A historic thread of community based Black theater is being renewed as Oversoul Theatre Collective, Inc., in cooperation with 3rd Eye Unlimited, relaunches its improvisational training space as part of the Griot’s Corner workshop series. Led by multi award winning playwright, director, and arts educator Mwalim, the workshop invites actors, spoken artists, musicians, dancers, and emerging performers from New Bedford’s Black, Cape Verdean, Caribbean, and Latino communities to help build a new theater ensemble grounded in cultural storytelling.

The program revives Oversoul’s original youth theater initiative known as “The Studio,” first introduced in New Bedford in 1997. The Studio met weekly in the basement of the Greater New Bedford Boys & Girls Club and staged performances throughout the city, including the Tiki Room at the Cape Verdean Ultramarine Band Club, the Unitarian Church, and UMass Dartmouth. Developed using the New African Method, a training approach blending System and Method acting with Brecht’s Alienation Affect and literacy based education, the program nurtured a generation of local artists. Among those who passed through The Studio as teens were hip hop artists Siah Law and Tem Blessed, spoken word artist Iva Brito, and vocalist Bishop the Shadow Man.

Oversoul Theatre Collective itself grew from the legacy of Boston’s New African Company, Inc., New England’s oldest continuing professional Black theater company, founded in 1968 by the late James Spruill and Gustave Johnson under the motto “Theater for the People.” That lineage connects the New Bedford initiative to a broader history of Black performance traditions stretching from the African Grove Theatre of 1821, through the Lafayette Players of the early twentieth century, to the creative surge of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s.

Now returning through Griot’s Corner, the workshop centers improvisation, ensemble building, and collaborative creation. Participants will work together to develop an original performance piece scheduled for presentation in May, while laying the foundation for a long term theater ensemble dedicated to producing works by, for, and about Black and Brown people in the city.

“Theater began as improvisation,” says Mwalim. “Before scripts, before stages, there was community storytelling. We’re bringing that spirit back so our people can tell our stories on our own terms.”

Tuesdays at 8pm
3rd Eye Unlimited; 230 Union Street; New Bedford, MA