The Bluest Eye Wins Four Awards - Kennedy Center

The Bluest Eye has received four awards at the 2019 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

I am very proud of the work we did on this production and am particularly moved that the cast received recognition for the ensemble work.

The cast worked tightly together as a community to support the weight of the story, the social and cultural context, and of course the puppets. Given the content of the story this communal support is particularly poignant.

We built the production to speak silently about different kind of community from the one Picola had to live through. A community that can bring their energy together to support each other, and collectively find the courage to engage the pain of the past and present. What this award says is that others could read our intention to communicate this lived experience.

I am honoured to have worked with this extraordinary team and with Margaret whose creative vision and passion brought the production into being and guided us through the process.

The awards committee gave citations to:

• The entire cast for Best Ensemble Performance
• Janni Younge and Margaret Kemp for Best Direction
• Janni Younge and the creative team for Puppet Design.
• Karola Lüttringhaus for Best Costume Design