How Does One Make A Traditional Classic Relevant To Today’s New Technology?

Multimedia is one of the flavors of the month these days and most plays using such elements are newer works. 

But what about the classics that required realistic settings, such as The Great White Hope? This play has three acts and 19 scenes. It travels from America to Berlin. Richard Morris, Karamu Technical Director, and I decided on a minimalistic approach to the setting and use of projection to carry the audience to different locales. Would such elements distract from the text, or confuse the audience because there was no use of multimedia during the days of the first black heavyweight, Jack Johnson? Or would they give such classics as A Raisin in the Sun or Death of a Salesman a zest that the new internet generation is hungry for? Get the picture? But hey, this is theater.

While living in New York, I experienced some educational usage in multimedia in three plays: one as an actor and two as an audience member.   

First Multimedia Encounter

In the 1990s, I had a small, but pivotal, part playing multiple roles in a short play titled Combination Skin: The 100, 000 Dollar Tragic Mulatto Show, written by the daring Lisa Jones, who also wrote for the Village Voice. Jones has gone on to write the scripts for Terry McMillan’s  Disappearing Acts for HBO and “Oprah Winfrey Presents: Dorothy West’s The Wedding” for ABC.  She  is such a marksman with the pen- or keyboard. Her father is the legendary Black Arts Movement writer Amiri Baraka, aka Leroi Jones. Lisa Jones use was my intro to the full use of multimedia, making it more of a integrated element as opposed to it being a necessity. The quick cues and synchronizing were pitch perfect.  

Second Multimedia Encounter

I was invited by a friend, playwright S.M. Shephard, to see 36 Views by Naomi Iizuka at the Public Theatre in 2002, where it premiered.  We also met up with the last great stage actor, Paul Butler ( passed away in January). He was there to see his good friend actor Stephen Lang, who was also in the play. We all met after the show and discussed theatre- particularly, regional theater, which Butler favored for young artist. That will be another future subject to discuss in my blog. The play dealt with Asian arts from centuries ago and pop culture.  Lang was in it and he was fantastic.  The use of projection  and sliding screen was very innovative in displaying time, place action and images.

THIRD Multimedia Encounter

My third theatrical encounter was the dynamic poet/playwright Carl Hanock Rux’s Talk. I had worked with Rux before in a radio play, Ethnic Cleansing, directed by Lisa Jones. His play Talk featured a rising young star, Anthony Mackie, as a moderator discussing the works of an African American fictional writer,  Archer Aymes, who was found dead in a jail cell. The setting of the play is a table for the panelists, surrounded by Greek statues. Each panelist is either a journalist or historian given a Greek name by the playwright. Director Marion McClinton (August Wilson works) utilized multimedia with scrolling of text and Greek images during the play.

These three plays were relevant then and more importantly, relevant now, due to these fresh voices.  One other major observation that these three plays have in common: minimal sets that gave each piece a very lean and slick look. The Great White Hope subject matter is relevant today. Let us see if the use of multimedia becomes an even happier marriage with this traditional classic and minimalistic set.

An Unexpected Race to the National Theatre Conference, or Was it Just a Deer in Front of Headlights PART II: Interactive or Green

I have started out of the gate at a slow pace on this blog due to my busy schedule rehearsing “God’s Trombones,” which is replacing the 30-year-old Karamu House treasure, “Black Nativity,” for the Christmas season. We are also going into the last week of the critically acclaimed “Yellowman” (now thru Nov. 22) at Karamu.

My first post focused on the use of body and voice, inspired by watching tech rehearsals of “Yellowman.” My last post was about my trip to New York City for the National Theatre Conference and hitting a deer on my way there through Pennsylvania. Ouch.

While at the conference, I witnessed the first act of Aditi Brennan Kapil’s’ Stavis Award-winning play, “Love Person,” a four-character love story told through English, Sanskrit and sign language (American), which was first produced in 2008 at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, Minn. I was amazed at that combination and the use of multimedia at the reading. As Star Tribune Critic Lisa Brock stated in a 2008 review of the premier production, the story is about the love of language just as much as relationships. In addition to that, what I witnessed  – as I did with “Yellowman” – was the challenge to the spectator to use all five senses by totally concentrating on, and connecting with, the weaving of actors’ interpretation, sign language and instant messaging dialogue translated onto the projection with immaculate precision within a well-structured theatrical moment.

Linda Daugherty’s youth play, “The Secret Life of Girls” – a hit with Karamu’s youth theater and soon to go on the outreach circuit with excerpts -also uses the multimeda device. Like Kapil’s play, it shows how text messaging and language can affect an individual from a distance, even just two feet away. “Secret Life” focuses on peer pressure and cyber bullying amongst teen girls. As these young characters text one another, they speak the words with emotion as we would do in our heads. In “Love Person,” two actors’ sign-language and text-messaging dialogue is projected onto the screen as emotions follow.

These innovative approaches in Cleveland and New York kept both young and old audience members transfixed in another world of art: language and technology.

Where is this going? Will scripts be obsolete soon? Will actors start learning lines just on internet? Will most sets call for laptops and actors being in separate locations? Will theater soon demand that audiences use their own emotions while reading the characters’ lines on the projection screen?

Are we heading toward green theater or more interactive theater?

An Unexpected Race to the National Theatre Conference, or Was it Just a Deer in Front of Headlights PART I

I drove to New York on Thursday evening to attend the 2009 National Theatre Conference held Friday, Oct. 30th-Nov. 1 in the private Players Club (founded by Edwin Booth) during Halloween and the World Series.

I was an elected new member to the exclusive organization, which limits members to only 120 theater educators, scholars, community and professional reps. I had a blast.

The conference hosted a panel on “Challenges in Running a Theatre in These Changing Times” and held a reading of “Love Person” by 2009 Stavis winner Aditi Brennan Kapil. Her piece was commissioned by Mixed Blood Theatre. It aas quite an intriguing premise – a love story that weaves between the use of dialogue, multimedia, and sign language. Only the first half of the play was read. It’s a very strong piece thus far and causes spectators to use all sense awareness on many levels.

The highlight of Saturday evening was having Tony Kushner in our presence. He was fighting a bad cold, but he held up well enough to discuss his career during a Q&A with NTC Chair Jim O’ Connor. Kushner is very political in his writings and even more so in his discussions. Let me put it this way: He does not bite his tongue -or lip!

NTC Award Categories:

NTC Man of the Year: Tony Kushner. For this award, the NTC President, in consultation with the Board of Trustees, selects one or more individuals each year who have made an outstanding and noteworthy contribution to the theater. The Person(s) of the Year attend the annual meeting to receive the award, speak about life and work in the theatre, and announce the recipient of the Paul Green Foundation Award.

2009 NTC Outstanding Theatre Award: The Living Theatre. This $1,000 award is presented to recognize outstanding achievement by a not-for-profit theater.

Bernie and Bernis Davis Playwrighting Award: Aditi Brennan Kapil for “Love Person.” This $1,000 award is presented to recognize an outstanding emerging playwright.

NTC Paul Green Award: Marsha Stephanie Blake ,who appeared in the latest production of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”  This $1,000 award is funded by the Paul Green Foundation and presented each year at the annual membership meeting to a promising new talent in the professional theater. The winner of this award is selected by the recipient of the National Theatre Conference Person(s) of the Year Award for that year.

Scholar James V. Hatch, who wrote “The History of African American Theatre”; Oscar Brockett, author of ‘The History of American Theatre”; and William Martin, manager for the Drama Book Shop are also a members. These are very important books and the book shop is the best in the country, with a vast collection of new/old scripts, music scores, how-to books and history books. Most cities do not carry such a collection. A serious student or professional can order on the store’s website.

By The Way, on my way to NYC, I hit a dead deer lying in the left lane of a dark street around 3 o’clock on Friday morning. I was about to pull to the side and check for any damage on the car. I kept going. I saw Jeepers Creepers.

A Reawakening of Body and Voice

First of all, I would like to thank Carolyn Jack for inviting me to be part of her creative team.

I was contemplating what should I discuss. Where do I start? I quickly shot down any attempt at talking about Karamu House, the oldest black theater in the country – oops – which also continues its original mission as an integrated theater as well. Another oops.

Where do I start? Do I discuss black theater? No. Do I discuss August Wilson? No. The local theater scene? Well…

Okay, I guess I have to take back what I said earlier about Karamu, and be a little biased. Sunday, I watched the technical rehearsal of Dael Orlandersmith’s 2002 Pulitzer Prize runner-up, “Yellowman,” and witnessed some riveting moments on stage. Experiencing these moments created such an artistic adrenaline rush, that I’m compelled to debut my blog with this experience.

The play stars Kyle Primus as Eugene and Kristi Little as Alma and is well directed by Fred Sternfeld. It tackles intra-racism issues within the black community.

As I watched these two actors paint their characters physically and vocally across the stage for over 90 minutes of seamless poetry and amazing precision, I realized all over again what those two basic instruments – body and voice – can do when an artist truly commits to his or her craft. It is definitely an actors clinic for students of the profession: characterization, vocalization, concentration, clarity, endurance, transitions, improvisations.

Exercises such as “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain,” or animal characterization exercises were devices to test a young actor’s approach and commitment to the task at hand. These two thespians alone on a bare stage displayed a marathon of artistry, as those basic skills came forth.

As the saying goes, “reading is fundamental.” The proper use of body and voice should be as well, for the serious student and professional.

“Yellowman” by Dael Orlandersmith
October 30 – November 22, 2009
Karamu House Arena Theatre
2355 East 89
Cleveland, OH 44118
216-795-7077