Pop

Skeletons In A Cave With Stalactites by Caspar David Friedrich

Inspired by seven of Caspar David Friedrich’s paintings usually given the collective title Ages of Man; Pop follows the relationship between Sedna and Lani as the world is formed and falls apart around them. We are captivated by their relationship as they realize the love and connection they have found in life allows them to move on together eternally in death.

See it Live! (Ticket Link)

Workshop at Under St. Marks Theater

Staring Mariana Miranda as Sedna and Yvanna Tassy as Lani

Directed by Lisa Virginia

Come See Pop at the Tank!

Pop will be having a 2 day run at the Tank on June 12th and 17th!

Continue to read below to meet the team and hear more about the show!

Trailer!

Double tap for full screen

McKenna Dixon (Sedna)

A bird in a nest in a tree
on a mountain in the sea

Yvanna Tassy (Lani)

A fish swimming free in the sky

Lisa Virginia
(Director)

Pop is a heartfelt exploration of love and how fearful we are to lose it. By calling upon magical possibilities and utilizing poetic language, Kamau cuts deep into the insecurities we feel when faced with the unknown. Lani and Sedna, our lovers, are soulmates. They are made for each other. And yet, still, there is a deep uncertainty that permeates their love. I think the beauty of this play lies within its declaration that love is effortful, that one must do the scary, terrifying thing in order to hold strongly to their person and refuse to let go. So, with my direction of this piece I have done my best to find those small hurts and exacerbate them, so that we might understand just how much work must be done to bridge a divide.

Kamau Nosakhere (Playwright)

Pop was born because of an assignment to write a love play, but she was conceived in a museum on a quest for love. Though I have never been the biggest fan of visual art, I found myself walking around the wing of a museum dedicated to an exhibit for William Blake taking photos of literally every piece that hung from a wall or stood on a podium. In a corner among the contemporaries, inspirations, and artistic children of Blake, I found these seven paintings by Caspar David Freidrich. You may recognize his name from his work, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (I don’t care all that much for this painting), but his collection of seven paintings titled, Ages of Man really grabbed hold of something within me. I left the museum, but I stayed in painting number six—in a cave with the skeletons staring at stalactites. These seven paintings would dance around in my head until I wrote poetry about them, connected them all with dialogue, and then in my twin XL in my college dorm through teary eyes wrote Pop.

Pop is many things to me. It is a love letter to all of those who surround me, it is a lullaby and reminder to hold love for myself, and it is an ode to those whose artistic practices I channel in my creative process. Most of all, it is an envisioning of the love I aspire to. I long to love everyone so deeply that the world goes silent when they are nearby, that their absence cuts and is felt deep within my very being, and that in death I feel complete knowing that I loved them as wholly as I could in life. Sedna and Lani love each other in a way I can only dream of, with an ease that feels impossible—yet they do it anyway. They do it on stage, right in front of us. They do it so easily. And maybe if they can, we can too.

This piece truly is my baby, and I hope to share in its creation with you.

P.S. This wasn't written with AI, I just love an em dash