Breath, Boom at Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

Written for the Royal Court Theatre in London, Breath, Boom is based on extensive research on the lives of young women and street violence. The plot revolves around fourteen years (age 16 to 30) in the life of Prix, a female gang member from New York who escapes her hardened life with dreams of creating the perfect fireworks display. We follow Prix’s life as she travels from the streets to juvenile reformatory to jail and back to the streets again. Chronicling her dreams, passions, and hopes as well as violence, pain, and her obsession with firework, Corthron presents an accurate look at this slice of life, complete with the tough and sometimes poetic language used by the individuals experiencing it.