Black Arts Legacies

I got to actually go to The 5th Avenue Theatre and see a big production.

I got to see Company which featured Timothy McCuen Piggee.

I mean, he was just, like, massively talented Black man on stage, in like a theate that seated, like 2000 people.

And I think that was definitel a transformative moment for me because I got to see him, like in his bag.

And I was one of the first times that I got to really witness that.

And I was like, Ah! We can do that too?

I really just trie to make the thing that I wanted to make that I was scared to make.

I'm finding a slay.

I'm finding rhythm.

They're trying to take away all that I got.

But I can't let em!

People rise up to help each other.

We have to.

We have to navigate this landscape just like everyone else.

I want to create more opportunities for Black actors in town.

Leading roles.

Protagonist roles.

I've always been a storyteller.

You know, I like to joke and say that, you know, I was probably the only nine year old in my apartment building with a typewriter.

I don't know that I was ever like, fully aware of how much it actually meant.

Thinking back on it, it seemed to really be deeply important to, you know, my soul to tell stories.

There's this thing where it's like, okay, I can see that when theaters are programing their seasons, they're doing it specifically like oh, here's the one Black show.

And, you know, we'll do five shows that you know, privileged white actors and white audiences and white stories.

And then here's the August Wilson.

You know, so that sort of I think felt like, oh, there aren't as many opportunities for Black actors to really just dive i to all different kinds of roles.

He had a future looking back on a life well-lived, and he was happy.

I love interpersonal stuff.

Of course, I love conversations about race, too, because I always want to make sure we're keeping those conversations alive.

The Legacy Play's Project is a nine play cycle that takes place over 300 years of history.

Nine plays, 300 years, one history.

And the idea is to use specific moments in American history as sort of these cultural touchstones to examine the Black American experienc in that particular time period.

I'm going to have three play in the 19th century, three plays in the 20th century three plays in the 21st century.

Each play is going to be its own distinct standalone story, but they will be, all the plays will be in conversation with each other in some form.

If we are to ever accomplish something truly great, like the reconstruction of our nation into a fair and just land, which I believe we can do, the attention span of our society and our determination to do right must last longer than a few seconds.

It's these moments that we think of that we're like, that was a moment in America.

And then it's like, okay, well, well, what was the Black experience?

What were some stories of those folks that lived in that particular period?

It is not an easy time to make art and, and to dream big.

The times actually encourage us to think really small and be afraid and anxious.

But Andrew is being audacious, and he's saying, I want to make nine plays.

I want to talk about different areas of Black life, and I want to do it with honesty and love for my people.

That's a bold statement to me.

It takes a measure of courage.

To be a writer is to be vulnerable in that way.

It's to risk putting yourself out there.

Not just your words, but you know, you put your own experiences, your own point of views, your own flaws into your characters.

My plays are populated with, you know, good and bad things from my life.

I grew up in Hillman City, Columbia City.

I went to Franklin High School for a hot second.

My dad really wanted to ow a house, and he had, you know, that was one of his big big dreams was to buy a house.

So for him, that meant leaving Seattle.

Once I came back, it was really interesting to see how much it had changed.

It was just clear to me that it was like, oh, there's gentrification going on, not only here but this is a nationwide issue.

And then when we staged my play Riverwood and we put it in the CD and worked out a partnership with Langston so we could have it in that neighborhood, that is also seeing a lot of gentrification.

The Black American experience is one that is shaped by migration, right?

Either forcibly or voluntary.

I think that's a running theme in all my work and that is specifically speaking to this constant like search for home.

One of my favorite phrases i history doesn't repeat itself, it spirals.

So it comes back around in similar patterns.

So I really love that history can be used as a tool to identify those patterns and hopefully mak different choices in the future.

It feels to me like the contributions of Black Americans are largely ignored or buried.

I know that there's so many untold stories.

I think Andrew definitely sees himself documenting our journey here in the United States, and he's writing the everyday person.

He's writing the everyman, which is another thread of where he fits in.

Who is Maurice Golden?

What's the name mea when you're the only one around to hear it shouted?

Alice Childress, said she wanted to write abou the people who came in second.

to write about the people who came in second.

Right?

The ordinary people living extraordinary lives just by their getting through the day.

And I think Andrew fits in that category.

Andrew's work is on the sort of like continuum of well-made playwrights.

He makes well-made plays beginning, middle and end linear narrative stories.

He's got a poetic style and a large romantic vision.

Andrew is such a romantic.

He's very sentimental about relationships.

You and everything in these four walls is all I have in this world.

I love history because it can be used as a tool to help us not repeat the mistakes of the past.

And when I think about history plays in the context of theater, I think it's actually really important that we find outlets to stil get this information out there.

And I think theater is a really great platform to do that.

I think about this quote a lot from a Shakespearean scholar Farah Karim-Cooper: Historical record can help us paint a picture of society, but it is art, literature and drama that fill in the gaps of lived experience.