#black playwrights | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

Visit Blog

Explore Tumblr blogs with no restrictions, modern design and the best experience.

Fun Fact

70% of Tumblr users say the Dashboard is their favorite place to spend time online.

writemarcus · 3 months

Text

Dev Bondarin is directing a reading of my kitchen-sink dramedy TUMBLEWEED with the UP Theater Company (www.uptheater.org). The reading will take place on Sunday, January 21st at 3pm at Ft. Washington Collegiate Church located at 729 W. 181st St. (1 train to 181st).

Kirby Fields, artistic director of the UP Theatre Company recently spoke with the Manhattan News recently about their Dead of Winter series: ‘Fields says it is particularly gratifying to establish relationships with writers. Marcus Scott, who wrote the third play in the series, “Tumbleweed,” came to a staged reading last year. Then he sent Fields a number of his own plays.

“This guy is just bursting with ideas,” said Fields. “He’s pulling from philosophy, pop culture…he’s culling from all different racial dynamics on stage and putting them all together.” Directed by Dev Bondarin, the play revolves around a young Black woman with “hair like a tumbleweed” who tries to reconcile different standards of beauty.’

👩🏾‍🦱👩🏿‍🦱👩🏽‍🦱👩🏾‍🦱👩🏿‍🦱👩🏽‍🦱👩🏾‍🦱👩🏿‍🦱👩🏽‍🦱👩🏾‍🦱👩🏿‍🦱👩🏽‍🦱👩🏾‍🦱👩🏿‍🦱👩🏽‍🦱👩🏾‍🦱👩🏿‍🦱👩🏽‍🦱

Read the story: Manhattan Times

2 notes · View notes

umass-digiturgy · 1 year

Text

Black Theater History at UMASS, 2017-2022

#black playwrights

0 notes

yourdailyqueer · 2 months

Text

Mary P. Burrill (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: August 1881

RIP: 13 March 1946

Ethnicity: African American

Occupation: Writer, playwright, professor, director, activist

#Mary P. Burrill #Mary P Burrill #lgbt history #female #lesbian #1881 #rip #historical #black #poc #african american #writer #playwright #teacher #director #activist #popular #popular post #old hollywood

160 notes · View notes

kedu56 · 1 month

Text

Danai Gurira and Aldis Hodge at the 2024 Vanity Fair Party

📸: Nina Westervelt for the New York Times

#danai gurira #michonne #the walking dead #black panther #okoye #twd cast #danai #black panther wakanda forever #beauty #marvel #aldis hodge #twd family #2024 vanity fair oscar party #playwright #the ones who live #towl #twd towl #writer #zuhair murad

86 notes · View notes

inamindfarfaraway · 5 months

Text

It's both funny and increasingly annoying to me when Hatchetfield fans associate Bill with Blinky, the way Paul is associated with Pokey and Ted with Tinky, but leave out Alice. She was there in Watcher World too! Her eyes were also purple! She was also controlled to try to kill her family! There is no way you can think of “Watcher World” without remembering Alice's equal involvement in Blinky's scheme.

I'd argue that she's a much better fit for Blinky's special human. He forms a grudge against her for insulting and disobeying him ("Fuck you, Blinky", "You'll be sorry"), just like Pokey's fixation on Paul because he defied him. She has a theme of watching going on herself, in contrast to Bill's naivety and obliviousness: being perceptive enough to notice the creepy, suspicious elements of Watcher World; trying to use observation as a tool to control Deb's behaviour, Blinky's modus operandi (though I personally like to believe that Deb didn't actually cheat and Blinky was tricking her); and having a connection with social media in general, which Blinky is thematically similar to and embodies the worst, most harmful elements of. She's deeply self-conscious, concerned with her reputation to her peers and has an anxiety disorder. The result that she's always worrying about how people see her and feels pressured to act in certain ways by that is exactly what Blinky wants in his prey, just like how Linda is Nibby's ideal hungry Honey Queen. She's interested in theatre and wants to be a playwright, to write shows where people will passively watch characters struggle and suffer for their own entertainment. Blinky creates live plays too - he even proudly says “Welcome to the show!" when the father and daughter's duel begins. She knows how to manipulate people by showing them what they want to see, giving her script draft a tragic ending for the queer main characters that's more likely to get it accepted in the discriminatory industry, when in fact she wants to change the ending once she has more power.

And she alone defeats her Lord in Black. Pokey assimilates Paul. Tinky breaks and owns Ted. Nibbly consumes Linda. Wiggly completely enslaves Linda and leads her to her death, and Wiley is unshakeable from his allegiance to him. But Alice? She overcomes the mind control, pushes through her panic attack, shoots Bliklotep in his all-seeing eye and goes home with her dad. And lets go of her independent issues with perception and image by putting down her phone.

She is so much like Blinky, and so much his perfect victim. Except that she wants happy endings. For the characters in her stories, for herself and for the people she loves. And she has the strength to make them come true. She's Blinky's equal and opposite. The hero to his villain. She can do everything he can, on a human scale, but she believes in happy endings.

I know the fandom likes the 'CCRP eldritch horrors’ favourites gang', and that is fun. But give Alice the respect she deserves! I see her as Blinky's Ted while Bill is his Pete; also a valued toy, but more by proxy than in his own right.

#she was literally doomed by the narrative in-universe and saved herself #and was saved by her dad #she is a PLAYWRIGHT THEATRE CHARACTER she can rewrite her own narrative!#she SHOT and escaped a lord in black #respect her!#alice woodward #my beloved #bill woodward #blinky #bliklotep #watcher world #nightmare time #hatchetfield

112 notes · View notes

jokezm · 8 months

Text

Some Black Souls stuff

#black souls #black souls 2 #Alice #playwright lorde #leaf #grimm #Claude monet #fear and hunger

61 notes · View notes

amoeba-shaped-rock · 11 months

Text

Arknights's Phantom and the Black Cat(s)

Preface – What is the Black Cat?

Phantom, or Lucian, is known to be based on the work Phantom of the Opera. His Blood Diamond costume is also a reference to the Masque of the Red Death, a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe – a well known gothic lit writer (gothic in this case meaning the architecture in the European Middle Ages). This may be because in the musical, Erik is shown to be wearing a costume referencing the short story. Plus, Phantom’s birthday, 19th January, is also shared by Poe.

The Black Cat is a short story written by Poe. Luci and Ms Christine, by extension the Playwright as well, share similarities with the themes and characters in The Black Cat. Given the references to Edgar Allan Poe as stated above, all of these may be intended. (or maybe I’m overanalysing, but the similarities are still interesting to think about in regards to the characters and the direction HG wants to develop them)

(Warning: This post contains spoilers for the 4th ending)

PART 1 – About The Black Cat

The Black Cat – Summary

An unnamed narrator recounts his life, and says that he will die soon, to the gallows. He mentioned loving animals and his wife, particularly a black cat called Pluto his wife gave him, but at some point, alcoholism took over him and made him violent. He mentions being abusive to his wife and pets except Pluto, until one day Pluto ignored him – which made him hurt Pluto too, and poked one of Pluto’s eyes. Pluto got physically better, but it was terrified of the narrator. The narrator hated this fact because he still loved Pluto, but then talked about how he got possessed by alcoholism to give in to his violent impulses and killed Pluto – hung him from a noose. Mentioned that he knew he shouldn’t, but there was an intrinsic part of him, humanity itself, that loves to break laws because it shouldn’t be broken. His house burned down except one wall where a carving(?) of cat with a noose appeared. He got freaked out, but he missed Pluto, so when a similar cat appeared on top of an alcohol barrel, he adopted it. Pluto was a black cat, but this other cat has a splosh of white pattern on the whole chest. At first he loved it, but then because it kept reminding him of his crimes, he grew to hate it. And the cat started to love him even more, and followed the narrator everywhere. One day he and his wife went to his basement for an errand, and the black cat ran in between his legs. Annoyed, he tried to kill the cat, but the wifey shielded the cat. He killed the wife, hid the body behind a wall, and the cat disappeared. He was happy and relieved for 4 days bc the cat is gone, but neighbours and police got suspicious of him. They checked his basement for 3 or 4 times, and bc the narrator is so proud of managing to get away with his crimes, he told the police that the house is well built while knocking on the wall where he hid the body – and then there was a sound of a yelp. The police took down the wall and found the corpse, and the unnamed black cat, with a white pattern that resembles a noose on its chest and around its neck, stood on top of the head of the corpse. The narrator blames the black cat for his crimes and his arrest.

The Black Cat – Major Themes

Unreliable Narrator – the narrator questioned his own sanity multiple times, and he himself mentioned that he was under the influence of alcohol most of the time. There are plenty of inconsistencies within the text, further telling us that we must not take his words at face value. He considers himself a rational and logical man who does not believe in superstition, but times and times again we see him pray to God in fear, or justifying his crimes by saying that he got possessed. He tries to explain events with logic and reason but a lot of times his excuses are farfetched.

Sanity (or rather the lack of it) – He starts off the story in a rather calm tone, but descends further into rage and madness as we approach the end of the story. The contrast in language is strong (example: calling his cat a dear friend, vs at the end calling it a monster and Satan). He also constantly considers himself ‘possessed’ by a fit of rage/perverseness whenever he commits violence.

Absolvement of guilt – he constantly blames alcohol and possession for his own crimes, in an attempt to absolve himself from guilt. He blamed his cat’s death on alcohol and his wife’s death on the unnamed black cat, even though he admitted he wanted to do those. If he really was possessed, like he claimed, does that remove him from the consequences of his actions?

Black cats as a harbinger of bad luck – Black cats were often believed to bring bad luck. In The Black Cat, this is both true and not. From the narrator’s point of view, Pluto and his successor was the cause of all “misfortune” that had happened to him. However, considering that the narrator is an abusive husband, the black cats can also be seen as the harbinger of justice, exacting punishment onto the narrator for his crimes.

Home as a source of anxiety and restlessness– Another subversion of a popular theme where home is a symbol of safety. The narrator felt anxious and stressed in his home, where he was reminded of his crimes, so he spends his life away at the tavern to drink. The only time he saw his home as a source of happiness and safety was after hiding his wife’s body.

Supernatural or Hallucination – Considering that the narrator admits he was losing his mind, it is hard to take his words at face value. If we do take them at face value and believe him, it seems that something supernatural is at work, which is common in gothic literature. For example, Pluto’s spirit who came back to haunt him and exact justice upon the man who killed him. Another interpretation is that he hallucinated under the influence of alcohol and the guilt at the back of his mind.

PART 2 – In Relation to Phantom and those in his orbit

Phantom and The Narrator

Despite some core differences with regards to alcoholism and animal abuse, Lucian shares some similarities with the narrator.

They both had a black cat as a pet

Both are unreliable narrators, and constantly question their own perceptions of reality

Both started out kind and normal (if we were to believe the Narrator’s words) until at some turning point in their lives when they started to commit violence

Both were haunted by their pasts

Both seem to hallucinate their past, whether from guilt or from a supernatural force

Just like the narrator, Lucian considers the troupe his home, but also finds it a cause of unrest.

Both justify the murders they choose to commit, the narrator with alcohol and human nature, while Phantom uses his sense of justice (battle voiceline: “The guilty must be punished”). Also noteworthy is Lux’s theory (linked below in the additional reading section) about how the incident on Phantom’s debut night wasn’t entirely an accident, but a premeditated assassination too, which I think is a compelling argument.

Ms Christine and the black cats

Pluto is an important companion of the narrator, and so is Ms Christine to Phantom. Both are described to be a beautiful and affectionate black cat. Pluto himself didn’t have much of a characterisation beyond that bc it died early in the story, but Ms Christine also have a number of similarities with the unnamed black cat

The unnamed black cat has white fur shaping a noose on the neck, while Ms Christine is always shown wearing ribbon, infection monitor, etc on her neck

Very intelligent

Was picked up at a drinking establishment (tea in Luci’s case)

Follows their humans to a lot of places (this is true of Pluto too) (actually can confirm cats do this a lot in general)

Drops hints for the people who were searching for clues

There might be more, but so far these are all that I can find.

The Playwright and the unnamed black cat

Considering that Ms Christine has a lot of similarities with the two black cats, one might be tempted to stop thinking there and then, but the Playwright also surprisingly shared a number of similarities with the unnamed black cat. (He is a feline for narrative purposes I tell you) However due to the lack of material, this section is limited and works on assumptions, theories and possibilities. May need to update this section when we get more information.

He has white hair, similar to the unnamed black cat. Not only this, his white hair trails from near his temple, to behind his ears, through his neck and shoulder, and ends at his chest. There is also a white lining on shirt that runs through his entire abdomen, just like the unnamed cat, who has a patch of white fur around the neck and on the chest. Is it a stretch to say that his white hair and part of shirt form a noose? maybe, but the similarity to the cat is there.

The unnamed black cat is constantly mentioned with a noose - usually associated with two things: the gallows, or suicide. Not sure which one of these can be applied to the playwright (although I’m leaning towards suicide), but he is associated with deaths and endings.

Pluto is also named after the Roman version of Hades, the god of the dead. the playwright is also associated with godly powers (ability to manipulate reality) and deaths.

Soon after Pluto died, the narrator’s house was set on fire. The cause of fire is never explained. The Playwright is associated with death by fire. Also noteworthy that in ACT 1, it was mentioned that the fire consumed everything he treasured, just like the fire that burnt all of the Narrator’s wealths and treasures.

More details with regards to Act 1: In the short story, the black cats are shown to be antagonists from the narrator’s point of view, but when looking at the piece objectively, we can conclude that the cats are the ‘hero’ and the narrator is the ‘villain’. Similarly, The Playwright is an antagonist and a boss to fight in IS2, but in Act 1 he is described as a hero. With this information and the fact that Lucian hasn’t escaped the troupe’s brainwashing completely, there might be a role reversal later on in the story.

The unnamed black cat can be seen as a harbinger of justice, exacting revenge on the man who abused his pets and wife. Throughout the route to his ending, it was mentioned and emphasised many times that The Playwright is working towards revenge.

Just by being associated with the troupe, he reminds Phantom of the incident on his debut night

Since he is the one who wrote Phantom experiences into reality, in a way he stays with him all the time and gets in Phantom’s way, similar to the way the black cat follows the narrator around and run between his feet to get in his way

If the “youth” in Crazy Puppets encounter was truly him, then he, just like the unnamed black cat, assisted people in their investigations, in this case the RI.

Despite being the antagonist of their stories, neither the black cat nor the Playwright showed any hostility. (as per his description. except contrary to that description we had to fight the playwright… HG why)

The police found the black cat and the corpse during the 3 or 4th time they searched the narrator’s basement. Incidentally, the playwright is in the fourth ending, and requires you to complete an IS2 adventure at least once prior.

The short story ends with the narrator blaming the black cat. The playwright is often associated with endings, and it’s noteworthy that he took the blame for the events in PCS, saying that mistakes happen in the script

Not the black cats specifically but both him and ms christine has a lot of ribbons on them. Wonder if there’s some sort of meaning/symbolism to it.

PART 3 - Extras

not required reading but gives additional context:

link 1: The Black Cat

link 2: Lux’s thread about Phantom’s past

link 3: Ling’s translation of a weibo post analysing Phantom’s lore and background

#arknights #playwright #phantom #ms christine #black cat #cats #Edgar Allan Poe #analysis #comparison #crimson troupe #I love these cat boys hng #troupe lore musings

17 notes · View notes

godlivesinmyalgorithm · 4 months

Text

Lorraine Hansberry’s likes and dislikes

April 1, 1960:

I LIKE:

Mahalia Jackson’s music

My husband — most of the time

dressed up

being admired for my looks

Dorothy Secules eyes

Dorothy Secules

Shakespeare

Having an appetite

Slacks

My homosexuality

Being alone

Eartha Kitt’s looks

Eartha Kitt

That first drink of Scotch

To feel like working

The little boy in “400 Blows”

The way I look

Certain flowers

The way Dorothy Talks

Older Women

Miranda D’Corona’s accent

Charming women

And/or intelligent women

I HATE

Being asked to speak

Speaking getting

Too much mail

My loneliness

My homosexuality

Stupidity

Most television programs

What has happened to Sidney Poitier

Racism

People who defend it

Seeing my picture

Reading my interviews

Jean Genet’s plays

Jean Paul Sartre’s writing

Not being able to work

Death

Pain Cramps

Being hung over

Silly women

As silly men

David Suskind’s pretensions

Sneaky love affairs.

I AM BORED TO DEATH WITH:

A RAISIN IN THE SUN!

alonzo Levister

drinking without happiness

Eartha Kitt

Being a Les

“Lesbians” the capital L variety

other peoples problems

The Race Problem

Silly white people

Rumors of War

the Great American money obsession

my own Loneliness

SEX

myself

Being a “Celebrity”

I want:

to work

to be in love!

Dorothy Secules (at the moment)

https://publish.illinois.edu/ihlc-blog/2018/06/04/lorraine-hansberry-letters-to-the-ladder

#queer theory #black lesbian #black queer #black women #lesbian #lorraine hansberry #literature #black literature #black authors #black playwright #black resilliance #black qwoc #young gifted and black

4 notes · View notes

writemarcus · 1 year

Text

In Conversation: Keelay Gipson with Marcus Scott

Keelay Gipson, an award-winning multi-disciplinary Afro-surrealist dramatist, activist, and teaching artist, knows what it means to battle your inner demons and come out the other side.

In June 2020, during the pandemic, Gipson’s mother, Gwendolyn, passed away. From the pangs of grief, Gipson began excavating and examining his life and journey as a storyteller. Born in Oklahoma City to a young, unwed mother, the prolific writer was adopted by a Black married couple from the Deep South who relocated and raised him in the idyllic suburbs of Tulsa. It was his mother that nourished his love of theater and the performing arts. Studying acting at Pace, and after a period of being relegated to roles of drug dealers, gang bangers, and sex workers, Gipson turned his focus to writing for the stage and advocating for Black people and Black lives through his work. This would eventually lead to a passionate drive as an activist, with Gipson eventually becoming a member of “We See You, White American Theater,” an anonymously-led coalition of artists that circulated a widely read set of demands for change during a cultural reckoning that saw seismic shifts in and out of the entertainment world.

Now, the award-winning scribe is on the verge of making his off-Broadway debut with the kitchen-sink drama demons., a poetic meditation on loss and legacy. The play, produced by The Bushwick Starr in association with JAG Productions, revolves around the Daimon family who have come together to bury their patriarch and exorcise the trauma passed down to them—but is it too late?

While speaking via FaceTime from his apartment in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood, Gipson was in the midst of rehearsals for DOT DOT DOT, a TheaterworksUSA musical commission based on the Creatrilogy trio of picture books by New York Times bestselling author Peter H. Reynolds, adapted with composer Sam Salmond. Below is our conversation about the glass ceiling, gatekeeping, and demons.

Marcus Scott (Rail): Can you describe the journey of going from actor to playwright?

Keelay Gipson: The journey from actor to playwright was really just me following the path of least resistance. I was a student in the Musical Theater program at Pace University (class of 2010) and didn’t find much success in booking roles in my time there. This was way before we were having these kinds of nuanced conversations surrounding race and representation in theater. So I began writing roles for myself to act. I would get folks together in an empty studio and we’d read my plays. Soon I stopped acting in them and would just listen to them. I found my voice while trying to give me and the other brown and Black folks an opportunity to be full artists during a time and in a program where that wasn’t happening.

Rail: How many plays have you written and where does demons. stand among them?

Gipson: I’ve written seven full length plays. demons. is the most recent. I began working on it in the summer of 2019 as part of a joint residency with New York Stage and Film and the Dramatist Guild Foundation.

Rail: While I have my theories—why is the name of your show called demons.?

Gipson: I grew up in a Southern Baptist household. The idea of demons. is something that has always been a part of my consciousness. As a child, I remember my dad telling stories about seeing exorcisms, and it always fascinated me. This idea that something other could be the cause of our afflictions, both mentally and physically. I wanted to toy with that idea. Honor the faith that I grew up with while reclaiming it on some level.

Rail: In a 2020 interview with JAGFest, you said “demons. was a play I wasn’t supposed to write, so I listened to the muse; I sat down and it came out of me.” Can you explain this?

Gipson: As I said, I was in residence with NYSAF and DGF at Vassar in the summer of 2019. I was there to work on another play of mine, The Red and the Black—which is a play about the rise of New Black Conservatism. I often have multiple projects going at one time. A play I’m “supposed to” be writing and a “procrastination play” [laughs]. demons. was the latter. Honestly, it was a thought experiment. I was moving squarely into my mid-thirties and I had seen friends lose parents, and I was trying to mentally prepare myself for what that might feel like. Little did I know, the play would be the precursor for my own experience with the death of a parent during the pandemic. I say, “it wasn’t the play I was supposed to write” but it was the play I needed to write.

Rail: So, what’s it about? What was the inspiration for your play demons.? I assume the loss of your mother.

Gipson: Yeah. So, the story follows a Black family after the death of their patriarch. And what I noticed in dealing with the aftermath of a death is that a lot of stuff comes up, right? So, demons. is an exploration through an Afro-surrealist lens of what comes up after the death of a family member, mainly of a parent. The things that you have to reckon with, things that maybe aren’t yours, but that you inherit. So, there’s this idea of inherited trauma, and especially with Black folks in America, what we pass down to our family members and what we leave behind when we’re no longer here. So, demons. is an exploration of all of those good things that death sort of unearths.

Rail: I followed your journey throughout the pandemic with regards to the loss. Once again, I'm very sorry for your loss, man.

Gipson: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Rail: What was your relation like to your mother?

Gipson: My mother was my biggest cheerleader. In high school, she was the president of the parent association for the drama program. She got the pass to come do a photo-call during the dress rehearsal; she would be there with her camera in the front row taking pictures, not for promotional use but for the scrapbook. Like, my mom was the one who was like, “Go to New York.” I went to New York a couple times in high school with my drama program and my mom came as a chaperone. We went and saw the shows that we saw with the theater department and then we went and saw our own shows. My mom, she loved theater and she was the one that—when we didn’t have the money and I didn’t know if I could come to New York to go to school—she pulled me aside and was like, “I’m gonna make this happen for you.” She was… she was everything.

Rail: So, you’re working on this play about Black conservatives—I think it’s hilarious cause both of us have written about Black conservatives during the pandemic, by the way—and you’ve got so many other things going on; you’re an advocate, or an “artivist” as you call yourself, being one of the figureheads behind We See You, White American Theater and the issues revolving around that, in tandem with the multiple projects you’re cultivating. So before we get into that aspect of your life, was it hard for you to kind of mentally go from one place to another place? Are you one of those writers where you have to be working on multiple projects or are you one of those writers where you can only work on one project at a time?

Gipson: I have never worked on just one project at a time. I think for me, I need something that’s completely opposite of the thing that I’m supposed to be doing. Like, if I have a commission that’s about a historical moment, then I’m gonna write something that’s wild and fanciful over here to like, break out of that—not monotony—but break out of the sort of structure that one wouldn't give me. So yeah, I’m often working on multiple things just to keep my brain limber.

Rail: That’s interesting. I see the link between The Red and the Black in your artivism, but what about this particular play with regards to it?

Gipson: This play kind of feels like a new era of my artistry. You know, I’ve written several plays that are about race, that are about Black folks dealing with race and racism, and not like, being beat down by it, but finding a way through; and I try to be honest in all of those works, but this play feels very much not a part of that pantheon. It feels like, to quote Toni Morrison, I’m taking the white person off of my shoulder. It’s not about race. It’s about Black folks. I wanna write about Blackness and all its complexity and not in relationship to whiteness or to racism. This feels like a new era of work for me, where it’s just about these Black folks in a room trying to figure out how they move forward after this thing devastates them. In the opening of the play, it says “a Black family and extremists.” Like, that’s what the play’s about. How do we relate to each other? The world sort of doesn’t come inside of the space in this play. It’s about Black folks in a space together figuring it out and not in relationship to society or the political landscape or 2022, 2023… it’s timeless in a way because death will always be true.

Rail: Let’s talk politics. Let’s get into it. There were many incidents over the last three years and many of those incidents in the industry in some way involved We See You, White American Theater. This collective has attracted the likes of Tony Award winners, the Academy Award winners, the Broadway Elite and those on the rise… What was the intention behind that? Was there a litmus for that?

Gipson: I think that during the pandemic, we had a lot of time, right? I’ll say that a lot of people had things in the pipeline and the industry was chugging along. There was no reason for it to change. It was working. Then everything stopped and we had time to look at the way that things are going. Look at our industry for real, holistically, and I think a lot of us brown and Black folks saw that it's not working, not for us, and it hasn't been for a long time. We’ve been tokenized. So, in working alongside those organizations and those movements, I was trying to galvanize other brown and Black folks who felt similarly that the industry wasn’t working for us and we could do better. Like, especially in the theater.

The theater is different than film and television because it’s people in a room breathing the same air, there are people sharing space, right? And I’ve always wondered how we can do better at sharing spaces with one another; and I’m all about community. The theater for me has always been a community-driven space. So, I wanted this community to mean what it says! I do think that it's business as usual a little bit again, which is not concerning because I think that the theater is working the way that it was designed to work. Much like a lot of things in our society. Yes, we can push back on it, but if we don’t imagine new models—like completely new models—then the old models that we’re trying to reform are always going to try to revert back to the way they were working. Cause that’s how they were built to work. So, the momentum of some of these things, like We See You… there are several organizations, I don’t want to just point to that one… but I wonder what their role is now because things kind of feel like they’re back to normal. I mean, the seven Broadway shows that were Black-led that came right out of the pandemic, that’s a great thing. But they all closed pretty early. Even with Ain't No Mo… it’s not working. So what?

It’s not us, it’s not the Black creatives. Right? It's because we know these things that we’re trying to make it better and it’s not getting better. So, it feels like it’s the model. I don't know, I think we need to imagine bigger than we are even doing now. I think we need to think magically, we’re theatremakers, right? We deal in magical thinking. I think we need to do that more when it comes to the theater because right now we’re just trying to polish a turd a little bit, it feels like. [Laughs] Like, we know it doesn’t work. And we had all of this time to try to make it work and it’s still not working. I think of the Cleveland Play House incident that just happened. And I’m like, “How, after all of this time of listening and learning, did we come to this moment?” So, we have to think magically. We need to think bigger than I think we even know.

Rail: For our readers, what are some things that we need to really look at? You mentioned the seven shows that opened on Broadway in the fall of 2021: Pass Over by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu, Lackawanna Blues by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Chicken & Biscuits by Douglas Lyons, Thoughts of a Colored Man by Keenan Scott II, Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, Clyde’s by Lynn Nottage, and Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau. Since that time, shows like Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’, the Broadway transfer of the Asian-led musical K-Pop, MJ: The Musical (also penned by Nottage) and Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders opened and closed on Broadway. Not to mention, Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop.

Gipson: And it won every single award it could possibly win; you know what I mean?

Rail: What are some things that we can look at in general for the field? Because this is a global issue affecting Black, Brown and BIPOC people on both sides of the pond. Using a bit of magical thinking, what are some concepts, machinations or ideas that could work?

Gipson: I think it starts with audience cultivation. Honestly. I think outreach is a huge thing that theaters don’t know how to do because they rely on their subscriber base. That's the truth. The subscriber base we know is mostly older white folks who have disposable income. Millennials don’t have disposable income. And like, I'm sorry, but to get a package at one of these off-Broadway theaters, or to go to a night at the theater and get a good seat, it’s expensive. Right? So there needs to be outreach to people who can't spend a hundred dollars or five hundred dollars or a thousand dollars on a package for a season. And we need to make it cool. Honestly, theater is not cool. It’s only cool when it’s like the hottest ticket in town, right? Right? We need to figure out a way to make theater accessible to people younger than the Boomers and to Millennials that don’t have disposable income. And it’s not gonna happen with one or two nights of Affinity Nights. It’s gonna happen by putting people on late night shows! I don't know. I’m not like a marketing person but to me, it feels like there’s a disconnect between what the theater is talking about. Because once people come see these plays and get talking, that’s where the change will happen. But you gotta get people into the theater and from what I’ve seen, it’s the same people. And yes, there’s Affinity Nights, and so you can go to a Black Theater Night or an LGBTQ Theater Night and see your community. But the truth of the matter is we’re either seeing it for the second time, or it’s because it's your community, you’re finally seeing those people, but they were gonna come to the show anyway.

Rail: Ain’t that the truth. So, you are trying to appeal to a particular audience. How would you market demons.?

Gipson: I don't know. That's interesting because I couldn’t go to churches, I don't think, and market this show in the same way that like Ain’t No Mo’ might be able to. I’m a professor, so I’m going to try and get young people to see this show. Young Black people because this show’s kind of weird. I like weird stuff. Weird Black shows can be successful too. Shows that are weird and Black… there's a place for them. A Strange Loop is weird to me. I’m like, that's cool. Passing Strange, things like that. How can we take Black surrealism, things that are a little left of center, but talk about being Black in a way that is just as valid as something that’s a little more straightforward.

Rail: You’ve grown exponentially as an artist, mostly because of just the nature of the beast. Where do you think the next stage of Keelay Gipson is going?

Gipson: I hope it is still in the theater. Actually, I know it is. I think I'm working on some musicals. I know I’m working on some musicals. I’m working on a new history play about Tulsa (because I’m from Tulsa and I haven’t written about being from Tulsa and being Black from Tulsa, and I think I should do that). So musicals, a play about Tulsa and hopefully, a film or a TV show.

Rail: And if you could bring any family member to see this show, who would you bring?

Gipson: I would bring my mother. Yeah, I would bring my mother. I kind of regret—I’ve told her to wait so many times to, you know, just wait until it’s the real thing. “Don’t come to the reading, just wait till it’s the real thing.” So, I would want her to see the real thing.

Rail: Pleasure to finally meet you, Keelay.

Gipson: No, this was lovely. Thank you. Thank you.

The Bushwick Starr and The Connolly Theater demons. May 20–June 10, 2023 Brooklyn

Contributor

Marcus Scott

Marcus Scott is a New York City-based playwright, musical writer, opera librettist, and journalist. He has contributed to Time Out New York, American Theatre Magazine, Architectural Digest, The Brooklyn Rail, Elle, Essence, Out, Uptown, Trace, Hello Beautiful, Madame Noire and Playbill, among other publications. Follow Marcus on Instagram.

#Keelay Gipson #KeelayGipson #Marcus Scott #MarcusScott #WriteMarcus #Write Marcus #Playwrights #Black Playwrights #Writers #Black Writers #The Brooklyn Rail #Brooklyn Rail

8 notes · View notes

alchemisoul · 2 years

Text

"I do not subscribe to the legend of Judy Garland because I lived the reality of Judy Garland. Those who wish to mythologize her and cast her as an icon of sadness are entitled to their odd form of worship, and everything they claim about her is true. Garland was an unbridled genius, and I saw it, and I heard it, and I lived and breathed the same air in the world at the same time she did. Let's not forget her gifts and the giving of them. Let's not sacrifice yet another thing in her name in order to assuage some victimization via art. We have the work: Watch it, study it, love it, use it, be changed by it."

- Tennessee Williams, Interview with James Grissom (1982)

(Promotional shot of Judy Garland circa 1940's)