PURPLE: A Ritual In Nine Spells
February 4-6, 2025 | Eisenhower Auditorium
Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
Inhale. Exhale.
The PURPLE performance experience occurs in two essential parts:
a lobby pre-show multi media art installation
an evening length choreopoem for the stage
Each section of the production builds upon the next to illuminate the power of
deep sisterhood for social change.
What does PURPLE sound like?
What does PURPLE sound like? is our lobby pre-show art installation that activates the oral histories of older adults that we engage in the local communities where we share performances.
PURPLE’s community engagements facilitate the collection of oral histories and making those stories visible through Ebonie Smith's musical production, with the visual elements of Shani Peters' visual installation and Dr. Kim F. Hall's quilts.
The pre-show installation is free and accessible to the public and reflects the community in each touring location, while the staged performance remains consistent from venue to venue.
Learn more about PURPLE Community Engagement.
See the program from the first What does PURPLE sound like? installation
at Hi-ARTS El Barrio Artspace, 2021.
PURPLE: A Ritual In Nine Spells
PURPLE dances sisterhood; it amplifies the ways we invest in one another, we honor and celebrate each other's brilliance, and how we capture our radical joy. Each of these interactions is a small miracle. That space between women is magic. It's PURPLE, just like Auntie Alice wrote to us so many years ago. That's where there is God. Spirit. True Love.
A Ritual In Nine Spells is an evening length choreopoem devised and performed by the SLMDances collective and guest artists. This is an evening length performance work for a multi-generational, femme ensemble of 12.
PURPLE: A Ritual In Nine Spells
(World Premiere 2023)
Devised + Directed by
Sydnie L. Mosley
Associate Direction by
Amy Shoshana Blumberg
Dramaturgy by
Connie Winston
Performance Cast
Dyane Harvey, Veleda Roehl, Lorena Jaramillo, Brittany Grier, Joan Bradford, Jessica Lee, Rebecca Gual, Candance Sumpter, Jazelynn Goudy, Ianne Fields Stewart, Brianne Ford, Rosamond S. King
Text by
Ntozake Shange
With additional text by Justina Grayman, Rebecca Gual, Sydnie L. Mosley, Rosamond S. King, Lorena Jaramillo, Dyane Harvey, Veleda Roehl, Amy Blumberg
Spanish Translations by Lorena Jaramillo
Music composed by
Counterfeit Madison
With additional music by Koko Taylor, Christian Scott
Audio Description by Kayla Hamilton and Joselia Rebekah Hughes
American Sign Language Interpretation provided by SignNexus
Set and Installation Design by Shani Peters
Quilts on loan by Dr. Kim F. Hall
Floral Arrangements by Handel Leon, Baezas Flowers And Decorations
Lighting Design by Alexandra Vasquez Dheming
Costume Design by Hopi Lynn Burrows and Annie J. Le
Stage Management by Sarah Herdrich and Becca Pickett
Technical Direction by Carl Whipple and Tony Crawford
With inspiration from
Alice Walker and Ntozake Shange
photo credit: Scott Shaw
Photo Credit: Jules Slutsky
photo credit: Tara Daniels
photo credit: Scott Shaw
PURPLE Collaborators
What does PURPLE sound like? and A Ritual in Nine Spells were created with a robust cohort of collaborators. Meet our World Premiere cast and design team who brought the PURPLE Universe to life in 2023.
World Premiere Cast
Performing members of the ensemble for A Ritual In Nine Spells.
Collaborating Artists
PURPLE designers and world builders.
