Octagon

Written by Kristiana Rae Colón

Octagon rips open the clichés of the open mic, asking the cost of making a spectacle of ripping open our wounds. Set admidst the backdrop of a last-minute poetry slam, eight young poets traverse stages and the tightropes of their braided desires. Chimney, Chad, and Palace have an open slot on their team, and five other poets compete for it. The fiercest contender, Prism, is a woman with an appetite she’s not ashamed of, but the reigning champs have a hard time seeing her as more than a good-time girl. As love triangles become pentagons and octagons, Prism’s unbridled desires threaten to have her silenced for good. With three minutes to sway the judges, eight poets must decide which is more important, the points or the poetry, the privilege of free speech and expression, or the celebrity that comes along.

Octagon was selected by Arizona Theater Company for the 2014 National Latino Playwriting Award. It was also selected for the 2014 Dionysos Cup Festival of Staged Readings produced by Polarity Ensemble Theatre in Chicago and the Trellis Reading Series at the Greenhouse Theater in Chicago. In 2013, Bailiwick Chicago produced its first public reading. It was developed in London in collaboration with director Nadia Latif. Octagon was conceived in a residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in collaboration with director Derrick Sanders (former Artistic Director of Congo Square Theater).

To license Octagon for first class productions, please contact our office at (212) 221-0400.