One of TU’s newest playwrights puts the women in her life centerstage

By Kyle Hobstetter on March 30, 2022

Growing up, Lakeshia Ferebee had a passion for performing. Whether it was dance, theater or poetry, she always enjoyed the spotlight.

That passion was born in elementary school. An assignment required her to pick a poet and perform a dramatic recitation of their work in front of the class.

That was her first taste of theatre, and she made sure it wasn’t her last.

Ferebee is now a second-year graduate student completing a master’s degree in theatre arts and is working on her thesis: a one-act play she wrote and stars in titled, “The Matriarch in Me.” It will be performed as part of the College of Fine Arts & Communication’s MFA New Works Series.

The play will run from Thursday, March 31, to Saturday, April 2, with all three shows starting at 8 p.m. in the Ruth Marder Studio Theatre in the Center for the Arts building.

Ferebee has been waiting for a chance to perform her own work.

“I started performing other people’s words, and even though I resonated with what I was saying, it feels great to speak in my own voice with the words that I wrote,” Ferebee says. “It’s like I’m performing as myself as well as a character, and, when the lights come on, they’re both going to shine.”

“The Matriarch in Me” has an all-female cast and features a protagonist who narrates how the arts and her ancestors have helped her navigate life as a young Black woman. The play honors the legacy of matriarchs in the African American community as they advise a young matriarch in the making.

Ferebee says the idea came together through work she’s done in the classroom. From learning to write her own story though an autoethnography to learning about the Black women and artists without voices who came before her, the play is the result of hours of investigation.  

“It’s stemmed from my research on Black feminism and how to tell your own story,” she says. “It started as just being an assignment and a research paper that then turned into a script, which is now going to be a live production.”

Some of the women she honors during the production include her mom, grandmother and great-great grandmother.

She also will look at other matriarchs like Harriet Tubman, poets Lucille Clifton and Maya Angelou, political activists Angela Davis and Audrey Lorde, and former First Lady Michelle Obama.

She’s also included current influences like hip-hop superstar Megan Thee Stallion. And while many might not consider the latter a matriarch, Ferebee considers her a huge influence.

“I feel connected to her because she lost her grandmother and her mother, just like I did, but she still strives to do her best and follow her dreams,” Ferebee says. “I feel like that’s what I’m doing for my mother, grandmother and all the strong women in my family. I’m following my dream for them.”

Ferebee is also learning how a production works from start to finish. She’s helped in set design, costuming, casting, rehearsal and just making sure the play runs smoothly.

While all that may seem daunting, she’s had help through her collaboration with The Arena Players—the oldest continually performing African American community theatre in the U.S.—which is in her hometown of Baltimore.

The Arena Players helped provide a director and cast, and, after the March 31 show, they will host a talk back session about the performance as well as The Arena Players.

“It’s been great partnering with such a historical theatre that is about telling African American stories,” Ferebee says. “It feels great to be putting on something that we can be proud of and that we can show the Towson community.”

To get tickets to the "Matriarch in Me," visit the Towson University Box Office website. 

College of Fine Arts and Communications 

MFA New Works Series 

Ferebee's "Matriarch in Me," is just one of the works being produced by the MFA in Theatre Arts cohort as part of the MFA New Works Series. Overall there will be six productions, created by members of the cohort, which is made up of all women.

Here is a list of the other productions that will take place during the spring term. 

The Pill by Christy Brooks

April 7-9 at 8 p.m. | Location: Dryer Performance Laboratory 

"The Pill," combines video, voiceover dubbing, elements of puppetry/object theatre, and live performance. The main character Mildred is learning to function in the everyday world while struggling with her mental health. In video sequences Mildred is a real person in a world inhabited by mannequins. Simultaneously, a live chorus embodies her abstract imagination. 

The Journey of the Spirit: a Nature Walk of Storytelling
by Anna Mwalagho

April 14-15 at 3 p.m. and April 16 at 2:30 p.m. | Location: TBA. 

A transformative performance through storytelling, poetry, drumming, song, dancing and ritual geared to evoke your spiritual expressions by including you in this circle of reaffirmation and renewal. Like John Coltrane, Mwalagho believes that their artistry is the "spiritual expression of what I am-my faith, my knowledge, my being." 

Recipes for Community by Megan Lovely

Dates/Times: April 21st, 6-8pm; April 22nd/23rd, 4-6pm |
Location: West Village Garage

What tastes like home? From the salt waters of Cape Cod to the farmers’ markets of Baltimore, this storytelling gathering invites audience members to reflect on the ingredients that make up their own communities. Through interactive art making and conversations with local farmers and small business owners, the audience is invited into a communal adaptation of the folktale of Stone Soup, where the ingredients are not carrots or potatoes but the stories that we carry with us.

Variety Show the Musical Play by Theresa Columbus

Dates: May 12, 13, 14 | Location: Dreyer MFA Group Studio

An evening of short plays, performance art pieces and songs created by a playwright and five performers, challenging the traditional roles of writer/director and actors. The play creates the effect of a surreal vaudevillian variety show, even though several narrative and formal through-lines connect the “variety” of pieces. Experimental theater, musical theater, stand-up comedy, performance art and more overlap with and expand each other, splashing into the poetry of everyday conversation.