THE BROBOT JOHNSON EXPERIENCE

 

One hundred years from now, a race of black androids from the utopic, Planet Nubian known as Brobots will form a unit, The Tribe Called Space Quest, to spread their message all over the universe. Through live looped vocals, rhymes, and beat-boxing, they perform the origin story of their people and the first of their kind, Brobot Johnson.  They call it The Brobot Johnson Experience.

 

A joyful, hip-hop infused history lesson that's equal parts Janelle Monae and Flying Lotus, The Brobot Johnson Experience melds West African philosophy with the Black past, present and future - looking at where we are and imagining where we could be. Your host for the evening is Flobot Owens, a Brobot  who has traveled through time and space to complete one mission - spread Peace, Love & Dopeness.

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This afrofuturist, transmedia piece - written by and starring award-winning solo performer, actor, and poet, Darian Dauchan is designed to inspire both contemporaries and young people of color to tell stories that think outside-of-the-box. 

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Created & Performed by DARIAN DAUCHAN

Directed by ANDREW SCOVILLE

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DARIAN DAUCHAN (Creator & Performer) is an award winning actor, writer, and musician who has appeared on both Broadway (Twentieth Century starring Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche) and Off Broadway theatre (Jean Cocteau Rep., Classical Theatre of Harlem). TV credits include Law and Order, Nickelodeon's Bet the House, as Darian the "SoundFX" Guy, and the Lionsgate feature film Things Never Said. His solo shows include: Fallen Patriots (NYC Fringe), Texaco's Last Stand (Ohio Theatre/ IGNITE Festival), Media Madness (Kitchen Theatre Company, Ithaca, NY), Entertainer's Eulogy which had limited engagements at the Playhouse on the Square (Memphis, TN), Kitchen Theatre Company (Ithaca, New York), Whitefire Solo Theatre Festival (Los Angeles, CA), and Theatre ROW (United Solo Festival), Voice Power (Arts for All’s Audience Project Tour) and Obamatry: A Spoken Word Remix on the 44th President of the United States of America (Under St. Marks Theater, SPKRBOX Festival, Norway) originally presented by Horse Trade Theater Group in conjunction with the Bowery Arts and Science. His first screenplay Kalfou (A Crossroads Tale) co-written with his sister Desha Dauchan was selected into the Film Independent's 2008 Screenwriters Lab, home to the popular Spirit Awards, and the L.A. Film Festival. Darian has also embraced the art of Spoken Word/Performance Poetry and within his first three months had won slams at all three major poetry venues in New York City. He was a member of the 2006 National Poetry Slam Team for the legendary Nuyorican Poets Cafe, was crowned the 2007 Urbana Grand Slam Champion for the Bowery Poetry Club, was a 2008 Nuyorican Grand Slam Finalist, and was the 2009 New Word Artist for Urban Word NYC in conjunction with the Dance Theatre Workshop now known as New York Live Arts. He has toured across the country at poetry venues, including the famous Green Mill in Chicago, and has also performed at colleges that include the prestigious Yale University, FIT, and New York University. His popular Obama poem during the historic 2008 election has received over 73,000 views on YouTube and counting. He's currently featured on the FIAT Storyteller's Series. He is the founder of The Spoken Word Almanac Project, a poetry collective committed to writing poems on current world events. He conceived the spoken word trilogy shows Slam 101, 102, and 103 for Lincoln Center's Meet the Artist Series, which he co-wrote with poets Shanelle Gabriel and Erik Maldonado, and has toured around the Tri- state area with the support of Young Audiences New York. The 4th installment Eco-Poets:Enviroslammin was presented and developed in the New Victory Labworks Residency. He is also a Teaching Artist for the Brooklyn Academy of Music and a Mentor for Urban Word NYC, a grassroots non-profit organization that provides free, safe, uncensored and ongoing writing and performance opportunities for NYC teens. He was awarded four diversity scholarships from the Upright Citizens Brigade for sketch comedy and improv, was also the 2012 winner of The Jerome Foundation's Stakeholder's Choice Award, and Death Boogie, his Hip Hop Poetry Musical was the 2012 winner of two Edinburgh Fringe Festival Musical Theatre Matters Awards for BEST New Music and BEST Innovation of a Musical. Black Sheep, his fifth solo show was commissioned by the Kitchen Theatre Company with the generous support of the New York State Council on the Arts, and placed 3rd for BEST Play at the 2015 Downtown Urban Theater Festival.

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ANDREW SCOVILLE (Director) is a Brooklyn-based, Chicago-born theater director and creator of original work.  He most recently directed Memory Retrograde with harunalee theater company (Ars Nova, Public Theater Under the Radar Festival), and Piano Tales with James and Jerome (La Mama, Playwrights Horizons Downtown, Joe's Pub, Lincoln Center Education, Bouley Test Kitchen). He is the co-creator of the podcast People Doing Math in which non-math people talk and play with mathematical concepts (Ars Nova, The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival, Strand Bookstore, and the National Museum of Math). 

He is Associate Director of Tooting Arts Club Production of Sweeney Todd at Barrow St Theater. He is Associate Director for Alex Timbers on David Byrne’s Here Lies Love for both NYC, Seattle and UK Productions. He has also worked with Timbers on Love’s Labour's Lost (Public Theater) and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Broadway). He is a co-Founder/co-Director of Fresh Ground Pepper, a not for profit dedicated to making it easier to create new work through a series of artistic challenges and developmental programs. Through FGP, he was Lead Director for a “Camp Over There” a pop up performance series at Bonnaroo Music and Art Festival.

Other credits include: Love Machine, a high-tech, interactive performance in three parts utilizing actor and audience responsive technology (Ars Nova, 3LD, NYU, and Incubator Arts Project).  In one iteration, the project featured Bina48, the world’s most advanced social robot. All the Rats and Rags, a electro-opera featuring Tim Fite, bringing to life the music of his album Fair Ain’t Fair (3LD Art and Technology Center, Joe's Pub).  John Faustus and the Overclocked Death Drive (The Tank). The Office and the Metal Blob (FringeNYC).  Tune Up, Faulty Piston! (Fringe NYC, Access Theater). He has also directed with Naked Angels, Atlantic Acting School, The Lark, Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, Crashbox Theater Company, and Pipeline Theater Company. 

Scoville graduated NYU in 2008 with a BFA in Theater Arts. He has held internships with Theater Mitu, The Wooster Group and Temporary Distortion. As a technician, he toured two of Temporary Distortion's shows to France, Hungary and Australia.  He teaches at Playwrights Horizons Theater School (NYU) and at various public schools in NY and NJ through The Metropolitan Opera Guild.  He is a member of the 2011 Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. He lives in Ridgewood, Queens with his wife, playwright Jaclyn Backhaus, and their son Ernie. www.andrewjscoville.com