Polylogues
Full-Length Play
Cast: 1
Polylogues is an interview-based solo show that investigates real people’s experiences with nonmonogamy—and love in all its forms. Writer/performer Xandra Nur Clark is more like a medium than an actor, listening on headphones to interviews while performing them. By providing anonymity to each interviewee, Xandra channels voices and stories that could never be heard if the storytellers’ identities were known. The result is a vibrant, intimate community forged on and off the stage through a wide range of perspectives—from a polyamorous senior to a child worried about her open parents, from a resident of a commune to an evangelical swinger, and from the fully committed to the cautiously curious. Polylogues examines what 21st century humans want in relationships, what we’re afraid of, and the many ways we are capable of loving beyond what any single one of us can imagine.
UPCOMING:
Colt Coeur produces Polylogues at HERE Arts Center:
September 17 - October 9, 2021
(rescheduled from 2020!)
Created, Written, & Performed by Xandra Clark
Directed by Molly Clifford
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WINNER - Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant, 2020
HONOREE - Kilroys List 2020
WORKSHOP PRODUCTION - Dixon Place, 2019 (sold-out)
WORKSHOP PRODUCTION - The Tank, 2018 (sold-out)
Also developed through a Queer|Art Fellowship and at The Flea, Judson Church, Queer Abstract, Caveat, Theaterlab, Undiscovered Countries, The Green Room, numerous house shows, and even an engagement party.
Press:
Columbia Journalism Review.
Culturebot.
The Austin Meyer Podcast.
Everything You’re Told (the fiction)
Full-Length Play
Cast: 4 (2F, 2M)
It is autumn 2014, and two college students want to make a difference: Alex, a member of the Gay-Straight Alliance, works on the peer support line; Kevin, a member of the University Fellowship of Jesus, studies philosophy. They meet when Kevin calls the line, and their frank conversation about religion and homosexuality thrusts them into an unexpected romance. As the end of college looms and the complexities of the larger world seep into their lives, Alex and Kevin must figure out how much of themselves to reveal to each other, and if it’s truly possible both to love someone and to resist their ideas.
WINNER - Chesley/Bumbalo Playwriting Award 2021
UPCOMING RESIDENCY - Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, 2022
READING - La MaMa, 2019: http://lamama.org/xandra-clark/
Everything You’re Told (the documentary)
Full-Length Play
Cast: 6
Before becoming a fictional play, Everything You’re Told started as a live anthology of true stories told through audio interviews, live storytelling, music/soundscape, reimagined memories, and movement/dance. The play centered on the stories of three real people and their radical transformations—Sean, an evangelical Christian with a lesbian mother; Faye, a formerly Orthodox Hasidic Jew; and Pankaj (the playwright’s father), an ashram-goer-turned-atheist.
One story thread from this documentary project led to the fictional version of Everything You're Told.
WORKSHOP PERFORMANCE - The Tank, 2016
WORKSHOP PRODUCTION - Brooklyn College, 2015 (streamed live through the TV center)
WORKSHOP PERFORMANCE - Bowery Electric, 2015
Anthology: Crown Heights
Full-Length Devised Play
Cast: 5
Oral history, music, dance, poetry, and film intertwine in a live theatrical narrative to investigate a changing Brooklyn neighborhood. Anthology: Crown Heights is a collection of true stories assembled and performed by an ensemble of Crown Heights-based artists, featuring the diverse voices of Crown Heights residents old and new and critically investigating what it means to be making art together. Twenty-five years since the 1991 racial violence in Crown Heights, 2016 also marks a time of rapidly shifting local demographics. Anthology remembers the neighborhood's past, examines its contentious present, and navigates what is to come.
An accompanying audio installation features a telephone on the sidewalk containing stories of the neighborhood.
PRODUCTION - Weeksville Heritage Center, 2016
AUDIO INSTALLATION - FiveMyles Gallery, 2016
Created by Xandra Clark, in collaboration with Taja Cheek, Josh Marcus, Molly Mingey, and DK Wright
Directed by Xandra Clark & Maridee Slater
Funders/Partners:
Brooklyn Arts Council
Brooklyn Community Foundation
New York State Council on the Arts
Stanford Young Alumni Arts Grant
Weeksville Heritage Center
DIVAS for Social Justice
Brooklyn Children's Museum
Press:
Urban Omnibus - "In Anthology: Crown Heights, Staging the Weight of History".
DNAInfo article and interview with Xandra Clark.
Brokelyn Top 20 Things to do in Brooklyn.
Separated
Full-Length Play
Cast: 7 (with 18 roles)
It is sometime around 2100, and a woman begins telling a story while celebrating her 90th birthday alone at the edge of the world. But it is also 2032, and 18-year-old Gladys learns she is from Guatemala and was separated from her guardian at the U.S.-Mexico border when she was five. Gladys embarks on a years-long journey to find her guardian, soliciting the help of her Spanish-speaking classmate Ruby. As she tackles government bureaucracy, chooses a family of her own, and eventually sets out on foot, the world shows itself in all of its absurd and mysterious colors, until she finally is forced to look for the knowledge within herself. Inspired by a true story and journalistic research.
SEMIFINALIST - O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, 2021
RESIDENCY - MASS MoCA, 2021-22
RESIDENCY - Blue Mountain Center, 2022
Urinoir
One-Act Play
Cast: 4 (2F, 2M)
When History tries to tell us about the world’s most influential Modern Art piece, we shuttle back in time to discover a story of scandal, male power, and urine—and one young immigrant baroness hoping to make her big break. Thoroughly researched and imagined from a controversial contemporary debate about the potential misattribution of a key Modern Art piece, Urinoir turns art history on its head and asks: does rewriting history matter?
Returning Home: Voices from the Front
Documentary project co-created by Xandra Clark and Natacha Ruck
Featuring a live performance and radio documentary
What is it like to be a student who has fought in a war? Six Stanford University students and recent alumni, all veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, tell their stories. With thoughtfulness, humor, and stone cold honesty, they share with us their decision to join, their experiences in boot camp, their life fighting overseas, and their eventual return home to civilian and student life. Featuring original music inspired by songs the veterans listened to overseas. This is your chance to listen.
PRODUCTION - Stanford University, 2012
RADIO AIRINGS - KZSU, KALW, and International Media Project's Making Contact; 2012, 2013, and 2015
WINNER - General Oliver P. Smith Award for Local Reporting from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation