Blues for Mrs.
Blues for Mrs. poeticizes black women’s relationships to beauty and pain. It is a study of the ways class, race, gender, and sexuality intersect to create a particular need to express and make cathartic their internalized struggles: by way of the blues. The actor creates an alternate blues-persona named “Mrs.” that relates the challenges of black women then and now using blues, poetry, and prose as the medium. The show follows a lineage of black women in the blues, featuring artists from 1910’s to 1950’s: Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. Each character's monologue reflects a slice of their real life. “Mrs.” highlights the interconnectedness of these women’s life experiences and that of the writer-actor's and the current generation of black women.
-
Anton JuanDirectorWoven Wings of Our Children (2016), Shake Rattle and Roll (1997), You Are Mine (1978)
-
Anton JuanWriterWoven Wings of Our Children (2016), Shake Rattle and Roll (1997), You Are Mine (1978)
-
Savanna MorganWriter
-
Notre Dame Institute for Scholarship in Liberal ArtsProducer
-
Savanna MorganKey Cast"Mrs., Billie Holiday, Ma Rainey, and Bessie Smith"
-
Nahawa Patience SaccohKey Cast"Lady In Red"
-
Project Type:Experimental, Music Video, Short, Student, Other
-
Genres:Experimental, Music, Student, Short, Poetry, Arthouse, theater
-
Runtime:39 minutes 58 seconds
-
Completion Date:September 20, 2021
-
Production Budget:5,000 USD
-
Country of Origin:United States
-
Country of Filming:Germany
-
Language:English
-
Shooting Format:Digital
-
Aspect Ratio:683:286
-
Film Color:Color
-
First-time Filmmaker:Yes
-
Student Project:Yes - University of Notre Dame
Internationally recognized for his work that often challenges convention, stunning visual poetry, and language in space, playwright and director Anton Juan is a Professor and Theatre director at the University of Notre Dame. He completed his Ph.D. in Semiotics at the Kapodistrian and Panhellenic University of Athens. To honor his contributions to the arts, Juan has been knighted twice by the French government, receiving the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 1992 and the Chevalier de l’Ordre National de Merit in 2002. He received the Alexander Onassis International Award for Theatre (Playwriting), and the Special Jury Prize for Screenplay from the CineManila International Film Festival. Beyond his work at Notre Dame, Juan is also the founding Artistic Director of the Step of Angels Theatre in Athens, Greece and was the Director-General of Dulaang UP, University of the Philippines, where he has taught at the Departments of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts, English and Comparative Literature, and European Languages. He was also the Fellow for Drama at the Creative Writing Center of UP.