Preview: ‘Branches Etched Across the Sky’ at KSU leans into the power of Black imagination

How does art serve as a vehicle for processing trauma, and how can a process as messy as that be translated to the stage? Addae Moon, an Atlanta playwright and dramaturg, grapples with that question in his play Branches Etched Across the Sky, now in its second stage production at Kennesaw State University. Running October 6 through October 11, Branches is a dreamy, expressionist deep dive into grief, generational trauma and artistry.

The play follows artists Melba, Travis and Delmar, three siblings who are are each deeply impacted by the death of their mother. In particular, Moon explores how creation and expression can become vital to how we endure adversity. “The thing that I wanted to lean into the most is this idea of not just imagination but in particular the power of the Black imagination and how transformative it can be,” says Moon. In doing so, he set out to create a world where time is fluid and where the imaginations of the characters could feel alive and present in the design elements, thus setting the play in “a liminal space between the consensual realm and the imaginal.”

The inspirations for the play were multiple. Moon cites one of them as The Midnight Disease by Alice Weaver Flaherty, a book about hypergraphia — the compulsive inability to stop writing. As a writer, the playwright found himself drawn to this idea of someone needing to write to live. Around the same time, several of his friends were struggling with mental illness. These ideas coalesced in Moon’s mind into a story about the intersection of creativity, madness and trauma and what it means to write as a means of survival.

While the play deals with heavy themes, it is the act of creation that Moon is seeking to uplift and center. “I think we’ve lost track of art not just as a means of survival but also as a way of shaping who a person is.” This vitality and urgency of art is what Moon hopes the audience will walk away with. 

Branches was first developed in part at the University of West Georgia, followed by Kennesaw State, before having its first full workshop in 2019 as part of Theatrical Outfit’s Unexpected Play Festival. Eric Little, director of that workshop, later directed the world premiere at Clark Atlanta University.

Marlon Andrew Burnley, the current director, participated in a previous reading and sought to bring Moon’s work to KSU. “It’s a piece that I can relate a lot to, and I think the way Addae uses his language is very specific and very poetic, and that, paired with the magical aspects, is very compelling to me.”

It was Burnley’s appreciation for these elements of the piece that assured Moon that he was the right person for the job. “I knew that he was definitely going to lean into the magic.”

Moon also notes how important it was for the director to understand where his work falls in the greater Black theater canon. “There’s a tendency to think of Black drama in particular as rooted in realism, and that’s not really the kind of writer that I am, and it’s not really a representation of the Black dramatic canon either. People tend to think of the canon as Fences or A Raisin in the Sun, so [the director] needed to be someone who understands that the canon also includes Adrienne Kennedy, Ntozake Shange, Amiri Baraka.”

Burnley has worked to bring these magical elements of the play to life, honoring the physical, lyrical and kinetic nature of the work. “I really lean on movement and the body to tell the story in those wordless moments. You have these lines of text on the page, but I’m interested in filling in the white space. I would rather show than tell.”

The production will also utilize projection design by Arash Baqipur to make the language part of the design. Burnley’s goal for the design team was to make the world of the play feel “thick with words in the air.”

Another part of Moon’s motivation in writing Branches was to create more theater featuring young Black protagonists, something that was lacking when he was coming up as an artist. “That’s literally why I started writing,” he recalls. “I was writing for myself but also for my friends. Now, almost anything that I write has at least one Black character in it. I think it’s necessary not just to flesh out the canon but to make people realize that the hero’s journey happens for young Black people as well.”

Burnley, who is also an associate professor of theater at KSU, has been eager to give his students a chance to take on such challenging material. “They’ve handled it with crazy maturity,” he says. “I work really hard in my rehearsal spaces to make sure everyone feels safe to relax, create and ask questions, and that’s really allowed them to flourish and deal with this tough material.”

Where and When 

Branches Etched Across the Sky is at Kennesaw State University’s Onyx Theatre October 6 through October 11. Tickets, $14.50, with discounts available. 462 Prillaman Way, Kennesaw.

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Luke Evans is an Atlanta-based writer, critic and dramaturg. He covers theater for ArtsATL and Broadway World Atlanta and has worked with theaters such as the Alliance, Actor’s Express, Out Front Theatre and Woodstock Arts. He’s a graduate of Oglethorpe University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, and the University of Houston, where he earned his master’s.