SWEET BLOOD

This performance is a part of JACKLabs resident artist series

Written by Camille Simone Thomas
Directed by Raecine Singletary

Produced by Camille S. Thomas, Renee Harrison & Jordan Powell
Assitant Directed by Jordan Powell
Scenic Design by ezekial Clare
Lighting Design by Ethan Feil
Costume Design by Sam DeBell
Fight Choreography by Luke Pearlberg
Prop Design by eric Cipriaso
Music Direction by Jhori Ahnae
Intimacy Coordination by LySaundra Janeé

Playwright’s Note 

Sweet Blood is a work of speculative historical fiction/ Critical Fabulation, which springs from a rich well of inspiration that is woven from the threads of an untimely diagnosis and my grandparents’ ancestral home in Arntully Jamaica, once a coffee plantation.

I grew up the child of a Jamaican mother, playing soccer from age five until fifteen, when I fell in love with theatre. I traded shin guards for scripts and threw myself into the art world. What I didn’t realize was that as I slowed down, no longer sprinting across fields, something else was catching up to me: pre-diabetes.

It wasn't until my father, a type 2 diabetic, lost peripheral vision in his right eye, that I began to understand the risk it carried. Still, my family insisted, “We just have sweet blood.” Like the generational traumas carried in the DNA of Black people descended from slavery, this condition was framed as an inevitable epigenetic fact and something that couldn’t be changed.

This work emerges from my refusal to accept inevitability.

It asks: Is the “sweet blood” my family claims, a matter of genetics, epigenetics, or survival? Who in our lineage first bore this sweetness, and at what cost? How has sugar, whether as crop, commodity, or craving, shaped our histories and haunted our bodies? And most urgently: what would it mean to resist this inheritance?

Playwrights rules of engagement

Borrowed from playwright Dominique Morriseau’s “Rules of Engagement”:

1. You are allowed to laugh audibly.

2. You are allowed to have audible moments of reaction and response.

3. My work requires a few “um hmms” and “uhn uhnns” should you need to use them. Just maybe in moderation. Only when you really need to vocalize.

4. This is also live theatre and the actors need you to engage with them, not distract them or thwart their performance.

5. Please be an audience member that joins with others and allows a bit of breathing room. Exhale together. Laugh together. 

6. This is community. Let’s go.

Hurricane Melissa Relief Efforts

On October 27th Hurricane Melissa, a category 5 hurricane tore through Jamaica destroying the land and countless lives. This hurricane is a direct effect of climate change, which a small island nation like Jamaica has contributed little too but has suffered disproportionately from. As a team led by Jamaican women, starring Jamaican women/femmes who are telling a very Jamaican story we immediately knew we wanted to do something to help our island.  As such we as a team have selected a family that we will be giving direct aid to in the form of a 10% financial donation from the proceeds of Sweet Blood. If you would like to contribute to the additional relief of this family please click the button to donate. The money will then be transferred directly to that family. 

In addition to giving direct aid to a family in need we are asking for donations of batteries and sanitary products (tampons,pads, period cups, etc) as asked by the Consulate General of Jamaica for Hurricane Melissa relief efforts. We will then bring these donations to Hibiscus Brew in Flatbush which has been designated an official drop off location for items that will then be shipped to Jamaica.

Thank you Team Sweet Blood.

CAST

CREATIVE TEAM

Camille Simone Thomas (Playwright, Producer) is a 5th generation Detroiter through her father’s side and a first generation Jamaican through her mothers. It’s important for her to name this because her work most often interrogates cultural legacies, familial healing, spirituality + ancestral wisdom, and the general kicking and screaming of how Black folks get free despite the oppressive forces of colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy. She’s a multi-hyphenate playwright-producer-performer-educator. Her plays have been workshopped and performed at The Connelly Theatre, MCC, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Sanguine Theatre Company, Blackboard Playwriting series, Lime Arts Theatre company, American Slavery Project, The Obie Award-winning Harlem9 and Detroit Public Theatre Company, Dixon Place, Workshop Theatre, Barter Theatre Company, The National Women's Theatre Festival, The Brick, and more! She was a 2023 Broadway Advocacy Coalition Artivism fellow. A 2024 finalist for the Eugene O’neill NPC for her play At God’s Back. A 2023 New Harmony Project finalist, 2023 Hedgebrook Writers retreat finalist, 2023 Catskills Creative Residency finalist. She was in the 2024/2025 Civilians R&D Group, 2024/25 Artistic Research Fellow at The Folger in DC, and is currently the 2024/25 JACKLabs Artist.

Raecine Singletary (Director) is a Jamaican American director and Baltimore native. She works to cultivate art that centers, celebrates, and uplifts the revolutionary joy that continues to shine specifically through Black women and youth; igniting an upswell of healing through unrelenting joy. She has worked as a director with Mercury Store, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, Playwrights Horizons New Works Lab, Baltimore Center Stage, Pittsburgh Classic Theatre, Lime Arts Productions, The Hansberry Project, City Theatre, and Point Park University. She has collaborated as an assistant director alongside numerous directors including Rebecca Martinez, Dustin Wills, Jenny Koons, Pam MacKinnon, Awoye Timpo, etc. She was a Robert Moss Directing Fellow at Playwrights Horizons and a former member of the New Georges Jam. Raecine holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Directing from Point Park University.

Renee Harrison (Co-producer)  is a Jamaican-born, New Jersey-raised, and Los Angeles-based actor and creative producer. She is the founder of Black Girls Do Theater, a social impact organization connecting Black girls and women with the works of our past, present, and future. Through this platform, Renee has produced dynamic programming in New York City, creating spaces that honor legacy while fostering innovation. A natural storyteller at heart, she marries her love for performance with a passion for intentional, authentic, and creative mediums—now bringing that same vision and commitment to Sweet Blood, her first theatrical production as a producer.

Jordan Powell [she/her] (Co-producer/Assistant director) is a Jamaican American director, writer, filmmaker, designer, and educator. Her work as a writer and director is to bring together black women so we can, as a community, excavate our past and retell these stories through our bodies, voices, and new technological devices that help us archive these stories. Her work archives and documents the present so that we can be represented in the future. She has written and directed a film, Cutie, that was developed in the Nine Muses Lab taught by Bryce Dallas Howard. She has assistant-directed and directed plays at The Public’s Under the Radar Festival,  The Wild Project, The Brick, and the New York Theater Festival. Jordan often spends her studio sessions devising new imaginings. She was recently the creative producer and founder of The Archive: New Works by Black Women, a staged reading series that celebrates black women’s voices in theatre.

ezekiel Clare (Scenic Designer)  is a set designer and photographer interested in examining and documenting our relationship to metaphysical thoughts and gender. ezekiel was born and raised in New York City holding a BFA in Film from SUNY Purchase and is currently pursuing their MFA in set design from NYU. She has been working as a set designer for 4 years and 10 years as a photographer. Her work can be described as playful, direct, contained and minimal. ezekiel loves solving problems and deconstructing things to their simplest which has led them to be guided by the philosophy “less is more”. Curiosity and play are at the forefront of her process from doing self-portraits in her room to working with other artists in a theater. With any given space she tries to create a playground that fosters experimentation and learning as those are the foundations for all of their collaborative work. Set Design credits include: Tell Them My Dreadful Name (2025) at NYU, Fugue/State (2025) at NYU, Can't Make An Omelette (2025) Columbia University, Mud; or when things get messy and how we live with it for the SheNYC festival Off-Broadway at the Connelly Theatre (2024), Ghetto Alchemy: A Lunchroom Survival Guide at The Tank (2024), Lia Del Mar at Columbia University 2024, Powerline Road Art/NY (2023) The Fire This Time Festival at Wild project(2023) , Christians (2022), Marisol (2022), and How I Learned To Drive (2021) all at SUNY Purchase.

Ethan Feil (Lighting Designer) is a New York City based lighting designer from Washington, DC. He has done designs all across the city including Royal Family Productions’ Lunchtime Theater, Women on Fire: Fair is Foul, & Upta Camp, Ice Berg Productions’ Orion & The Goatman & Elegies: A Song Cycle, The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, Joshua Piper’s Cafe Americano, and more! His work has been featured in the Fresh Fruit Festival at Wild Project, NYC Fringe at the Chain, & The New York Theater Festival.

Jacques Matellus (Sound Designer) is an actor and sound designer based in Brockton MA and is excited to be working on this project! His most recent sound credits include NO CHILD.. at Gloucester stage company, NAWFSIDE at the Tank, and Ain't no Mo at speakeasy stage as an assistant to the sound designer. He has studied music production and audio mixing at Berkelee College of Music. Thank you God, always 

Sam DeBell (Costume Designer) is a visual artist, costume designer, and director from the Chicago area living in Brooklyn, NY. Recent design credits include Berlindia! (The Tank), 500 Rats: A Love Story (HERE Arts Center), The Yellow Wallpaper (Philipstown Depot Theatre), Kinderkrankenhaus (The Brick), and Miss Margarida’s Way (Brick Aux). She has assisted designers Off-Broadway and at Company XIV, the Bushwick Starr’s BGT program, Smith Street Stage, NYU, and Queens College. Sam’s work as a painter and illustrator includes creating cover art for songs by Sydni Dichter and Child of the Dinosaur. BFA: NYU, Production & Design Studio and Playwrights Horizons Theater School

Jhori Ahnae (Music Director) Ms. Jhori Stallworth (who goes by her artist name, Jhori Ahnae) , is a native of Tallahassee, FL. She is an active performer, songwriter, producer, and arranger. Jhori has produced and released numerous songs and projects, which are available on all streaming platforms. She has been a professional background vocalist for the band, Tallahassee Nights Live, since 2016 where she’s opened for nationally recognized names such as Boyz II Men, Anthony Hamilton, Adina Howard, Tasha Cobbs and Samoht. She has also sung background vocals for artists such as Tweet, James Fortune, William Murphy, Kelontae Gavin, Jessica Reedy, and the world renowned FAMU Gospel Choir. She’s also performed internationally on Carnival Cruise line. Jhori is a graduate of Florida A&M University where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, and  recently attained her Masters Degree in Creative Media and Technology at Berklee NYC, where she wrote the book, music and lyrics for her original musical, Technicolor Blues. She is a Spring 2015 initiate of the Theta Nu chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity and a Spring 2024 initiate of the Tallahassee Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. 

eric Cipriaso (Prop Design) is an illustrator and craftsman from the Bronx. Their work encompasses many different mediums and is why they're so excited to work on the props for this show! They're so honored to work with such talented folx and bring creative ideas to life with purposeful props to tell compelling and inspirational stories. Their previous credits include Prop design for Richard II and Henry V (Smith Street Stage).

LySaundra Janeé [she/her] (Intimacy Coordinator) is a multidisciplinary storyteller, writer, and musician. Her artistic practice leverages Black feminist ideology, Black theology, magical realism, and spirituality to create stories that encourage radical honesty, imagination, communal healing, and joy. Previous fellowships and residencies include: EmergeNYC at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, lordship house, Anaphora Literary Arts, and the Center for Cultural Power Artistic Fellow for We, As Ourselves, a national campaign reshaping narratives about Black survivors of violence. LySaundra is a 2026 Art Politics M.A. candidate at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, a lyricist for the 2025-2027 BMI Musical Theatre Songwriting Workshop, and graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a B.A. in Sociology and a Multicultural Studies certificate. Her practice as an intimacy professional comes from Theatrical Intimacy Educators and the Somatica Institute, and over 15 years of activism with gender justice organizations. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity.

Luke Pearlberg (Fight Choreographer) is an NYC based member of the Society of American Fight Directors, action performer and stunt artist. Previous fight direction credits include: The Pillowman (Heights Players), Macbeth (The American Theater of Actors), Sleepy Hollow (The Players Theater) TurnOver (IRT Theater), Letterhead (New York Theater Festival), Raw (Court Square Theater), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Algonquin Arts Theater). Currently: She Kills Monsters (Hillsborough Arts). Thanks to Josh at False Edge Armory, and to the entire Sweet Blood team.

Francesqa Santos (Stage Manager) 

Written by Camille Simone Thomas "Songs composed by Camille Simone Thomas arranged by Can Yassar with additional support from Jhori Ahnae, Brianna Johnson, Whitley Armstrong, and Amanda Hunt”

Development History

The Brick Interrobang Festival Spring 2024

Folger Library Artistic Research Fellowship "Whose Democracy" fellow 2024/2025

North American Cultural Laboratory 2024

JACKLabs Fellow 2024/2025