Mission
MPAACT exists to develop, nurture, and sustain Afrikan Centered Theatre (ACT), an artistic expression grounded in the many cultures and traditions of the Afrikan continent and its Diaspora. With a vision focused on creating new work and collaborative art, MPAACT produces and educates with the goal of increasing understanding and appreciation of (ACT) and its interrelated disciplines.
Afrikan Centered Theatre
Afrikan Centered Theatre (ACT) is an artistic expression which is grounded in the many cultures and traditions of the Afrikan continent and its Diaspora. It fuses music, movement and drama into a theatre that celebrates the heritage of Afrikan people. The ritual of theatre is the focus of ACT. At its root, theatre is grounded in each of us entering a space, investing our energy, perceptions, and desires, and collectively submitting to the experience. It is a ritual of sharing time, ideas, and realities. "Word" may be defined in a variety of ways: Webster is insistent that a ” is spoken sound, or group of sounds that communicates a meaning and can be represented graphically”. In Afrikan Centered Theatre, a "Word is an utterance of (subjective) truth. The spoken word becomes more than an artifice to convey plot. It rhythms provide the heart beat of the performance. With movement and music adding to the life force, the audience is propelled into the drama not as mere observers but participants who play an integral part in shaping each moment of each performance.
- Shepsu Aakhu
Afrikan Centered Theatre is concerned with reaching beyond objective reality, to touch the spirit and awaken the soul--a necessary conditions for the affirmation of existence.
-Paul Carter Harrision, Totem Voices
When you go into any culture, I don’t care what the culture is, you have to go with some humility. You have to understand the language, and by that I do not mean what we speak, you've got to understand the language, the interior language of the people. You've got to enter their philosophy, their world view. You've got to speak both the spoken language and the meta-language of the people.
-Wole Soyinka
History
MPAACT was formed in 1990 when a group of students at the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign banded together with the idea of sharing their knowledge of Afrikan and Afrikan-American culture with others. Not content with creating reading circles and forming study groups, these students decided they could spread this knowledge to far more people through the performing arts. With perhaps more determination than skill, they produced, A HOUSE DIVIDED, a collection of short pieces created by the members of the collective. Encouraged by this enriching experience and inspired by responsive audiences, these artists decided to forge ahead and formally organize as the Ma'at Production Association of Afrikan Centered Theatre.
In 1992 the company, a collection of actors, writers, directors, dancers, musicians and visual artists set up shop in Chicago. Anchored in the Chatham community on the city's Southside, MPAACT started performing what would become its first major production. CONTINUUM: VISIONS FROM YENTUNDE, premiered at the Body Politic Theatre in 1993 and received positive critical recognition. This production set the tone for MPAACT performances to come. It utilized drama, music and dance to explore aspects of life from within the Afrikan Diaspora.
MPAACT has grown from a collective of like-minded individuals who shared an artistic vision, to an organization that has produced a formidable body of work. This work includes: mainstage productions, a playwright's laboratory, standing productions, original music, a publishing company (Sakhu Publications), an arts education program, and many workshops and master classes.
It is important to us as a company that we, in everything we do pull from the disparate cultural elements which unite artists in the Afrikan Diaspora. Drawing from the well that nourished artists such as Wole Soyinka, Charles Mingus, Adrienne Kennedy, Amiri Baraka and Bob Marley among others, we create and perform work, which examines and celebrates the many facets of Afrikan theatre.