The MAAFA Suite

Visiting Brooklyn to see The MAAFA Suite was like nothing I had ever done before. The church and the atmosphere alone was extraordinarily important in creating our thoughts and opinions about our first impressions of the show.

As it started out as a regular African American worship service, many of us were exposed to a new and different cultural and religious way of worshiping.

The way that the church inside was set up to go along with the set of the actual performance was interesting to see, because I am sure that St. Paul's isn't always set up like this. I wonder what the "St. Paul regulars" think of that and whether or not the opinion differs due to age difference.

I was extremely impressed to see the number of young and talented performers in the show. The congregation as a whole seemed to be mainly middle aged with not very many children.

The show itself, based on slavery and freedom, was incredibly moving. It was very easy to get into the emotions of the characters because they really felt hatred towards what used to go on. You could tell this by the way the congregation reacted to certain vicious acts.

The amazing dancing, singing, and acting was performed by strong, trained actors and actresses who you could tell worked very hard to do what they were doing on stage, and you could also tell that the other people in the audience were also impressed.

Overall, even though I was a bit under the weather and we didn't get back until very late (causing me to miss classes), I don't think I would have been happy with myself if I missed this performance. It was very different than what we have seen as a group so far, and I feel like the diversity offers a whole new outlet of performance to be seen.