How ‘What to Send Up When It Goes Down’ Blurs the Line Between Ritual and Theater

variety.com:

Gordon Cox Theater EditorAleshea Harris’ “What to Send Up When It Goes Down” isn’t a traditional play, but audiences shouldn’t come away with the mistaken impression that the show — a play, a ritual, a pageant and a celebration all in one — isn’t carefully constructed and structured.Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below:“It’s something that happens a lot with Black theater and with Black art, especially with this kind of art which blurs a line between ritual and theater,” said Harris (pictured, above right), appearing on the new episode of Variety‘s “Stagecraft” with the production’s director, Whitney White (pictured, above left). “There’s a way that it feels like it was written for the people that did it, or maybe I listened to.