Split Ends

Built around the fascinating history of black women’s hair, Split Ends incorporates video, song, movement, mime and case studies compiled during one hundred interviews with American women of African ancestry to boldly, humorously and fearlessly explore how hair has been and continues to be both a burden and a liberation, a barrier and a
connection, a cross and a salvation. Venus Opal Reese’s multimedia, multidisciplinary solo performance is a profound and heart-stirring journey into the psyche, the absurdity, and the affirming power of being both Black and Woman. According to Reese, hair connects with culture and politics, whether as an attempt to conform or as a way to declare a revolution.

Venus Opal Reese (MA – Drama, Stanford University; MFA – Acting and Movement, Ohio State University; PhD – Directing and Critical Theory, Stanford University) is an award winning solo performer, playwright, director, choreographer and poet. She appeared in the U.S. Premiere of Will Power’s The Seven in San Francisco and in subsequent performances at P.S. 122 in NY. Dr. Reese has trained and worked with Anna Deveare Smith and has studied acting with Vanessa Redgrave, mime with Marcel Marceau and dance with Gregory Hines and Judith Jamison, among others. She is presently on the tenure track as an Assistant Professor of Aesthetic Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.

In addition to the regular schedule, a performance is arranged for Thursday, February 1 at 10:00pm.

Appropriate for ages: 14+