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“Black love is revolutionary,” says Queen Drea, the Minneapolis-based sound designer, composer, and performance artist behind the sonic world of A Lesson in Love. The phrase captures both the heart of the play and her approach to making art.
A longtime collaborator and 2021 Naked Stages fellow, Queen Drea calls Pillsbury House + Theatre her “artistic home.” “There’s just something about working here,” she says. “It’s where I feel comfortable to experiment and to grow.”
For A Lesson in Love, Queen worked closely with playwright Nubia Monks and director Jamil Jude to create a soundscape rooted in nostalgia and rhythm. “It was my first time being in the room with both the writer and director throughout rehearsals,” she explains. “I had to find ways to honor both of their voices—and it made the work so much richer.”
The play’s structure—filled with flashbacks, car rides, and musical references—called for inventive sound design. “I wanted each flashback to have its own personality,” Queen says. “Instead of the typical echo or shimmer people use, I thought, what does a flashback sound like if the characters are in a car? Cars move fast; they hold music, conversation, memory. That felt right.”
Queen drew from decades of popular Black music to shape the play’s emotional journey. “Nubia wanted a 90s vibe, and I sprinkled in early-2000s songs too—things like Hot in Herre or My Boo,” she laughs. “And of course, we end with Frankie Beverly and Maze, a song that lives in the DNA of the Black community.”
Those choices were deeply intentional. “These characters have known each other forever, so musically I wanted to travel with them through time—songs that would’ve been playing when they first fell in love, when they reconnected, when they dreamed together.”
Even the lobby playlist connects to that world. “It’s all the songs from the show,” she says. “I wanted people to walk in and subconsciously feel like they’re already inside the story.”
When asked about challenges, Queen is quick to clarify: “A challenge isn’t a bad thing—it’s an opportunity. Working with Nubia while the script was still evolving kept me on my toes, but that’s the beauty of live theater: everyone’s moving, listening, and adjusting together.”
Beyond A Lesson in Love, she’s developing a new piece for the Pillsbury House + Theatre Makers Series called Born on the Fourth of July: From Mississippi to Minnesota. The project explores her mother’s life and her family’s land in Mississippi through music and memory. “It’s a musical journey and a way to reconnect my family to the land we’ve held for over fifty years,” she says. “I want us to decide what it means to do something with it.”
You can follow Queen Drea’s work and updates on her website: queendrea.com
A Lesson in Love runs through October 19 at Pillsbury House + Theatre.
Tickets are Pick-Your-Price ($5–$45) at pillsburyhouseandtheatre.org.
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