Astro-Afro-Solo; An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Afrofuturism on Stage in Monodrama form.

As a Black body navigating performing art spaces for over 25 years, I have never articulated my personal rubric that determines my idea of excellent artistry. Critics, audiences, and academicians have found my work imaginative, fantastic, creative, and pro Black. Whether performing my original works on HBO or winning the Brave New Voices Youth poetry slam and 21 national championships in collegiate speech and debate for an Historical Black College University, my work has always been about humanizing Black bodies like mine. But not until my doctoral studies was I able to understand that my personal goals as an artist fit within a framework defined as Black futurity. My dissertation, Astro-Afro-Solo, aims to use the framework of Afrofuturism to examine how the monodramatic form is best approached as an interdisciplinary examination of Black bodies and cultural experiences. I have always enjoyed interdisciplinary works, but was unaware of how they drove frameworks, forms, or definitions like Black theatre, Afrofuturism, and even monodrama. In other words, I wrote and performed based on instinct, and after my years of study at Texas Tech, I realized that I was using practice-based research, an interdisciplinary arts approach, to unveil the multifaceted dimensions of Black studies. The rise of Afrofuturism has elevated Black artists in visual arts, film, and music, but what about the stage? Where are the current Afrofuturism stage plays that speculate on the future of Black bodies in live dramatic performances? In this study, I examine two of my monodramas using an Afrofuturistic framework to illustrate one important means to best elevate the Black theatre canon, and to further understand and advance the relationship between Black playwrights and their audiences. My study uses two of my original scripts, Pinocchiandre and Rap Monologues, to interrogate several critical areas: the historical significance and contemporary relevance of monodrama in Black artistic expression: the creative processes behind writing and performing one-person plays, emphasizing the intertwined roles of the writer and actor; and the logistical and artistic challenges faced by mono-dramatists operating without conventional support structures. My dissertation adopts a practice-based research methodology, autoethnography, to explore and articulate the intersections of Afrofuturism and Black Theatre through monodrama. Astro-Afro- Solo aims to contribute significantly to the fields of Black studies, theatre studies, and Afrofuturism by offering fresh insights into the power of interdisciplinary arts to challenge, redefine, and enrich our understanding of Black identity and narrative expression. By dissecting the monodrama aesthetic within this context, my research underscores the potential for solo performance to serve as a potent medium for exploring the complexities of race, identity, and futurity in the arts.