ON STAGE 2025
Kaneza Schaal, KLII
April 17, 20257:30 pm
April 18, 20257:30 pm
April 19, 20257:30 pm
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About the Performance
KLII exorcizes the ghost of King Leopold II, the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908, in a mytho-biographical performance by theater-maker Kaneza Schaal. By exploring the invisible historic roots of society’s demons—racism, misogyny, and misinformation—Schaal searches for ways of handling these everyday threats in the present.
Designed and co-directed by Christopher Myers, KLII draws on Mark Twain’s King Leopold’s Soliloquy published in 1905, a fictional monologue written after Twain’s visit to Congo Free State, and Patrice Lumumba’s 1960 independence speech in Congo. Working with East African musicians and African American opera singers, the hybrid, operatic, and intensifying sound design takes inspiration from La Muette de Portici, the opera that played a role in Belgium’s 1830 revolution. Together, both the visual and sound design combine to consider the residue of colonialism in our everyday lives.
A reclamation of history and canon, Schaal and Myers propose an exorcism in theater, starring one of the villains of the 19th century whose actions resonate through the present day. KLII explores the nature of evil and what is required to unroot legacies of catastrophic events.
About the Artist
Kaneza Schaal is a New York City–based artist working in theater, opera, and film. Schaal was named a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow and was an Aetna New Voices Fellow at Hartford Stage. Among her many honors are a 2021 Herb Alpert Award in Theatre, a Sundance Institute Interdisciplinary Program Grant, a 2019 United States Artists Fellowship, a SOROS Art Migration and Public Space Fellowship, a Joyce Award, an LMCC Alumni Award, a 2018 Ford Foundation Art For Justice Bearing Witness Award, a 2017 MAP Fund Award, and a 2016 Creative Capital Award.
Her project GO FORTH premiered at Performance Space 122 before showing at the Genocide Memorial Amphitheater in Kigali, Rwanda; Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans; Cairo International Contemporary Theater Festival in Egypt; and at her alma mater, Wesleyan University, CT. Her work JACK & showed at BAM’s 2018 Next Wave Festival, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and with its co-commissioners Walker Arts Center, REDCAT, On The Boards, Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. Schaal’s piece CARTOGRAPHY premiered at The Kennedy Center and toured to The New Victory Theater, Abu Dhabi Arts Center, and Playhouse Square, OH. Her dance work MAZE, created with FLEXN NYC, premiered at The Shed. She directed Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s BLUE at Michigan Opera Theater, and before that, Triptych, composed by Bryce Dessner with libretto by Korde Arrington Tuttle, which premiered at LA Philharmonic, The Power Center in Ann Arbor, MI, BAM Opera House, and Holland Festival.
Schaal recently directed the world premiere of OMAR, written by Rhiannon Giddens and co-composed by Giddens and Michael Abels at the Spoleto Festival USA, and its continuation at Los Angeles Opera. Her newest original work, KLII, is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by the Walker Art Center in partnership with Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, and REDCAT, and was co-commissioned as part of the Eureka Commissions program by the Onassis Foundation. Schaal will develop and direct a number of upcoming works including SPLIT TOOTH with Tanya Tagaq (Luminato Festival, Canada), HUSH ARBOR with Imani Uzuri (The Momentary, AZ), and a new work with musician Bryce Dessner.
Funding
Lead support for the 2024-25 season of MCA Performance and Public Programs is provided by Elizabeth A. Liebman.
Generous support is provided by Ginger Farley and Bob Shapiro, Martha Struthers Farley and Donald C. Farley, Jr. Family Foundation, N.A., Trustee; Anne L. Kaplan; and Carol Prins and John Hart/The Jessica Fund.
The MCA is a proud member of the Museums in the Park and receives major support from the Chicago Park District.