Brian Quijada & Nygel D. Robinson
Brian Quijada (he/him) is an actor, playwright, and composer whose original work has been developed and produced all across the country. His Hip-Hop solo show Where Did We Sit on the Bus? has been produced at Victory Gardens, Teatro Vista (Jeff Award), Ensemble Studio Theatre (Drama Desk Nomination), Boise Contemporary, 1st Stage, and City Theatre Pittsburgh. His plays have been developed at The Millennium Stage at The Kennedy Center, Pittsburgh CLO’s Spark Festival, Victory Gardens’ Ignition Festival, New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Festival, and The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Musical Theater Conference. Commissioning institutions include Seattle Repertory Theater, A.R.T., 1st Stage, and The Kennedy Center.
brianquijada.com • @mrbrianquijad
Nygel D. Robinson (he/him) is a singer, actor, writer, and multi-instrumentalist based in New York City. Select musician theater credits include Larry in the workshop and Lincoln Center concert version of Beau: The Musical, Jesus in Godspell (St. Michael’s Playhouse), The All Night Strut (Milwaukee Rep), and Three Pianos (Florida Studio Theatre).
Collaborative duo Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson are joining Hi-ARTS in the development of MEXODUS, a two-man, live-looped, Hip-Hop show inspired by the estimated 4,000-10,000 enslaved people in the southern part of the United States who pursued freedom in Mexico instead of looking north. This under-told chapter of the Underground Railroad is an exploration of Black and brown bodies standing together against oppression.
“The idea of an Underground Railroad going south sheds light on a rich history of cooperation and peaceful coexistence between Black and brown people. In an early iteration of the opening song of the musical Two Bodies, there was a line that said “we go back further than the birth of Hip-Hop.” Hip-Hop was born in the Bronx and cultivated by Black and brown artists. That, to us, is a modern-day representation of unity and similarity between two marginalized communities. With all of the turmoil on the border of America and Mexico today, we also found it necessary to tell a “reverse border story” in hopes that it would incite empathy for the modern-day undocumented immigrant seeking asylum.
Through our innovative conventions of live looping and multi-instrumentalism, we hope to pay homage to the little-known estimated 4,000-10,000 slaves who became free Mexicans and the Mexicans who welcomed them into their country.”
— Brian Quijada & Nygel D. Robinson
Left: Brian Quijada (courtesy); Right: Nygel D. Robinson (courtesy)
