GET YOUR ASS IN THE WATER AND SWIM LIKE ME
Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me is an original work for the theater that explores a distinctive genre of Black American storytelling called Toasts, via a record album of the same name recorded and edited by folklorist Bruce Jackson (LP cover below).
This collaboration between The Wooster Group and Eric Berryman features performances by Berryman and drummer Jharis Yokley. Kate Valk directs. The production design is by Elizabeth LeCompte, with sound design by Eric Sluyter and video design by Irfan Brkovic.
About Toasts
Toasts are witty, virtuosic poems that tell fantastical and obscene stories about legendary street heroes.
“The heroes of most of these stories are hard men, criminals, men capable of prodigious sexual feats, bad men, and very clever men (or animals).”
– Roger D. Abrahams
Production Credits
GET YOUR ASS IN THE WATER AND SWIM LIKE ME
With Eric Berryman* and Jharis Yokley
Directed by: Kate Valk
Production Design: Elizabeth LeCompte
Sound Design: Eric Sluyter
Video Design: Irfan Brkovic
Additional Video: Andrew Maillet, Yudam Hyung Seok Jeon
Lighting: Marika Kent
Assistant Director: Michaela Murphy
Technical Director: David Glista (rehearsals and performances 2020-2022), Tavish Miller (2023)
Production Manager: Bona Lee
Special thanks to Bruce Jackson & Diane Christian.
Thanks to Benny Richardson, Johnny Jackson, Ebbie Veasley, Marshall Phillips, Willie Davis, W.D. Alexander, J.B. Smith, Louis “Bacon and Porkchop” Houston, C.B. Kimble, Jesse “G.I. Jazz” Hendricks, David Tippen, Theo Mitchell, Slim Wilson, and all who contributed their verses and voices to the album and book.
Thanks also to Carrie Mae Weems, Daphne Brooks, Evan Anderson, Jerald Times, Kasaun Henry, Elizabeth Bartz, Tora Hale, Halimah Thomas, and Lennie Montgomery/Xavian Brown.
GET YOUR ASS IN THE WATER AND SWIM LIKE ME is co-commissioned by and was developed in part during a residency at Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas at Austin.
Development of the piece was also supported by: the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
*Eric Berryman appears through the courtesy of Actors Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Production History
2020 summer: initial developmental work
2021 September 7 - 17: Rehearsals at The Performing Garage
2021 December 2 - 22: Rehearsals at The Performing Garage
2022 January 3 - 14: Rehearsals at The Performing Garage
2022 January 31 - February 4: Developmental residency, with a work-in-progress showing on February 4, at Texas Performing Arts, University of Texas, Austin
2022 April 20 - May 11: Rehearsals at The Performing Garage
2022 May 12 - 14: Work-in-progress showings at The Performing Garage
2022 August 29 - September 15: Rehearsals at The Performing Garage
2022 September 16 - October 7: preview performances at The Performing Garage
2024 January 3 - 10: Rehearsals at The Performing Garage
2024 January 11 - February 3: Performances at The Performing Garage
