DIRECTOR AWOYE TIMPO ON
reClAiMinG HUMAniTY
IN THE IMAGERY OF SCHOOL GIRLS BY SAR AH ROSE LEONARD
Director Awoye Timpo spoke with Literary Manager Sarah Rose Leonard a month before rehearsals started about her collaboration with playwright Jocelyn Bioh and her personal connection to the setting and beauty standards in the play. What made you want to direct School Girls? Coming to Berkeley Rep to do School Girls is a perfect combination of so many things. I’ve known Johanna [Pfaelzer, artistic director] for a few years because I directed a workshop at New York Stage and Film. She’s a fantastic curator, and gifted at making space for artists to create art with a lot of freedom. I feel honored to be a part of her first season. It’s a great testament to Jocelyn and her writing that she’s captured so many beautiful spirits in these characters. In this play, everybody’s trying to be seen and trying to understand what their place is in the world. I think that’s something that we can all relate to, even if you’ve never been to Ghana. I also feel I’m honoring my parents in directing a play that takes place in the country they are from. I know Jocelyn talks a lot about this too, but one of the things as we are coming up — and that our parents have had to deal with too — is reckoning with the narrative of Africa that has been perpetuated over the decades. To be able to work on a piece that is affirming of the culture and humanity of the people is really exciting. How did you and Jocelyn meet? I can’t remember precisely when Jocelyn and I met, but I remember feeling so excited to meet her and to know that there’s more first-generation West African artists around. Growing up first generation, it can be quite shocking for the people who have raised us when we tell them we want a life in the arts. You sometimes feel you’re working in isolation, and so when you meet other people who have a similar background it’s really spectacular and affirming.
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