June 2020 | Alliance Theatre

New Episode of The Artists Approach

An Online Q&A Series with leading theater professionals.

Hear from award-winning theater artists including Tom Kitt, Sierra Boggess, Tony Shalhoub, and many more in Alliance Theatre’s new video series, “The Artist’s Approach.” Weekly episodes will feature pre-recorded conversations with some of today’s most exciting actors, directors, and writers for stage and screen on their approach to their craft and tips of the trade.

Jennings Hertz Artistic Director Susan V. Booth chats with TV & Theater Actor-Singer John Clarence Stewart.

STAY TUNED FOR UPCOMING EPISODES:

Rick Cleveland (June 23)
Kenny Leon (June 30)
Rachel Hoffman (July 7)
Bethany Anne Lind (July 14)
Tom Kitt (July 21)

Other future episodes will feature guests including Josh Radnor, Itamar Moses, Casey Nicholaw, Lex Liang, and Michael Arden.

To view full episodes visit The Artist’s Approach.

New Episode of The Artists Approach

An Online Q&A Series with leading theater professionals.

Associate Producer Amanda Watkins chats with Tony Award Winning Composer & Lyricist Jason Robert Brown.

STAY TUNED FOR UPCOMING EPISODES:

John Clarence Stewart (June 16)
Rick Cleveland (June 23)
Kenny Leon (June 30)
Rachel Hoffman (July 7)
Bethany Anne Lind (July 14)
Tom Kitt (July 21)

Other future episodes will feature guests including Josh Radnor, Itamar Moses, Casey Nicholaw, Lex Liang, and Michael Arden.

To view full episodes visit The Artist’s Approach.

PRIDE Picture Books from the Alliance Theatre Education Library

To celebrate PRIDE month, we are sharing some of our favorite picture books from the Alliance Theatre Education Library that celebrate LGBTQ people and families. We use these books in our programming to expand the hearts minds of youth around Atlanta.

Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love

While riding the subway home from the pool with his abuela one day, Julián notices three women spectacularly dressed up. Their hair billows in brilliant hues, their dresses end in fishtails, and their joy fills the train car. When Julián gets home, daydreaming of the magic he’s seen, all he can think about is dressing up just like the ladies in his own fabulous mermaid costume: a butter-yellow curtain for his tail, the fronds of a potted fern for his headdress. But what will Abuela think about the mess he makes — and even more importantly, what will she think about how Julián sees himself? Mesmerizing and full of heart, Jessica Love’s author-illustrator debut is a jubilant picture of self-love and a radiant celebration of individuality.

Worm Loves Worm by J. J. Austrian

You are cordially invited to celebrate the wedding of a worm…and a worm.

When a worm meets a special worm and they fall in love, you know what happens next: They get married! But their friends want to know—who will wear the dress? And who will wear the tux?

The answer is: It doesn’t matter. Because worm loves worm.

This Day In June by Gayle E. Pitman

This day in June…. Parade starts soon…. Rainbow arches…. Joyful marches!

In a wildly whimsical, validating, and exuberant reflection of the LGBT community, This Day In June welcomes readers to experience a pride celebration and share in a day when all are united.

Harriet Gets Carried Away by Jessie Sima

Harriet loves costumes. She wears them to the dentist, to the supermarket, and most importantly, to her super-special dress-up birthday party. Her dads have decorated everything for the party and Harriet has her most favorite costume all picked out for the big day. There’s just one thing missing—party hats!

But when Harriet dons her special penguin errand-running costume and sets out to find the perfect ones, she finds something else instead—real penguins! Harriet gets carried away with the flock. She may look like a penguin, but she’s not so sure she belongs in the arctic. Can Harriet manage her way back to her dads (and the party hats!) in time for her special day?

When Aidan Became a Brother by Kyle Lukoff

When Aidan was born, everyone thought he was a girl. His parents gave him a pretty name, his room looked like a girl’s room, and he wore clothes that other girls liked wearing. After he realized he was a trans boy, Aidan and his parents fixed the parts of his life that didn’t fit anymore, and he settled happily into his new life.

Then Mom and Dad announce that they’re going to have another baby, and Aidan wants to do everything he can to make things right for his new sibling from the beginning–from choosing the perfect name to creating a beautiful room to picking out the cutest onesie. But what does “making things right” actually mean? And what happens if he messes up? With a little help, Aidan comes to understand that mistakes can be fixed with honesty and communication, and that he already knows the most important thing about being a big brother: how to love with his whole self.

A Family is a Family is a Family by Sara O’Leary

When a teacher asks the children in her class to think about what makes their families special, the answers are all different in many ways — but the same in the one way that matters most of all.

One child is worried that her family is just too different to explain, but listens as her classmates talk about what makes their families special. One is raised by a grandmother, and another has two dads. One is full of stepsiblings, and another has a new baby.

As one by one, her classmates describe who they live with and who loves them — family of every shape, size and every kind of relation — the child realizes that as long as her family is full of caring people, her family is special.

I am amazed at the numbers of white people I see on t.v. these days agonizing about how to talk to their children about race. This is not to say there aren’t black people struggling with this question, but for us it’s mostly a matter of issuing warnings: “Don’t run from the police.” “You can’t trust those white folks.” “You’re going to have to work twice as hard as the white students do.” So, just for this moment, let’s assume that this is a well-meaning white parent asking the question. It’s such a strange, only-in-America kind of query when you think about it. The answer is obvious. Honestly. That’s it. The key to the whole thing. When you talk about race, speak honestly. Children learn about the world from the people they know and trust. If those people speak the truth to the child, and model the truth in their behavior, the child will grow up to be an enlightened adult, capable of enjoying the amazing multi-racial, multi-cultural gumbo that is America.

But the question kept coming up and I realized the reason white people sometimes have a difficult time talking about race with their children is that they don’t know how to talk about it with each other either. The problem is they think that everything about race has to be a long, excruciatingly serious discussion, rather than understanding that race, like love, is an ongoing conversation that doesn’t require a crisis to catalyze it. Culture is a good way for beginners to ease into conversations about race from a point of common reference and discovery, which brings us to this week’s list:

5 Songs from the American Musical Theatre Canon to Catalyze Conversations About People Who May Seem Different From You, But Really Aren’t.

These 5 songs introduce a range of ideas about race and gender and sexuality and beauty and bigotry, but in the context of great music, unforgettable characters and unshakeable hope for something better – all the things that make us go to the theatre in the first place.

1. “You’ve Got to be Taught,” a medley from Mandy Patinkin, including the title song from “South Pacific.” This classic song states the problem pretty clearly and shows us what we’re up against. I heard this song when I was a kid and the cast performed it on television, probably Ed Sullivan. I remember thinking, Okay. So, all we have to do is get people to stop teaching kids that stupid stuff. Didn’t seem that complicated to me. It still doesn’t.

2. “I Got Love,” from “Purlie,” performed by Melba Moore. Sometimes when there is so much emphasis on protest and problems, it’s easy for white people to think that black people and people in other groups who are marginalized by racism and bigotry, go around in a constant state of rage and misery. This is not true. And you can quote me. That kind of anti-joy assumption, however well meaning, robs us of our full humanity. All people are capable of joy. Why not us? This idea sometimes imbeds itself in black artists, too. Playwright Ossie Davis told me once that before he wrote “Purlie Victorious,” which became the musical “Purlie,” he was working on a play about a young black boy in rural Georgia who was being terrorized by racist white policemen. But one day as he was working, he had an epiphany. Davis, he said to himself, is it really that bad? His answer was to abandon his tragic tale and produce instead a satirical masterpiece in “Purlie Victorious.” Set in the rural South in the era of Jim Crow, the play tackles serious social issues, but in the midst of all the bigotry, when the wide eyed ingenue finds herself in love with the play’s hero, her exuberant celebration of that feeling is pure joy and a star turn for Ms. Moore who stopped the show with it every night.

3. “In the Heights,” by Lin-Manuel Miranda. This show’s opening number introduces audiences to a vibrant neighborhood where immigrants from many countries live and work and dream together. Miranda wrote this piece for himself after realizing that he’d done “West Side Story” in high school and didn’t see any other roles that he would be allowed to play. He decided to write stories about the people he knew best; his friends, his neighbors, his family. Never shying away from the realities of New York City life, the show is full of complex characters who are nothing like the anti-immigrant rhetoric that too often permeates our national dialogue. This performance of the show’s opening number at the Tony Awards in 2008, features Lin-Manuel Miranda and Christopher Jackson, not throwing away their shot.

4. “Inner White Girl,” from “Strange Loop,” by Michael Jackson. This young artist (no relation to the singer!) won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama this year with his autobiographical musical about a gay, black man, working a day job he hates while developing his original music. This song is funny as hell and serious as a heart attack. Contrasting his own highly confined existence to the freedom and power of a “white girl,” it may seem to be about difference, but it’s really about dreams.

5. “I’m Here,” from “The Color Purple,” performed by Cynthia Erivo. This show, based on the novel “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker, is a testament to African American female friendship in the face of male violence and white racism. This song, and the one Ms. Erivo opens her set with, are such fierce affirmations of her own beauty and how she came to claim it, that I won’t apologize for the fact that her words made me cry before she even started to sing. Because we are here. Because we are beautiful. Because Black Lives do matter. Because it’s not hard to talk about hard stuff if you come at it with humility and honesty and an open heart. Let Ms. Erivo show you how it’s done.

Check out all of Pearl’s lists here.

This past Friday, my grandson, a newly minted high school graduate and recently licensed driver, pulled up in front of my house and climbed out for a visit. We wore our masks to greet each other, but then established a six-foot social distancing barrier and removed them for some safe catch-up. He’s starting college this fall, either virtual or human, and he indulged my gushing about how proud I am of him and smiled through a few anecdotes about when he started pre-school in New Orleans at St. James Major and was still fond of strawberry milk. And then we said our safe good-byes, he replaced his mask, waved, and drove away.

I watched him turn onto Cascade Road, went inside, poured myself a glass of wine and sat down on my side porch to give thanks for my grandchildren. I’ve got five. I try not to write about them too much because it’s not their fault their granny is a writer. They’re entitled to some privacy. So, all I will say is that they are one amazing, smart, funny, loving bunch and one of the hardest things about the ongoing need for quarantine is not being able to spend time with them the way I could before the virus. I miss the conversation and the connection that comes with it, so I’m always looking for ways to stay connected to them, which brings us to this week’s list:

5 Things You Liked a Lot When You Were Their Age: No Lessons Allowed

This isn’t about imparting wisdom as much as it’s about discovery just for the fun of it. To even the playing field, grandparents should respond as they would have at the age of the grandchild, not as their current chronological age. In the case of multiple grands, find an age in the middle that appeals to you. I decided I’d pick 10 as my sharing age. I’ve got grands on both sides of that number. So you and your grandchild both answer the same five questions and share your answers.

What’s your favorite inside game? At age 10, my favorite game was Monopoly. I loved it and always wanted to be the banker. My sister and I would play marathon games with our cousins, our friends, or just the two of us. I still love the little silver pieces from which each player gets to pick a token. I’m always partial to the little dog, followed by the thimble since there are a lot of seamstresses in my family tree. One of my cousins who shall remain nameless, was known to cheat. He was never excluded but we always kept an eye on him.
What’s your favorite song? My favorite song at 10 was probably “Sweet Little Sixteen,” by Chuck Berry. The song tells the story of a young woman who “all the cats want to dance with.” Berry describes her fashion choices for an evening out: “Tight dress and lipstick/she’s sportin’ high heeled shoes.” Such attire struck me as impossibly glamourous and a little daring. I couldn’t wait to be sixteen.
What’s your favorite book? I loved to read and often shared books with my sister, who at two years older, usually found the best stuff first. She gave me The Borrowers by Mary Norton, a fantasy novel about a community of tiny people who live unseen in the home of a British family and borrow what they need to set up their living quarters. I loved it, and the sequel The Borrowers Afield. I spent years hoping I’d find evidence of such tiny inhabitants living at our house, but I never did. Truth is, I don’t think my mother would have been nearly as enthusiastic about the idea as I was.
What is your favorite food? I always loved my mother’s traditional soul food Thanksgiving meal, with turkey and her delicious corn bread dressing, mac and cheese, of course, and all the fixings. But my favorite meal at 10 was the fried shrimp my dad would buy on Friday nights up on 12^th Street at Jag’s Shrimp Pad, a tiny take out place with the best fried shrimp in Detroit, where we know from fried shrimp. When it was accidentally burned to the ground in one of the several riots I lived through, that ended our Friday night treat. Like we used to say, we’d had the best so later for the rest.
What is your favorite trip? My family did not travel much outside of Detroit. Actually, we didn’t travel much outside of the West Side of Detroit, except for weekly trips to Nanny and Poppy’s house or an outing to Belle Isle park with a bag of White Tower hamburgers and the promise of my mom’s undivided attention. But those are too close to qualify. So, my favorite trip would have to be the one we’d make every summer to Idlewild, Michigan, a thriving African American resort town where my grandfather and my uncle had cottages where we would all stay together. It was beautiful, safe and full of kids our age. The trip itself was only 4 hours, but around halfway, we always stopped at a roadside picnic table for lunch. My mother would bring sandwiches and boiled eggs and pineapple punch. If Poppy was with us, he’d let us have a sip of some very sweet coffee from his thermos cup. The last two hours took us through small towns and open fields and sometimes we would all sing together. We’d go through Baldwin, turn left and take the road into Idlewild. When we turned up into my grandfather’s sandy backyard, we could see the lake, blue as we remembered it and the first of the cousins already headed in our direction.

2020 Alliance Theatre Educator Conference Keynote

Featuring Speakers Pearl Cleage and Andrea Davis Pinkney.

Moderated by Dan Reardon Director of Education & Associate Artistic Director Christoper Moses.

Live conversation filmed on June 2, 2020.

In association with Spelman College

As part of our 2020/21 season, the Alliance will produce THE NEW BLACK PLAY FEST’S HANDS UP: 7 PLAYWRIGHTS, 7 TESTAMENTS in association with Spelman College. Across seven monologues written by seven Black playwrights, HANDS UP depicts the realities of Black America from the perspective of varying genders, sexual orientations, skin tones, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

“I have yet to see a show that engages with the Black American experience in a way that is as raw and demanding of the artists and audience as HANDS UP,” said Co-Director Alexis Woodard. “This is a piece that everybody needs to experience. I want to believe when we are confronted with the pain of another human’s experience, it is our natural reaction to respond with empathy and love.”

In 2015, the New Black Fest commissioned the script in response to a police officer killing Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager from Ferguson, MO.

In late 2019, Spelman College students reimagined the original monologues as a full ensemble performance. The project was submitted to the Alliance’s Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab and was chosen as one of the three projects for development. In light of the national movement for justice, it became clear that this project should be produced as a full production in the fall of 2020 as part of the Alliance’s new season, replacing another production in the schedule. It will be the third Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab project to receive a full production by the Alliance.

“Unfortunately, this work still resonates, which means there is still work to be done,” said Co-Director Keith Arthur Bolden. “Hard conversations need to be had, and we have to sit on them in order for us to come out on the other side with real change. Anything less, and the results will be the same. HANDS UP is a transformative piece that alters your capacity for compassion, and I’m proud to introduce it to a wider audience and go into spaces where the conversations are not being had. Welcome to what revolution feels like, looks like and is.”

Lead artists for HANDS UP are Spelman Alumna and Alliance Spelman Fellow Alexis Woodard (Co-Director), Spelman Professor Keith Arthur Bolden (Co-Director), Lorenzo Moore (Sound Designer), and Keri Garrett (Choreographer).

“The Alliance is honored by Spelman College’s partnership on this production,” said Susan V. Booth, Jennings Hertz Artistic Director. “Atlanta theater has long been the recipient of the extraordinary contributions of the College’s students and faculty.”

In addition to producing this piece, the Alliance Theatre is committed to creating more opportunities to amplify the voices of Black artists and lift contemporary stories of the Black experience. More initiatives will be announced in the coming days.

HANDS UP will be produced in the fall of 2020 as part of the Alliance’s 2020/21 season. Exact production dates and ticketing information will be announced at a later date.

ABOUT HANDS UP

In light of the police shootings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, among others, The New Black Fest commissioned seven emerging Black playwrights to write 10-15 minute monologues that explore their feelings about the well-being of Black in a culture of institutional profiling.

The collection includes:
Superiority Fantasy by Nathan James
Holes in My Identity by Nathan Yungerberg
They Shootin! Or I Ain’t Neva Scared… by Idris Goodwin
Dead of Night… The Execution of… by Nambi E. Kelley
Abortion by Nsangou Njikam
Walking Next to Michael Brown by Eric Micha Holmes
How I Feel by Dennis A. Allen II

“So,” as Jimi Hendrix said during his crack of dawn second set at Woodstock where he recreated our National Anthem, “we meet again.” Still struggling to make sense of an increasingly complex American moment and leaning on the music – any music!! – to help us make it through. Which brings us to this week’s list:

5 Songs From Where We Were Then That Help Me Make Sense of Where We are Now

1. “Gimme Shelter,” Various artists around the world. Most of us have heard Mick and the Boys tear through this one, but this collaboration between artists scattered across the world is a different thing altogether. One of the artists you’ll see here once offered me a joint as we drove down Peachtree Street headed for WXIA where my boss was waiting for me to deliver him for a live interview. Terrified we would be arrested, I declined, but I wonder now what adventures might have ensued if I had said yes.

2. “Give a Little,” Nicolette Larsen. We were coming home from walking our dog, Elvis, when this song came on the radio. Knowing I was going to sing along, I reached to turn it up, but Zeke was already on it. The invitation to “give a little/share a lot,” seems meant for this moment. And even if it wasn’t, how can you say no to Nicolette Larsen?

3. “The Creator Has a Master Plan,” Pharoah Sanders. If you ever went into an independent black bookstore circa 1968, including Atlanta’s Timbuktu, Market of New Africa, where the owner, Ebon Dooley, was also a talented poet, you would have heard this song playing. It made you feel mindful before we had a word for it. “The Creator has a master plan/peace and happiness for every man.” Every woman, too. Whenever I hear this one, I close my eyes, take a deep breath and can almost smell the incense.

4. “We’re A Winner,” The Impressions. When we radical students occupied the Administration Building at Howard University in 1968, demanding black studies and protesting the Vietnam War, this song was our anthem. It is still one of the coolest freedom songs ever. “Just keep on pushin’… And we did.

5. “I Wanna Take You Higher,” Sly and the Family Stone. One of the most amazing moments of the wonder that was Woodstock was when Sly and the Family Stone took the stage and proceeded to burn it down. In a good way! Since I started with a Woodstock reference, let’s let Sly take us home…