Additional performance
In 1692, Salem was the site of probably the most infamous ‘witch trials’ in North America. The playwright and screenwriter Zora Howard is giving a stage to one of the first accused in a rousing monologue: Tituba, a slave. Tituba had largely been forgotten by history before she became sadly renowned thanks to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. In The Master’s Tools, she resists the many masters who have claimed her story for themselves – Tituba becomes the mistress of her own legend. There emerges a figure between horror and humour, between good and evil, with new words and new tools. For, as writer and activist Audre Lorde put it, ‘the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house‘.
Text, Direction Zora Howard With Portia, Julian Rozzell Jr. (Sound performer) Scenography, Light design Reza Behjat Sound design Steven Leffue Creative producer Martin Meccouri Costumes Raphael Regan Stage Management Maimouna Camara Action choreography Sordelet Inc. Dialect coach Bibi Mama
Production Butler Electronics Supported by Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), Brown Arts Institute (Providence), The Perelman Arts Center (New York City), The New York State Council on the Arts, Chelsea Factory, Mercury Store (New York City), The Flea (New York City), Wiener Festwochen | Free Republic of Vienna
Premiere May 2024, Wiener Festwochen | Free Republic of Vienna