Tatankala “Buffalo” Yellowbird of Zintkala Zi PowWow returns to Little Five points with his third annual First Voices Festival PowWow, featuring intertribal celebrations of culture, dance, song, crafts, food, and pageantry. A member of the Lakota Sioux Nation, Buffalo is well respected in Indigenous communities offering expertise, love, and joy on the mic as the master of ceremonies. At noon both days, the Grand Entry fills the circle with a company of dancers in full regalia taking audiences and participants on a journey of storytelling and cultural sharing through a variety of traditional dances like the Jingle Dress and Fancy dances.

EPSG:4326

First Voices Festival 2024: Powwow

7 Stages Theatre

Join together at 7 Stages for an evening of conversation and a shared meal, kicking off a full weekend of festivities with special guest Muscogee (Creek) elder William Harjo and loaded Fry Bread dishes from Three Sisters Soulfood!

William is a storyteller and flute maker who has been a part of Powwows all over the country, including First Voices Festival for the last two years.

First Voices Festival: Art of Activism

A babe is reluctantly abandoned in a forest by Antigonus, who is attacked by a bear but survives. The babe, Trouvita, and the injured nobleman are rescued by a shepherd family. Meanwhile, back in Sicilia, a slandered queen and her mad king diverge to very different ends. Sad moments ensue, but love triumphs thanks to smart, strong women. Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to experience Sixteen Springs: The Missing Years of The Winter’s Tale live at 7 Stages Theatre!

Sixteen Springs: The Missing Years of The Winter’s Tale

Waitman Crowner, a psychiatrist in an old city, is also a cat burglar. He loves scaling roofs and evading capture, but is bored with his buried objets. He falls for a patient, Parker Langley, an obstetrician married to Rowan McAlpine, the detective in the case. Other patients are Deirdre (60s, with designs on Waitman) and problem child Jodi (17), both rich, both sources of information for his thefts. Rowan can’t see he’s losing Parker, who does not suspect Waitman, even after seeing and revealing a key clue. In the end his mistake is displaying one statue in his office. The women have their say in a final scene, but Parker has the last word.

Catalysis

Shakespeare’s Falstaff—lusty, proudly cowardly, and plump—narrates and mocks the slim knight he was based on, Sir John (“Jack”) Fastolfe, arch-foe of Joan of Arc. Touting his own exploitation of women, Falstaff derides Fastolfe’s warrior adventurism, and is delighted to see him humiliated by Joan on the battlefield, falling in love with her ghost, and pathetically defending his lost honor. Joan rules over both in the afterlife.

Fatsoff: Being the Very Tragical Comical History of the Life of the Real Falstaff as Told by the Fake One

What Are You? is an exploration of what it means to be multi-racial in America. Created and performed by Nicolette Emanuelle, who has roots in the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina, this original production delves into the complexities of racial identity through a blend of movement, music, and personal testimonies. Confronting the relentless question “what are you?” Nicolette weaves together striking and moving commonalities found in interviews with other multi-racial individuals, highlighting their unique struggles and the beauty of their identities.

First Voices Festival: What Are You?

7 Stages Mainstage

Jessica’s marriage fails and as “Jonathan” she seeks her Jewish roots, even with her broken father. Doña Gracia, doyenne of Jewish Italy, vets silly suitors. “Jonathan” begs her to save Shylock. Gracia’s daughter, in love with “Jonathan,” follows “him” until they meet eventfully. Jessica, arrested by the Inquisition, refuses to shun Judaism; Gracia saves her. She takes her father to Brazil where there are Jews and a suitor for Jessica. But the Inquisition is not done with the Jews, even in the New World. A semifinalist in the O’Neill Center’s Play Competition.

Jessica: A Romantic Sequel to The Merchant of Venice

In 1970, against the background of terrorist violence nearby, a man returns to the concentration camp he was interned in, set to take his own life. Can he be saved by the love of a German woman—the sister and ex-wife of two terrorists and daughter of the policeman pursuing them? In a parallel love story, her brother Josef and African-American college student Annie risk everything to make the world a better place.

Mel Konner’s Play Festival:The Incident at Flossenbürg 

The Pulitzer Prize-winning play from renowned playwright Annie Baker is coming to the stage in Atlanta as Authenticity Theater presents The Flick. Set in a small town in Massachusetts, The Flick takes place in a run down and failing movie theater, where the remaining employees are struggling with failures and breakdowns of their own. Built around witty, heartfelt dialogue as the characters mop and sweep their way through a humdrum job, the play is widely recognized for its tenderness and insight. It’s also been called a play-lovers play about movie lovers, while letting the invisible movie screen be the “fourth wall” between the characters and audience.

The Flick

“LUV” by Murray Schisgal is a riotous comedy that follows the misadventures of Harry and Milt, two old friends whose lives take unexpected turns when they reunite on a New York City bridge. As they grapple with failed relationships, absurd schemes, and existential crises, their antics spiral hilariously out of control. With witty dialogue, absurd situations, and a touch of heart, “LUV” is a delightful romp that explores the absurdity of modern life and the enduring bonds of friendship.

Contemporary Dance show chronologically defining moments in our lives that grow us, break us, build us back, change us and make us who we are.

Kairos

From the young minds of Youth Creates comes a world of gods, mortals, and monsters. As two sibling gods start to drift apart, their realms are placed on the verge of a devastating war. Will these realms break apart, or will this story have a happily ever after?

Dream Theory

Conversations With God is a story that unfolds across a black mans lifetime, capturing his journey from innocence of young love to the challenges of street life- battling again a crooked system- troubled relationships, and the effort to reconnect with his daughter as she grows up. Navigating life’s trials, he grapples with his spirituality, eventually finding redemption and rebuilding a relationship with God, his daughter, and a newfound family.

Conversations With God

This is Mozart like you’ve never heard before. Arguably the world’s greatest opera is sung in English with a brand new, modern translation backed by an electrifying rock orchestra.

Mozart’s Don Giovanni – A Rock Opera

Atlanta playwright Lee Nowell’s play True North first came to 7 Stages as part of our Home Brew @ Home Series in 2020, and is now being developed as a full stage production. This scientific theatrical experience asks audiences to consider the things around them that they can’t see, like electromagnetic energy and the way we interact with it, in addition to the way it affects all of us.

True North

 Théâtre du Rêve presents Molière’s classic comedy, Le Malade Imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid). In this brilliant satire, Wealthy Argan has fallen under the spell of a prestigious doctor who’s milking him for all he’s worth. To save money (and guarantee constant medical attention), Argan plans to marry his daughter Angélique to a young doctor. But of course, Angélique is already in love with someone else! Fortunately, Argan’s clever household servant Toinette is determined to pull enough strings to straighten everything out — but will she manage it before Argan shuts his daughter up in a convent and wills his fortune to his gold-digging second wife??

Le Malade Imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid)

Set in the 1980s in the Parisian nightclub Theatre Olympia, Nina Simone is confronted with her choices and relives experiences with James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, her parents and others in a piece that crescendos with an existential look into her mental health, her choices, and, of course, the motivations behind her music and songwriting.

Eunice In Paris

Art of Activism brings together community, performers, and patrons for a vital conversation centered around the themes within Sean Dorsey Dance’s The Lost Art of Dreaming. What joyous, expansive Future can we imagine for ourselves and each other? At a time where hatred and fear are so dominant, what do we want to dismantle and let go of?

Art Of Activism: Fierce Dreaming

Trailblazing transgender choreographer Sean Dorsey (San Francisco) comes to 7 Stages with the Atlanta premiere of Sean Dorsey Dance’s new work: The Lost Art Of Dreaming invites us to reconnect with longing, embrace expansive imagination, connect with joy and pleasure, and propel ourselves toward loving Futures.

The Lost Art Of Dreaming

Bad River is a new documentary film which chronicles the Wisconsin-based Bad River Band and its ongoing fight for sovereignty, a story which unfolds in a groundbreaking way through a series of shocking revelations, devastating losses, and a powerful legacy of defiance and resilience which includes a David vs. Goliath battle to save Lake Superior, the largest freshwater resource in America. As Eldred Corbine, a Bad River Tribal Elder declares: “We gotta protect it… die for it, if we have to.”

7 Stages

7 - 24 Nov, 2024

First Voices Festival: What Are You?

Nov 29, 2024

First Voices Festival: Bad River (2024)

16 - 17 Nov, 2024

First Voices Festival 2024: Powwow

Nov 15, 2024

First Voices Festival: Art of Activism

7 Stages