Reconstructing
(Still Working but the Devil
Might be Inside)
About Reconstructing (Still Working but the Devil Might be Inside)
Onstage is a two-story house. From one angle, it’s mucked out after a flood. From another, it’s a new development wrapped in Tyvek. And from another, it’s “Tara” from Gone with the Wind being transformed into an Airbnb. The piano can’t be tuned. Someone is quilting in the corner. Come in.
Co-written by 21 Black-, POC-, and white-identifying artists ranging in age from 29 to 99, Reconstructing (Still Working but the Devil Might Be Inside) is a new work from internationally-renowned theater collective the TEAM that asks how, in the aftermath of slavery, we might move through history together. Propelled by a quilt-like score, this “complex and combustible project” (Sarah Holdren, Vulture) slips between fact and fiction, performance and ritual, process and product, to tell a story of historical figures and fictional characters seeking and fleeing intimacy—and us as makers doing the same.
Tour Bookings
The TEAM and BAM presented five work-in-progress showings of Reconstructing to sold-out houses at BAM Fisher in October, 2024. To view an archival recording of the BAM showings, please contact Producing Director Emma Orme at Emma@theteamplays.org. Now, the TEAM is preparing the show for premiere and touring, nationally and internationally, in partnership with anchor partners Carolina Performing Arts at UNC Chapel Hill, The Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, Round House in Bethesda, MD, and BroadStage in LA.
Please contact Producing Director Emma Orme at emma@theteamplays.org for booking inquiries and a detailed technical rider.
RECONSTRUCTING Complete Credits (as of October 2024)
Created by The TEAM
Written by Brenda Abbandandolo, Denée Benton, Eric Berryman, Vinie Burrows, Rachel Chavkin, Eisa Davis, André De Shields,JJJJJerome Ellis, Katherine Freer, Jill Frutkin, Amber Gray, Jeremy O. Harris,, Modesto Flako Jimenez, Marika Kent, Libby King, Ian Lassiter, Zhailon Levingston, Jake Margolin, James Harrison Monaco, Kristen Sieh, Nick Vaughan, and Jillian Walker
Directed by Rachel Chavkin and Zhailon Levingston
Composers: James Harrison Monaco, Jillian Walker, and Maya Sharpe
Choreographer: nicHi douglas
Featuring: Eric Berryman, Rachel Chavkin, Modesto ‘Flako’ Jimenez, James Harrison Monaco, Maya Sharpe, and Jillian Walker
Scenic Design: Lawrence Moten
Adapted from Original Scenic Design by Nick Vaughan
Lighting Design: Marika Kent
Video & Projections Design: Katherine Freer
Costume & Object Design: Marla (Brenda Abbandandolo, Marika Kent, and Kristen Sieh)
Process Director: Jillian Walker
Process Chaplain: Milta Vega-Cardona
Production Manager: Brian Freeland
Production Stage Manager: Jo Fernandez
Associate Director: Josiah Davis
Assistant Stage Managers: Kiara Brown & Ada Zhang
Partner Organizations & Audiences
Our longtime organizational partners include Round House Theatre, The Broad Stage, Carolina Performing Arts at UNC Chapel Hill, ArtsEmerson, The Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College, and Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The TEAM and BAM presented five work-in-progress showings of Reconstructing to sold-out houses at BAM Fisher in October, 2024. Now, the TEAM is preparing the show for premiere and touring. Please contact Emma Orme at emma@theteamplays.org with tour booking inquiries.
Audience development and creative development are inextricably linked in the making of Reconstructing. With our partner orgs, we are working to thoughtfully and steadily cultivate a racially-diverse, locally-representative audience, with a particular focus on meaningful representation of Black-identifying audience members at every performance. We are in the process of nurturing durational relationships between our artists and our partner orgs’ audiences so that our work and their engagement with it is hyper-local. Our intention is to share Reconstructing in New York and across the country—and make it as “useful” to audiences as the process has been to us as a collective.
RECONSTRUCTING was commissioned by Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland; Ryan Rilette, Artistic Director, Ed Zakreski, Managing Director, and has received substantial development support from, and in-progress performances were presented by LUMBERYARD Center for Film and Performing Arts. Reconstructing has also been developed with support from Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College, and Carolina Performing Arts at UNC Chapel Hill, through their Southern Futures Project. Additional partner organizations include Broad Stage; Alabama Shakespeare Festival; and ArtsEmerson.
This project is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and MAP Fund and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
This project has received past support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Axe-Houghton Foundation, and film production support has been provided by Mighty Lucky Studios.
Special thanks to Khalil Abdullah, Beau and Rachel Alluli, Jessica Almasy, David Dower, Johanna Evans, Dr. Frances Forrest and the American Museum of Natural History, Deborah King, LUMBERYARD’s “Fresh Start” Program, Culture Mill, The Hancher at U of Iowa, and Neil Mazzella and Hudson Scenic.
Photos by Alon Koppel Photography, LUMBERYARD Center for Film and the Performing Arts; August 2019