Oya is a young track star who runs like the wind and has the chance to transcend the humble circumstances of her community in the fictional town of San Pere, Louisiana. When she must give up her collegiate opportunities to tend to her family, Oya’s future is in the air.  

Oya is also the name of an Orisha of winds—a divine spirit from the Yoruba religion, a tradition that was brought to North America from Western Africa during the transatlantic slave trade and has persisted and grown amongst the diasporic community in the south-eastern coastal regions of the U.S. The playwright, Tarell Alvin McCraney, intertwines myth and reality. His characters exist within the familiar human world even as they “glow like a pantheon of deities”—according to the stage directions. 

“It’s possible to be two things at once—to be man and god,” says Caroline Clay, assistant professor of acting and the director of the UI production of In the Red and Brown Water.  

“What makes this play so powerful is the way these otherwise ordinary characters are heightened by the resonances of their Orisha. Just imagine a young man, walking around Iowa City with the name Dionysus. He might not remember his divine life, but it explains his weakness for wine. McCraney’s characters unconsciously carry these histories with them. Those histories live inside their bodies and inform the way they move through the world.”  

Clay recalls, “I first saw the piece in a six-hour trilogy of The Brother/Sister Plays at the Public Theatre in New York,” The Brother/Sister Plays include In the Red and Brown Water, The Brother’s Size, and Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet—three plays that take place among the same close-knit community in the same fictional town of San Pere, Louisiana. “It’s always been close to my heart—the whole experience, the boxed meals we had between each show and just being present, in community, and transformed by the works.”  

Clay joined the Department of Theatre Arts in fall 2021. Before coming to the University of Iowa, she appeared in several Tony Award-winning productions including The Little Foxes, Doubt, and more. She also held roles on several TV shows, most notably a season-long arc on Grey’s Anatomy as Cece Colvin.  

“I knew, when I was hired at Iowa, I wanted to direct In the Red and Brown Water,” Clay says. 

“I told everyone. I kind of spoke it into existence,” she laughs, “I wanted to do this performance because it’s a great play for young actors. It asks a lot of them. It pushes them past their comfort zone.” 

The David Thayer Theatre has been rearranged so that the audience surrounds the stage, designed brilliantly by Visiting Assistant Professor Bethany Kasperek, to create a theatre-in-the-round experience where the actors will be in the audience’s view for the entire production. 

“This puts the actors in a more vulnerable position,” Clay says. “They don’t get the reprieve of backstage. Instead they’ll be changing costumes, picking up props, and sitting among the audience. They have nowhere to hide.” 

Clay’s vision for In the Red and Brown Water is inspired by the Brechtian impulses in McCraney’s writing. Brechtian theatre, developed and named after mid-century German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet Bertolt Brecht, uses distancing effects and dispenses with any illusion that presents the performance as real—thus there is an emphasis on theatricality. In the play, characters announce their own entrances and speak their own stage directions aloud. One of Oya’s lines reads, “Oya laughs at her crazy mama. You crazy.”  

“One of the things I love about theatre is the theatricality,” Clay explains. “In television, less is more, the camera can zoom in, capture minute nuances. In theatre you can give more. That’s what I’ve been doing with my cast, and it can be exhausting, but it can also be surprising. My motto is that I can always pull them back if they give too much.”  

Clay has invited collaborator Kieron Dwayne Sargeant back to the UI to work on the production as choreographer. Sargeant is not only a choreographer, but is a credentialed dance scholar whose research focuses on the emerging field of African Caribbean and African Diaspora dance practices. He was the UI Grant Wood Fellow in Interdisciplinary Performance, as well as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Dance, in 2021-2022.  

“Kieron has been an essential resource for our young actors,” Caroline explains, “In the Red and Brown Water is a very difficult performance, for many reasons. It requires a necessary cultural competency. And through Kieron’s guidance, they have learned to honor the Afro-Caribbean practitioners of the diaspora.”  

It was important for Clay that the actors make no attempt to copy, replicate, or claim authenticity of the practices. Instead, with the help of Sargeant, the actors can offer gratitude to the tradition through gestures of reverence and awe. 

The play is enriched by Loyce Arthur’s costume design. Arthur is an associate professor of design and In the Red and Brown Water is her final production with the UI Theatre Department. “I’ve chosen colors, subtle accents associated with each character’s Orisha,” Loyce describes the design. “These pieces are primarily there to help the actors figure out who they are—small threads that an audience might pick up if they’ve read the script or paid attention to the lobby display.” 

The Stanley Museum and their curatorial team, including Dr. Lauren Lessing, Dr. Kimberly Datchuck, Derek Nnuro, and Dr. Cory Gundlach, have been working with the creative team of In the Red and Brown Water to create a lobby display that takes advantage of The Stanley Collection of African Art. 

“I grew up in D.C. and we were always going to museums,” Clay explains. “One of my first jobs was at the Smithsonian Castle and, honestly, if I wasn’t in theatre my dream job would be working as a curator in a museum. So, when I first got to Iowa City, it wasn’t long before I found myself at the Stanley and I was surprised to find such a robust, world-renowned collection of African Art.”  

Clay knew immediately she wanted to collaborate with the museum. “I got a hold of Cory Gundlach, who is the curator of African Art, and said ‘I’m putting on In the Red and Brown Water’— which hadn’t actually been approved yet—and then asked, ‘What can we do?’” 

Through numerous conversations, the Stanley Museum became an active part of the productions team—and those who visit the lobby before the show will have the opportunity to view and interact with art from their African Art collection. In addition, at the end of March, the cast of In the Red and Brown Water performed a staged reading at the Stanley for the Iowa City community. 

“For me, that is really the spirit of this performance. Theatre is all about building and creating community,” Caroline says. “We are not creating art in a vacuum; it should be about making connections. I’m so proud of all the people across campus, and the collaborations we’ve built to make this show possible.”