This is not a show you sit and watch. It’s a story you walk through, a memory you live inside. As a Cousin, you’ll be through a home filled with secrets, songs, prayers, and joy. Each space is alive: the bathroom hums with rituals of self-worth, the court pulses with unspoken truths, and the main rooms calls you to dance and rest. Only 52 Cousins are gathered per performance, each one representing a card in the ancestral deck. Because life is about the cards we’re dealt—and what we do with them. Each Cousin receives a card. A question. A role. A moment to reflect. You may laugh. You may cry. You will remember. You are not alone in this. We walk it together.
Audience Role
Created by Asé Theatre Project and funded by the City of Cleveland Transformative Arts Fund, this immersive experience invites you to laugh, cry, sing, and heal with your people.
Ages: 16 +
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About Asé Theatre Project
Hello Family, I am an artist for artists. As a devised theater artist and art educator inspired by history and ceremony, I honor the narratives of families, communities, and ancestors. For over 16 years of my career I have been cultivating theatre programs and classroom spaces so they offer a safe space to imagine, to share and to transform. I have worked with Cleveland Public Theatre as a director fellow and an education specialist, Cleveland School of the Arts as a drama teacher, East Cleveland School District and managed the arts education programming at the historical Karamu House. My artistic path was most inspired with working with Black Acting Methods, Center for Creative Arts Therapy and Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed. My approach to community is intrinsically trauma informed due to personal experiences and finding refuge in theatre spaces as a child. In adulthood I realized the art that brought me refuge would also become a new source of pain and oppression in adulthood. Being a young black woman, teen mom and resident of communities limited in access, I discovered the truth of the art form gatekeepers, innate judgments and barriers rooted in the minstrel conception of the American Theatre. This experience and knowledge is where Asè Theatre Project was born. The Asè Theatre Project first began intentionally creation in 2020 with "Her Journey to Healing". I began experimentation with theatre that goes beyond walls, beyond hierarchies and that genuinely sought out to listen and encourage the artistry in others. "My quest is to build genuine, supportive connections that liberates the creative spirit to unlock healing and abundance for generations to come."