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Craters
A New Play by Femi Euba
Director | Chuck Mike
The performance contains content some audience members might find
disturbing including sexual assault, racism-driven brutality, and racial slur.
This show is intended for mature audiences.
Author's Note
Some twenty years back, David Madden, the then director of the Civil War Center at LSU called my attention to the Battle of the Crater incident that initiated my play CRATERS. I did the initial research and found it exciting as a possibility for a play. However, nothing was forth coming in terms of how to proceed; so I had to put the project on the back burner, even though David sent me a reminder from time to time to find out how I was progressing. To write a play about the American civil war was daunting; at any rate several novels, plays and films had variously given expressions to it. As such, any other creative attempt on a topic that many Americans would prefer to put behind them would be significantly redundant and uninteresting. To be able to generate any interest, the event would have to be brought forward in time and somehow relate or parallel with present pertinent circumstances.
Then about ten years ago, something began to form, what with the many experiences that have continued to impact our lives. I must have written the first rough and skeletal draft of the play then; but again I had to push it aside because, in spite of the emerging idea of the generational progression of discrimination, the focus, what we in Theatre know as the through line, still escaped me. Besides, the persistent problematic for a creative artist is always how to creatively rise above what the mass and social media have rendered a banal and absurd way of life. In the meantime, I had attended to other pressing creative interests till I could get a grip on Craters.
Then, about five years ago, when I was reading something totally unrelated, as is often the case with creativity, the idea of family and its future generation came to the fore. In fact, this was already implied in the rough draft; it just needed to be brought to the core and given dramatic prominence. Also becoming more honed at this time is the style I have come to regard as my voice—giving credence to metaphor on a given word to create many perceptions within the play. The result is the final draft that has realized this production, which, of course, has also gone through further revisions from workshop and rehearsal processes.
Femi Euba
Louise and Kenneth Kinney Professor of Theatre and English. Playwright, theatre director, actor, and novelist, Femi Euba has an M.F.A. in Playwriting and Dramatic Literature and an M.A. in Afro-American Studies, both from Yale University and a PhD in English Literature from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). His plays include the award-winning The Gulf, The Eye of Gabriel and Dionysus of the Holocaust, among others; his scholarly works include Archetypes, Imprecators and Victims of Fate: Origins and Developments of Satire in Black Drama, and Poetics of the Creative Process: Organic Practicum for Playwriting. He has directed frequently for LSU Theatre and Swine Palace productions; these credits include, Gloria, Mountaintop, Clybourne Park, The Tempest, The Tropical Breeze Hotel, The African Company Presents Richard III, Learned Ladies, Monsieur Toussaint, among others.
| Troy, GrandPa, GreatPa Troy | Douglas Streater |
| Helen | Alana Johnson |
| Black Panther, Cassie | Ladonna Ouedraogo |
| Robert Lee I, II, Creole | Adam Seeholzer |
| Hood, GreatPa John | Justin Newell |
| Hoodlum | Makaylee Secrest |
| Fonteneau, Justin Peace, KKK | Tony E. Medlin |
| Policeman, Kenton, Trooper | Brett Duggan |
| Ferrero, White Coat, Private | Josh Stenvick |
| Hector | Steffan Rutledge |
| Hood 2, Judge Stand-in | Ira Anderson |
| Judge Stand-in | Ella Labaj |
| Understudy for Adam Seeholzer | Kenneth Mayfield |
| Director | Chuck Mike |
| Playwright | Femi Euba |
| Set Designer | Jim Murphy |
| Costume Designer | Amara Copeland |
| Lighting Designer | Kate Landry |
| Sound Designer | Tyler Kieffer |
| Properties | John Micheal Eddy |
| Projections Designer | Jason Jamerson |
| Assistant Director | Carolina Queiroz Couto |
| Stage Manager | Emma Sloane |
| Production Manager/Technical Director | James L. Murphy |
| Vocal Coach | Rockford Sansom |
| Movement Coach | Nick Erickson |
| Costume Shop Manager | Kyla Kazuschyk |
| Costume Mentors | Kyla Kazuschyk, Jeremy Bernardoni |
| Assistant Set Designer | Michael Byrd |
| Light Board Operator | Elise Bernhard |
| Assistant Stage Managers | Sarah Statham, Olivia Lunsford |
| Dramaturgy | Eric Mayer-Garcia |
| Dressers | Nathan Bell, Jaslyn Gallien |
| Shift | Ira Anderson, Chance Fillastre, Ella Labaj |
| Fly Operator | Brandon Carpenter |
| Sound Board Operator | Heather Isaacks |
| Sound Assistant | Sarah Bowman, Haley Hughes |
For a full list of LSU College of Music & Dramatic Arts faculty and staff, please visit our college directory.