Spelman-Affiliated Directors put on ‘Hands Up’ at Alliance Theatre

“Hands Up” is simply a play featuring 7 monologues written by 7 antithetic Black playwrights. The play was performed astatine the Alliance Theatre from October 8-31. 

The taxable for the play was the assortment of the Black acquisition successful America. “Hands Up” was directed by Alexis Woodard and Arthur Bolden. 

Woodard is full-time Spelman Leadership Fellow astatine Alliance Theatre. Her co-director, Bolden, is 1 of her erstwhile professors astatine Spelman College. The Spelman Fellows programme allows for Spelman students to use for 1 of 3 twelvemonth agelong paid internships with Alliance Theatre.

At the extremity of the internship, 1 of the interns becomes a chap and is contracted for 2 years of full-time enactment connected the creator staff. 

In her internship, Woodard assisted with the improvement and accumulation of the archetypal assemblage nighttime astatine the Alliance Theatre. In her archetypal twelvemonth arsenic a fellow, she was the Co-Artistic Director and Co-Producer of the theater’s archetypal integer season, owed to the pandemic.

Woodard has had a passionateness for theatrics since childhood, and has directed different productions earlier moving with Alliance Theatre.

“During my clip successful undergrad astatine Spelman I directed a hip-hop, non-chronological mentation of Romeo and Juliet, and the twelvemonth pursuing I directed Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice,” Woodard said.

Even with her experience, putting connected a play successful the midst of a pandemic came with respective challenges.

“The pandemic changed the look of the theatre manufacture successful truthful galore ways,” Woodard said. “The archetypal daze of the planetary wellness crises was that successful bid to support each different harmless and steadfast we could nary longer stitchery together. Bringing radical unneurotic successful a carnal abstraction is the 1 request for what we do.”

“Hands Up” was primitively programmed successful May 2020 to debut the pursuing fall. The squad considered producing a virtual mentation of the play, but alternatively waited to execute connected the Hertz Stage astatine Alliance successful October 2021.

Woodard was drawn to co-directing “Hands Up” due to the fact that it was the archetypal play she saw successful the Atlanta University Center. 

“Coming from a municipality wherever I graduated [as] 1 of 3 achromatic radical successful my precocious schoolhouse class, I was ne'er exposed to Black theatre,” Woodard said. “Hands Up was the archetypal clip I saw myself and my narratives connected stage.”

One of her favourite aspects of the play is however the monologues are fast-paced and captivating. She besides thinks that the messages proceed to beryllium applicable successful America, adjacent arsenic clip passes.

“I’ve been progressive with immoderate mentation of this amusement successful immoderate mode since 2016, and unfortunately, each twelvemonth it seems similar the themes and stories of radical unit against Black bodies exhibited successful Hands Up go much and much prevalent,” Woodard said.

Despite “Hands Up” tackling immoderate of the acheronian sides of being Black successful America, Woodard inactive had amusive directing the play. She credits her affirmative acquisition to the cast, unit and plan team.

She hopes that those who watched “Hands Up” volition instrumentality distant “empathy for their neighbors and the work to bash better.” 

In January, Woodward volition beryllium directing “Do You Love the Dark?” and volition beryllium the subordinate manager connected “DREAM HOU$E”.

Her fellowship with Alliance Theatre ends May 2022. After that, she plans to freelance and nonstop crossed the country.

“The lone happening I cognize for definite is that astatine immoderate constituent successful my life, I privation to beryllium an creator director,” Woodard said. “I privation to beryllium an creator leader.”