Planted by
7 Jun. 2020
“
Jelks' "Planted" is a provocative reinterpretation of Hans Christian Anderson's "Thumbelina," with a focus on a Black teenage basketball player who struggles to reconcile life with an unwanted child. This fanciful piece portrayed by feisty, hardheaded, and vulnerable teens is engaging, imaginative, and invites us into lives we don't often see on stage. Juxtaposing Gestine's journey to becoming a reluctant mother with Thumbelina's mother, who begged a witch to help her get a child, is a powerful statement on privilege and the complex ways that motherhood begets joy as well as strife. ”