The Secret Sharer

by Joseph Conrad

RECENT AND UPCOMING: Developmental Residency in partnership with
Pittsburgh Public Theater July 13-26, 2024

CO-CREATORS:
Daniel Banks
Kwesi Johnson
Antonio David Lyons
Adam McKinney
Ken Norris
Giovanni Ortega
Alvon Reed
Papi Salgado

The Secret Sharer
Info Pack

ARTWORK BY TROY LAMBERT/AFROBLU STUDIO @AFROBLUSTUDIO

Two Black men, one with a dark complexion, the other fairer complexion dance in an embrace.

A tall caramel complexioned man of color stands in a dark room in a contorted position with his arms wrapped around himself, legs turned in.

A tall, bald, caramel complexioned man of color sits at a table holding a brass bell and a pencil that is about to strike it.

Three men in a dance studio rehearse a performance.

Ken Norris sits in a gray chair with his arms raised by someone unseen and seated on the floor behind him.

Six members of the show's cast gather for a photograph.

DNAWORKS is adapting Joseph Conrad’s 1909 novella The Secret Sharer into a dance-theatre performance work. Considered an early Queer text, The Secret Sharer integrates dance, music, and text and will be performed in an open-concept space with audiences co-creating the environment and the narrative. In an extension of our community storycircle practice, audience members share their stories during the performance, interspersed at critical moments in the narrative.

This devised work is an exploration of fragility, tenderness, and intimacy in times of personal danger and societal discrimination–—the narrative of a silent, shared connection between two outsiders in the face of violence. In response to an increase in both hate crimes and LGBTQQ2SPIAA+ youth suicides worldwide, we are creating spaces for resiliency and healing.

For more information, contact info@dnaworks.org

SUPPORT THIS PROJECT

THE SECRET SHARER HAS RECEIVED FUNDING FROM:
Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts, Texas A&M University; Alternate Roots; Amphibian Stage Productions; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Arts, Equity, & Education Fund; ArtsEmerson; Ford Foundation; the Grambrindi Davies Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation; MAP Fund Award; National Endowment for the Arts; Network of Ensemble Theaters; New England Foundation for the Arts; and individual donors.

DNAWORKS is a 2023 NDP Grant Award recipient. Support was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Mellon Foundation in support of THE SECRET SHARER and to address continued sustainability needs.

DEVELOPMENTAL RESIDENCIES:
2019 Amphibian Stage Productions and Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX
2020 Espace Tycheco, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
2021 Virtual Online Residency
2022 Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
2023 Tanzraum Wedding Berlin, Germany
2024 Pittsburgh Public Theater, Pittsburgh, PA