Alva Rogers' World

scooping the darkness empty

Two-act Drama / 4W, 4M

Ella grieves her mother’s death by breeding roses in an untended garden on Houston Street. She scoops the dirt of New York City to discover Weimar, Germany, a plaque dedicated to Fred Rosenstiel, The Green Guerillas, Paul Celan and her heart.

Production and Development History: Commissioned by The Joseph Papp Public Theater (Reading, 2004) Peter DuBois (Director); Reading: Seattle Women’s Playwriting Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre (2006) Allison Narver (Director)

the doll plays

Three-act Drama / 11 W, 1 M

At the moment of her passing, Aunt Len revisits her life through the collection of dolls that fill her Harlem brownstone. We see Aunt Len’s dismay at the entropy around her, her love for the dolls and the sanctuary she finds in their remarkable stories which are moments of culture frozen forever like their painted-on smiles, and retold endlessly, like the limited range of a modern doll’s pull-string voice.

Production and Development History: Actor’s Express Theater (World Premier, 2002) Peter DuBois (Director); Reading: Joseph Papp Public Theater, New Work Now Festival (2000) Joseph Papp Public Theater, Peter DuBois (Director); Workshop Production/Reading: New Works for a New World Summer Playlab, New World Theater at The University of Massachusetts (1998) Heather Henson (Director)

belly: three shorts

three shorts / 5 W

the life before / reconstruction / reconstructing whiteness
bellies at rest...
belly

Belly, a trilogy of related shorts, navigates the intersections of violence, rape and motherhood.

Belly: A single mother discovers her unwed daughter is pregnant and takes them on a joy ride for ice cream and cake.

Bellies at rest / in motion / and other problems in Inertia: An abortion physician’s widow receives one dozen roses from her husband’s murderer. She refuses to accept and returns the roses.

the life before / reconstruction / reconstructing whiteness: In this dystopian world, people of color out number people without color and live below the ground in darkness. People without color live above with the sun, moon and stars. Midwives monitor the pregnancies of women of color. Will Una give birth to a pure brown offspring? How will people without color reconstruct whiteness?

Production and Development History: New Georges at HERE ARTS CENTER (2003) Julia Whitworth (Director); Reading: New Georges Theatre Workshop / Reading

(2001) Julia Whitworth (Director); belly: three shorts was initially developed as part of the Voice and Vision Women’s Playwright’s retreat at Vassar College.

maya in the cities

Two-act Dark Comedy / 6M 6W mixed race (Double Casting) Written in English with a hint of German,
French and Italian.

Guided by Josephine Baker’s ghost and frontline memories of her Korean War veteran father, Motherless Maya goes on a quest through Europe, before its landscape is altered by the fall of the Berlin Wall. With a tape recorder around her waist and a knapsack on her back, Maya discovers the high value of fine American English elocution on the European human market and the dark side of traveling solo.

Her place of origin: New York, New York. Her destination: The Venice Film Festival. Stops in between: Dakar, Australia, Scotland, England, France, Holland, India, The Sudan, Korea and Japan.

Production and Development History: Trinity Repertory Theater / Brown University Sternberg New Plays Festival (1997) Peter DuBois (Director); Reading: Yale Cabaret (1998) Wier Harmon (Director)

the bride who became frightened
when she saw life open

a narrative dream play in seven voices

7W / multi-racial/generational cast

Multi-generational dream narratives in seven voices inspired by the eponymous painting by Frida Kahlo. Kahlo’s is at the fulcrum of tales depicting journeys (some taken from newspaper headlines, others adapted from interviews with women) towards and away from marriage. Together forever?

Production History:
The Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, October 8, 1998

The Steinberg Festival of New Plays at Trinity Repertory Theatre (downstairs stage), January 30 through February 2, 1997.

Eggwhites

a screenplay for a short puppet film

Reconstructing Bratcher
A Freedman’s Story

a screenplay

Story by F. J. Rogers and A. Rogers
Written by A. Rogers

The Year I Became A Cat

a teleplay

By Alva Rogers and Jen Huszcza