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Video: The Company of JAJA'S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING Meets the Press!
May 17, 2024
Rehearsals are now underway for the world premiere of Jaja's African Hair Braiding, written by Jocelyn Bioh (School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play) and directed by Whitney White (Our Dear Dead Drug Lord).
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway
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Up next for Manhattan Theatre Club on Broadway is the world premiere of Jocelyn B.O's
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Jajas African Hair Braiding. It's directed by Whitney White, and we drop by the rehearsal room to meet the company
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I mean, these are like some of the most incredible actresses we have working in the business right now
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The fact that all 10 of them were able to come together and be in a show is just astounding
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No, it's incredible. They are lifting my work in a way that I never even imagined
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How excited are you to be bringing this gorgeous play to Broadway? Oh, this is personal for me
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This is my childhood. This is my womanhood. There's so many stories and experiences I've had getting my hair braided
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It's, you know, it's ritual, it's communal. There's so many things about the experience of being beautified by these women
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that I feel so proud to have experienced. experienced in my life and I just felt that it is the project that needs its place in our
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canon, in our Broadway community, so that people can learn more about the rich world of
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an African hair rating salon. Well, you're about to make your Broadway debuts
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How like so... Okay we back I was gonna ask you how excited you are I mean that excited This has been my dream for so long
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I've worked so, so hard, and it's just an affirmation that dreams do come true
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And it's a beautiful, beautiful room to make our Broadway debut in
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This morning, I was walking here and I was getting my Starbucks order
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and I passed a small black box theater that I did my first ever play
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And I was like, wow, wow. Look at the full-circleness of this moment right now
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So I'm just feeling really grateful and excited and trusting the process and the people involved
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So, yeah. I mean, to be working with this incredible cast and Jocelyn Bio and Whitney White and LaShawns, Taraji
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I mean, I know. It's fantastic. It's great. It's a beautiful room
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Yeah. Just so long. loving, so vivacious. Like, yeah, it's full. It's been fun
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It's actually been very fun. You know, I think we work so well together
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We have such a shared experience and wants and desire to make really beautiful
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kind of life-changing art. And I think we're going to be able to do that with such a unique experience
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like bringing people into a hair shop in Harlem but on Broadway Yes It been full of laughter full of dancing and just full of the work So it been a dream for me to kind of see it all slowly come together
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from page to stage. I think, especially in New York, we can get kind of accustomed to going about our day
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at a very swift, sort of monotonous pace. And I hope that when folks come to see this show
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that they really sit with what is someone's true experience, you know
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and just take the time. to digest that? I think for me, as an African woman, as an immigrant, as somebody who lives in Harlem, USA
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as someone who adores my mother and my aunts and all the women who raised me, I really hope
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that people step away, respecting, and wanting to celebrate those stories and wanting to celebrate
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Harlem, the history of it, the contribution of these immigrants to New York City
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So yeah, just really coming away with a more complex and full appreciation for those lives and voices
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I think hair-braiding salons on the outside don't really look like much, but then there's just so much, there's so much going on on the inside
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And there are so many beautiful stories and beautiful women and beautiful artists that occupy that space
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And they transforming people lives each and every day My life was transformed last night when I was able to get my hair braided at the last minute for this So yeah it just a magical place
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It's true. They're like, they're full spaces. I hope people walk away and realize that they are more than just places of business, right
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That there are places where people go to feel found, where they go to find home, and where communities are built
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and where people get to transform and feel like themselves fully. And so
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I think that story is told in really an intricate way on stage
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but it happens every day in this city around us, and so people can just be open to that reality
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A lot of the time in theater we talk about universal stories, right? This is one of those plays that incorporates a universal story
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However, the inhabitants and their manner in which they live, I don't think has been illuminated on the American stage yet
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And to be able to do it on broad, during MTC's 50th anniversary, directed by Whitney White
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That's right. It's just, I mean, with this phenomenal cat, the whole space is just energized
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We're ready to go. We're ready to tell this story, and we hope that the people come and witness it
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and go back out into the world, inspired, and thinking about others and the world more deeply
#Acting & Theater
#Hair Care
#Broadway & Musical Theater