By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Amy-Rose Forbes-Erickson, a newly hired professor in the Department of Theatre and Film, is forging ahead in making her mark on campus.
Forbes-Erickson is launching the newest edition of her Pan-African Theatre Ensemble. The ensemble was first formed at Kent State, when she taught there, and sustained, despite the pandemic at Sacramento State, where she was most recently on faculty.
On Friday at 5:30 p.m. in room 201 in the Wolfe Center, she will hold an informational session for students and community members who want to participate. These will not be auditions, she said, simply an introduction to the troupe.
The mission of the Pan-African Theatre Ensemble is to present existing and new works from the African-American, African and Afro-Caribbean traditions. “And maybe students bring in things they want to try out as well,” Forbes-Erickson said.
“So we’re covering a wide cross-section across the diaspora,” Forbes-Erickson said.
She expects the initial productions will have small casts. She doesn’t know who will turn out on Friday. “We’ll grow from there.” The troupe is open to all who have an interest in learning more about Pan-African theater. She is also contacting the Black theater community in Toledo.
She expects to stage one or two productions the first year, as well as the possibility of performing at conferences.
Previously The PATE has done full-scale productions. They included “The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Ritual” by Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka and “Venus” by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks.
The troupe also staged “Tahinta!: A Rhythm Play for Children” by Efua Sutherland.
The last production she did at Kent State was “Digital Masks to Africa – Cheikh Anta Diop: Poem for the Living” by Mwatabu Okantah, who was on the KSU faculty.
The poem, a reflection on the writer’s journey back to Africa, was produced as a series of monologues with dance interludes and digital media. “It was really a rich tapestry of African diaspora,” Forbes-Erickson said.
“Poem for the Living” also earned The PATE an invitation to the Fringe Festival’s International Collegiate Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2019.
From that experience, The PATE received an invitation to return. Forbes-Erickson planned to, and then the pandemic froze travel. The invitation was deferred for that year, and then the next when the Fringe Festival went digital. The PATE did not participate then either.
Still, Forbes-Erickson turned “Griot Ballads” into a film. That as well as information from previous productions is available at the troupe’s website the-pate.com.
The Fringe invitation still stands and is a possibility for the nascent BGSU ensemble.
From “Griot Ballads,” Forbes-Erickson grew more interested in incorporating film with live theater.
Forbes-Erickson is a director, sculptor, designer, and scholar. She moved to Sacramento in fall, 2019, and then the next spring COVID-19 set in. After being cooped up in a new place, the family including her adolescent daughter, decided they wanted to return to Ohio.
A colleague who went to graduate school with Forbes-Erickson pointed out the BGSU job posting. What the university was looking for aligned with her theatrical and research goals.
“It was a great fit,” she said.
So she made the move and brought The PATE with her. “I really think what we are doing is to offer students of color, Black students, more outlets and educational opportunities in theater and the arts in general.”
