BIO

Martha Kemper is a theatre artist and educator who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.A. She was a founding member (actor, teacher, director) of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble in Bloomsburg, PA. She has written a solo autobiographical performance piece, Me, Miss Krause and Joan, which she has performed in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, the Ko Festival of Performance in Amherst, MA, the Friends World Committee For Consultation gathering in Bhopal, India, the Jung Center of Houston, TX, and at colleges and universities in the U.S. Her original, ensemble piece, LUCKIEST KID, was directed by Ben Lloyd and produced in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by White Pines Productions. Kemper has conducted Theatre of the Oppressed workshops in the United States and in India. Her current project for The Midwives looks into white responses to, and responsibility for, making reparations to African Americans. Her studies in theatre include a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and five years of study with master acting teacher Alvina Krause. She has an MFA from Penn State and is an emeritus faculty of the university. Relatively new to the devising process, she has loved learning devising tools and making friends in Ping Chong + Company’s Summer Institute and DevisingHUB.

INSPIRED BY

Alvina Krause; the mountains, trails, skies and beauty of New Mexico; my wife, Jean; deep connections with friends.

EXPLORING:

Two major threads are presently working in my mind: my ancestors' enslavement of Africans in Louisiana and other states, and their role in the colonization of Haiti (until Haiti's successful overthrow of the French); and my Quaker meeting's current struggle/impasse/conflict to agree upon a "minute of reconciliation" -- an apology for occupying land on which Native people were forced to leave, and for the "ownership" of slaves by several of their early members (the meeting's present wealth owes a lot to enslaved people). These two threads may require two different projects.

INSPIRATION FOR PROJECT:

The white, Quaker anti-racism/worship group I’ve been part of for about 7 years; the experience of devising alongside wonderful artists in the DevisingHUB.