OutlawPlay

OutlawPlay has been making original work for the theatre since 1995. Through an ongoing collaboration between visual artists, musicians, choreographers and other theatre artists, OutlawPlay attempts to expand the definition of solo performance, not only in the creation process, but in the audience’s experience as well. OutlawPlay’s ongoing themes are race, sexual identity and violence, and their intertwining roles in American history and contemporary society.
 
Upcoming project—BBC

Writer-performer Paul Outlaw explores themes of American bigotry, white fragility, black virility and gender confusion in this one-person performance inspired by current events and the classic tales of transformation (metamorphosis) by Kafka and Ovid: Greta, a white, conservative American woman awakens to find she has been transformed into what she considers “a monstrous vermin” (Kafka)— an African-American man. BBC (Big Black Cockroach) invokes the language of xenophobia, racism, misogyny and sexual violence, veering between an almost slapstick comedy and nightmarish horror.

Outlaw’s identity-warping performance exposes a disorienting cocktail of American historical violence and dystopian near-future visions in a single human vessel. The bare image of a black body is centered in a stark, cavernous environment by Sara Lyons’ cogent, elegant direction, Chu-hsuan Chang’s angular lighting design and Jonathan Snipes’ multi-layered, haunting sound design.

This monodrama was invited to the NOW (New Original Works) Festival at REDCAT (Roy and Disney CalArts Theater) in Los Angeles, where a workshop production was presented in August 2019.