PREY, A PHYSICAL SOLILOQUY by Constance Strickland

I create physical works that reflect the inner lives of women. As a Black woman, my body is the vessel into which these investigations begin. This piece is an ode to the memory of women whose names I do not know. It is an ode to the memory of women I have never met but who are a part of who I am. My work is an emotional language in which words do not suffice, which manifests through rigorous repetition. It is also a practice of persistence and breaking form and expectations of what and how my black body should exist and move through space. Although technique and training are an intricate part of my work this piece deconstructs, disorients, and breaks away from one particular technique to seek a new form that authentically represents who I am and what interests me. Using natural materials and fabric and working en plein air are necessary entry points into the work that allow me to experiment, explore, and dive into the unknown. These have become welcome clues when building something out of nothing or what seems to be from nothing is always from something.

CONSTANCE STRICKLAND is the Visual Director of Theatre Roscius, an experimental physical theatre company focused on social issues affecting women’s lives. Her work merges theatre with performance art to explore generational trauma, memory, mental health, and joy, particularly from the Black female perspective.

Her films include Out of the Dark / Into the Light and Black Like Her, both screened at the Ann Arbor Film Festival and Dear Nina, which won Best Director at the 2015 Women of African Descent Film Festival. Her play This Grief Will Be of Use Parts I + II and photography exhibition An Antebellum Theory premiered at Art Share L.A in 2022.Constance’s physical play Medea Refracted was in residency at The Getty Villa Theatre Lab and the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2023. Her physical theatre film And Then They Swallowed Their Pain, focusing on maternal grief, will premiere in the Fall of 2024. https://theatreroscius.weebly.com/