipes
Adapted from The HOOPS Project by Nicole Acosta
Directed by Tonasia Jones
Dramaturgy by afrikah selah
Compositions by Brandie Blaze
Choreography by Jenny Oliver
Featuring: Brandie Blaze, Elijah Brown, Albamarina Nahar, Tiffany Santiago, Kaili Y Turner, Karimah Williams, Beyonce Martinez (swing)
July 12 – August 10, 2024
The Strand Theatre
543 Columbia Road
Dorchester, MA
Approximate run time: 1 hour 30 minutes.
This production includes explicit language.
Critique by Kitty Drexel
DORCHESTER, Mass. — Hoops is adapted from The HOOPS Project by Nicole Acosta in 2019. It was created when Acosta asked fellow members of the art collective LUNA, “What do hoop earrings mean to you?” Their answers were accompanied by photos of the members wearing their own hoop earrings.
Playwright Eliana Pipes adapted stories from The HOOPS Project for the stage. Company One presents HOOPS at the Strand Theatre in Dorchester through August 10. It has also played in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.
From The HOOPS Project website: “The HOOPS Project features portraits and personal stories of over 100 individuals from Milwaukee, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles who have deep connections to hoop earrings. This project documents and archives the voices of Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, and other individuals of the global majority. They are teachers, artists, doulas, creators, healers, healthcare workers, musicians, poets, advocates, mothers, DJs, hair stylists, dancers, service industry people, top executives, and much more. This project holds space, it’s an offering, and the stories shared are medicine to anyone who can relate.”
Company One’s HOOPS is a community devised and led production from folk traditions a la for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange, V’s The Vagina Monologues, or even Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith. Pipes took the collected memories, stories, and impressions from The HOOPS Project and wove them into vignettes, scenes, and dialogues between six actors. The audience hears from young and mature women. Cis, trans, and nonbinary folk are given a voice. Black, brown, and indigenous persons teach us about the culture of hoop earrings from their origins in 2500 BCE Sumeria to the armor modern women wear receiving chemo treatments.
The cast looked like it was trying to have a good time. They were trying too hard. The best moments from Saturday evening’s performance happened when the cast relaxed into telling HOOPS’ stories: they danced to Brandie Blaze’s beats, and we danced in our seats. The actors committed to their characters and showed us their joy. We clapped and hollered when a character got into grad school. We laughed when a baby in the audience yelled to the stage. Then the actor made the baby a part of the show by yelling back.
Actors, you have done the hard work of memorizing lines and staging. You’ve rehearsed the show up and down, back and forth with director Tonasia Jones and choreographer Jenny Oliver. Now you get to show us the fruits of your labor by telling HOOPS’ stories. Let us handle our good time. If you are energized and connected to your performance, we will be too.
Brandie Blaze in the DJ book. Photo by Ken Yotsukura.
It seems like there’s always something going wrong with the Strand Theatre. The last time we were there, the AC crashed; the cast had to perform in sweltering temperatures. This time, it was a tinny sound system. Mics cut in and out during actors’ lines. One mic sounded faulty. The hand mic at the DJ booth couldn’t be heard over Brandie Blaze’s killer opening set.
I don’t blame the Company One sound team. Historically, the Strand Theatre’s sound system has never been reliable. I attended a 2012 production of Ragtime at the Strand (RIP Fiddlehead Theatre Co.) and chided the theatre administration for its bungled sound system in that critique too.
The designers, cast, crew, and patrons of the Strand Theatre deserve a fully functional theatre. Money needs to go towards a sound system from this decade. At this rate, the Strand will never reach its final form.
Company One is using its platform to promote HOOPS and, through HOOPS, its Boston community initiatives. Please check out the great dramaturgy work by afrikah selah and Raqael Duarte Hunt furthering this end in the playbill. There aren’t many shows that feature revolutionary freedom fighter Angela Davis and modern dance choreography. It is telling intergenerational stories and promoting healing through laughter and tears. HOOPS is a community good.
