Sheila's day

'Sheila's Day,' written by Duma Ndlovu, and directed by Roberta Uno, explores the troubled race relations between white employers and black domestic employees, and the many layers within structures of power - 'Sheila' is the name that the rich ladies use to call their household employees, because they claim that they cannot remember the women's names. Every Thursday is 'Sheila's Day,' when the domestic workers have a day off, and the women come to meet with each other. During these meetings, it is possible to learn these women's desires and hopes, and their belief that 'women have the power to change the world.' They empower themselves through music and songs that function as oral history and political language, and their dance as a means of communication and political resistance, conveying a strong affirmation of being a 'woman' and 'black,' thus a 'black woman.' They find strength through each other in their collective struggle for freedom - song, dance, and prayer play an important part in their bonding with one another, and this closeness is performed through voices and bodies. This video documentation also features pre-performance exercises.

From 1979-2009, the New WORLD Theater worked at the intersection of artistic practice, community engagement, scholarship, and activism toward a vision of a 'new world' - one that broke the confines of multiculturalism and was an artistic harbinger of America's shifting demographics. From a geographic 'outpost' in New England, New WORLD Theater evolved from a community organizing project and the Northeast point on a theater touring compass, to a protective studio to hone new work, a site of international intersections from South Africa to the South Bronx, and the home of inspired and rigorous collaborations with Western Massachusetts youth. New performance work development at New WORLD defied the conventional theater play lab as ghetto for artists of color; artists were met where they wanted to be in the imagining of new approaches, methods, and production. One of New WORLD Theater's artistic legacies is Project 2050, an early call to imagine the U.S. demographic shift, with people of the future - youth, in equal collaboration with artists and scholars.