Charlene Jean
Charlene Jean (they/them) is the creator, librettist, book writer and co-composer with Franklin Rankin of BRICKS, Playwright of SHIT IN THE BLOOD: A BIOMYTHOGRAPHY OF RECIPES (Co-Devised alongside Bryanna Bradley and Courtney Bryan Devon), and Screenwriter of KING AFUA.
Charlene is a New Georges JAMmer, an associated artist with Engarde Arts via multiyear dramaturgy and production support, and the inaugural Host of the 651 Arts/Billie Holiday Theatre's Song Salon Series.
As a dramaturg: Nia Calloway's Home/Body: A Ritual Party, HERE Arts, 2023; Ungrateful Black Artist’s (UGBA) Dark Skin Support Group, Public Theatre Emerging Writers Group; Alexander Perez’s The Bad In Each Other, Playwrights Horizons; Matthew Keaton’s 7 Actors, 1 Room,;and Camille Thomas’s, At God’s Back; Playwrights Horizons.
Charlene is a 2022 MAP Grant Fund awardee, 2023 New Georges Audrey Resident; 2023/2024 Creative Capital WILD FUTURES finalist; a 2022 Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist, a 2022 Richard Rodgers Award finalist, an O'Neill National Musical Theatre Conference finalist, a NYSAF Founder’s Award finalist, and a Van Lier New Voices 2023 semi-finalist.
Charlene has presented multidisciplinary works at Playbill, SigSpace, Weeksville Heritage Center, Manhattan School of Music, Hi-ARTS, Brick Theatre, and JACK Arts Radical Acts Festival. Charlene is a member of the inaugural class of O|Sessions (Obsidian Magazine, Poetry Foundation), where they studied Black Listening.
During their time in residence, Charlene will continue the development of BRICKS, a new funk-rock musical about family legacy, a mom, her daughter, and the ancestors that preceded them. BRICKS is currently being developed in part with support by Hi-ARTS' CRITICAL BREAKS, a residency program for artists who are in a pivotal phase of developing new work in partnership with En Garde Arts, an artist-centric organization supporting artists in the development and production of new work.
About BRICKS
BRICKS is a new funk-rock musical conceived by Charlene Jean (Concept, Book, Lyrics), co-composed by Charlene Jean and Franklin Rankin. It is a piece about family legacy, a mom, her daughter, and the ancestors that preceded them.
The story centers on a young child, Maelle, and their equally gifted and protective mother, Colette Etienne, who fears Maelle's visions will lead to their demise. Colette gives Maelle spirit blockers: rose-tinted Baker-Miller glasses to prevent Maelle from seeing any Spirits.
Colette's action necessitates the intervention of D'Aija, who is the Head Matriarch of Up Yonder — and Colette's late older sister. D’Aija intervenes, bringing Colette’s soul to defend her decision. D’Aija’s intervention leaves Colette in a comatose state on Earth as her mind travels to the realm of Up Yonder — an empire of speculative spirit-technology.
While Maelle's extended family raises them, quarreling on whether to suppress or reinforce Maelle's vision, she mourns their mother's absence and questions the talents they inherited.
BRICKS brings together characters which cause us to contemplate urgent spiritual implications such as land memory, gentrification, and assimilation - and create theater through fictional spiritual technologies, while interpreting real historic archives.
Image courtesy of Charlene Jean
Collaborators
Franklin Rankin, Co-composer
Franklin Rankin (he/him) began exploring improvisational music at a young age while studying at the Harlem School of the Arts. He went on to graduate from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Jazz Composition and received his Master’s in Jazz Studies from NYU. Since then Franklin has been all over the NYC scene with such artists as Nona Hendryx, Azealia Banks, Mwenso and the Shakes, and Rashaad Newsome’s Assembly. Franklin has been featured on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in the “Battle of the Instant Songwriters”. He leads his own projects: Big Stuff, a pop/soul group that has been featured on Spotify’s “Retro Pop” editorial playlist, and The Franklin Rankin Quartet, a jazz/funk collective.
Image courtesy of Franklin Rankin
Partnership
En Garde Arts uses the city as its stage to offer accessible theatre that explores the salient social issues of our time. We are an artist-centric company that supports playwrights, directors, composers and designers in creating new work from the ground up. We invite artists to think deeply about the stories they choose to tell and the physical sites where they belong. We meet audiences where they live and work, spark conversations that explore a range of perspectives, and build inclusive communities.