A Story of Maine and the Middle Passage
A solo black box theater show written and performed by Antonio Rocha
Atlantic Black Box is partnering with artist Antonio Rocha to bring The Malaga Ship to audiences around the state of Maine and beyond.
Read about Antonio’s performance and process in the February 27, 2025 edition of the Portland Press Herald, “Maine storyteller goes on a personal journey in ‘The Malaga Ship’” by Megan Gray.
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The performance
The Malaga was a 183-ton brig built in 1832 in Brunswick, Maine, in a shipyard owned by Joseph Badger. Like many other 19th-century Maine-built vessels documented by historian Kate McMahon, the Malaga was eventually drawn into the illegal slave trade.
When Brazilian-American storyteller Antonio Rocha learned that a ship built close to the place he has called home for nearly four decades could have carried his own African ancestors to Rio de Janeiro, where he grew up, the artist set about connecting the dots of his upbringing in Brazil and his immigration to Maine with those of the slave ship Malaga, which was built in Maine and “immigrated” to Brazil. He came away convinced he was born to tell this story.
Drawing from rich oral traditions and his extensive training in the performing arts, Antonio has developed a powerful solo stage show devoted to exploring the invisibilized connections between here and there, between past and present, and between individual and collective memory.
While the people of Maine have long taken pride in the state’s rich maritime heritage and evoked with admiration the profiles of the tall ships that sailed from this rugged coast, too seldom have we stopped to ask what these vessels actually contained in their holds. The Malaga Ship provides audiences with important insight into the suppressed history of New England’s role in the slave trade, shedding light on the extractive and inhumane forms of commerce carried out during what has nostalgically been referred to as the Golden Age of Sail.
The artist
Antonio Rocha, originally from Brazil, began his career in the performing arts in 1985. In 1988 he received a Partners of the Americas grant to come to the USA to perform and deepen his skills with Mime Master Tony Montanaro. He went on to graduate Summa Cum Laude from the University of Southern Maine with a Theater BA and to study with Master Marcel Marceau.
Mr. Rocha has performed his unique and award-winning solo fusion of mime and storytelling, with mesmerizing voices and sound effects, from Singapore to South Africa and many places in between, including 20 countries on six continents, as well as in 44 U.S. states. Some of the venues include The Singapore Festival of the Arts, Wolf Trap, The National Storytelling Festival, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic, The Tales of Graz in Austria, Dunya Festival, The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, and the Cave Run Storytelling Festival. Antonio has additionally given thousands of school performances.
Antonio Rocha also loves to teach his craft and often facilitates workshops, not only for performers, but for those who want to incorporate storytelling into their business presentations and classrooms.
A two-time TEDx speaker, Mr. Rocha is a proud recipient of the coveted Circle of Excellence Award by the National Storytelling Network, and most recently the 2024 Maine Arts Commission Fellowship for the Performing Arts.
Throughout this wrenching and sublime performance, Antonio Rocha transforms himself into a vessel holding with care and courage both the unfathomable suffering and the resilience of the five million Africans who were torn from their homelands and forced into slavery in Brazil, due in part to the actions of New Englanders. Their voices now live on through his.
“To paraphrase Maya Angelou, ‘it may be enough to have it said that we [as a people] survive in exact relationship to the dedication’ of our artists. So often, understanding and informing history is most effectively achieved through the many forms of artistic expression. In his extraordinary performance of the The Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and the Middle Passage, Antonio Rocha exemplifies the way in which the difficult history of the trans-Atlantic human trade is infused with ‘shades of deeper meaning,’ brought to life, and shared.“
— Ann Cobb, Executive Director, and Ann Chin, Program Director
Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project
Interested in learning how to bring The Malaga Ship to your school or community?
Reach out to Antonio at antoniorochastoryteller@gmail.com or fill out the form below.
Watch this program from Maine Conservation Voters featuring Dr. Kate McMahon and Antonio Rocha as they shed light on Maine’s deep connections to the global slave trade and the power of storytelling in reclaiming lost histories. Their collaboration exemplifies how artistic reclamation can promote reflection, healing, and justice.
“I saw the performance of the Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and The Middle Passage by Antonio Rocha at the National Storytelling Network Conference in Seattle, WA in 2024. It took my breath away, left me in tears, and with a sense that I had traveled through time to witness the lifecycle of a slave ship. This story teaches people about the Middle Passage in a unique and unforgettable way. Antonio brought the ship to life and showed the audience, through the ship’s experience of transporting “cargo,” how incredibly cruel and pervasive the slave industry was. Antonio also drew a line from what happened in the 1800s with his own life and with America today, connecting the dots from the sugar industry, the slave industry, and racial inequity in America in 2024. By connecting these various points through history with his own personal experience, he painted a vivid picture for anyone who might not understand how tragedies of the past influence the present.”
— Jessica Piscitelli Robinson, Executive Director, Better Said Than Done
Visit Antonio’s website
Connect with Antonio on Facebook and LinkedIn.
To purchase Antonio’s story collection on a USB flashdrive, email your request to antoniorochastoryteller[AT]gmail.com and send payment of $30 via PayPal.