“The Wiz”

Directed by Cheyenne Barboza
Music Directed by Elle.Morris
Assistant Director/ASL Coach: Gilberto Vega

Theatre in the X, August 2018

This is The Wiz like you've never seen it before! An homage to Hip Hop and Black cinema of the late 80s/early 90s, our iconic characters will journey through an Oz remixed with all the nuance and cultural swag of the Black experience in America.

To further Director Cheyenne Barboza’s vision for her reimagination of this musical, Gilberto’s scope of work included teaching the cast—comprising youth and adults—to perform more than 70 signs in American Sign Language (ASL) that were included in the movement vocabulary for the sequences in Oz. He also created the following “A Note from The Wiz”:

Friends,

Welcome to Oz, a never-ending party where we live our true lives to the fullest. You are enough as you.

In this Oz, we celebrate the power and beauty of inclusion. You are in a space that is as safe as the balls of yesteryears. Through vogue gestures and movements, our hands tell the story. We Ozians sign using American Sign Language (ASL) in solidarity with those that use their bodies to express themselves to their world.

I hope you leave Oz knowing more about yourself (and your hands) than when you entered.

XOXO,

The Wiz