The Paper Bag Test

Alberta Hunter worked hard and long to grow her reputation.  She was a prodigious songwriter and that included writing Bessie Smith's first big hit, "Downhearted Blues."  

My grandmother Lydia was slightly younger than Alberta but told great stories about the vaudeville circuit and confirmed the issues of skin colour that were always thrown at Alberta.  Lydia played the piano, sang and maintained her love of music and the theatre although she did not perform as she got older.  We saw many shows and plays together and seeing Alberta Hunter together at the Cookery was one of the best memories of my life.

Doing research for the play it was heartbreaking to read how such a significantly talented person such as Alberta was, as they say, "damned with faint praise."  Critics-black and white-who said she could sing 'despite her dusky appearance' set a certain standard for women of colour.  And the less colour the better.

My grandmother who was part Ioway and Wampanoag Indian said she was often the darkest woman on the chorus line.  African American women dancers had to be light and bright even when dancing on the 'Negro' theatre circuit.  When the June Taylor Dancers of Jackie Gleason fame finally hired a woman of colour she was as light as the white dancers so she wouldn't be noticed (and break the symmetry of the line they said).  The Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall are now figuring out they are in the 21st Century! 

https://nypost.com/2019/04/27/the-rockettes-race-to-reverse-long-history-of-excluding-black-women/?utm_source=url_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons

The dominant culture's obsession with homogeneity remains true today.  When you look at films the skin tone of the African American male can be as varied as it is in nature.  However, casting directors for films, photo shoots and television still see the beauty in African American women only when they can pass the 'paper bag test,' meaning their skin tone is lighter than a supermarket brown paper bag!

"Leaving the Blues," my play about Alberta Hunter, explores this sad and insulting perspective that has damaged so many of us.  Read Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye' or 'Negroland' a memoir by Margo Jefferson or 'Don't Play in the Sun' by Marita Golden or a long list of books, mostly by African American women, who have observed and/or suffered from this ignorance.  And it is not just African Americans-almost everywhere you go--from China to Cuba--you can see the subtle and not so subtle colourism.

Celebrating the full spectrum of our existence has been my life's joy whether it's skin colour, sexuality, gender, or diverse cultures.  Don't waste time on a narrow view of what's beautiful when you can have the world.

"Leaving the Blues opens at The Flea produced by TOSOS.

Seats available January 15-February 8th www.tososnyc.org

Through the Ether

                           

                             Benjamine Mapp                                               Cooper Sutton

As a writer for more than 30 years it’s still a mystery to me sometimes how ideas form in my head. I’d known since the 1980s when I took my grandmother, to see Alberta Hunter  at the Cookery in Manhattan I'd write something about her. I wanted to capture her infectious enthusiasm, depict her endurance, style and her secret life. Or almost secret life.

But what actually came first was a vision of the Calabash Cousins as a Vaudeville tap dance duo. They were born on the page almost fully formed and I don’t want to say more and give away too much.  The story of these two young men from Louisiana who figure out how to weather the storms of racism and heterosexism and keep their heads (literally)and their sense of humour is at the heart of the play.

They form a kind of parallel story to Alberta's and are a youthful example of what a joy you get from using your talent and embracing love. If you don't take either for granted you can have more fulfillment than you imagine even when times are tough-which is the definition of Vaudeville in the '20s and 30s.

It's said that lightening doesn't strike twice in the same place.  I have little or no scientific knowledge so I've no idea if that's at all true!  But I do know that it is striking twice for me with "Leaving the Blues!"  We had a tremendous cast in the NCTC production a couple years ago.  Each character was fully and skillfully embodied--none more so than the Calabash Cousins who are a tricky duo to capture.

So this lightening strike brings us even more light, heat and excitement with Benjamin Mapp as Cal and Cooper Sutton as Calvino.  Their charm and determination are key to the story and to their portrayals.  And their tap dancing is so extraordinary we had to add more dance routines to the script. After I started writing the play I learned that the calabash is possibly humankind's oldest music instrument and often associated with magic and it sometimes implies something secret. A perfect name for these two.

As I said I've no idea from whence the idea for this duo came...out of the ether? Emerged from the TARDIS? Former life memory? 

Whatever! Come on down to The Flea and dispel your post-holiday doldrums with the terpsichorean delights of "Leaving the Blues"  

 https://www.tososnyc.org/

In the Room Where It Happens

In the Room Where it Happens!

But I wasn't there and that's okay. Having conveyed my own opinions I felt confident I would still be heard among the assembly of TOSOS board members, our costume designer, Ben Phillip; sound designer, Morry Campbell, and director Mark Finley.

But there is always a delicate balance, especially with a mix such as ours.  Being a queer company I think TOSOS-The Other Side of Silence-has put a premium on paying attention to who participates in their projects--on both sides of the table.  At the same time as a mostly volunteer group, really focused on getting the work up on its feet we're always grabbing the bar as it swings our way in mid air.

As a writer of colour I've worked almost exclusively with queer theatre groups: TOSOS and New Conservatory Theatre Center (SF) so I take a lot for granted.  Not that they will always have accomplished the most socially conscious thing possible.  But most important to me: if I raise an issue about ethnicity or gender we can have a productive discussion and see some action rather than simply feel the breeze from nodding heads.

I think most of us act out of our own ignorance--people of colour and queers included.  But since non-POC tend to hold the reins most of the time their ignorance is most evident and damaging.  We only need to look at statistics about how few POC show up in regional theatre productions on either side of the table--acting or administration. I don't want to repeat the sad stories and stats.  Just read a little bit:

https://www.americantheatre.org/2014/09/19/artists-of-color-stand-up-against-discrimination-in-the-field/

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/AAPAC-Releases-Report-Analyzing-Ethnic-Representation-on-NYC-Stages-20190304

I'm especially thinking about this because this play about Alberta Hunter, Leaving the Blues, (even more than the play about James Baldwin, Waiting for Giovanni) is about colour/racism and sexism.

At one point Alberta admits to a young friend what a reviewer said about her: "She sings well despite her 'dusky' appearance." And this is an attitude that Alberta lived with all her life.  She was not a sleek, fair skinned Lena Horne.  Nor did she turn her life or business over to men-white or black.  Exercising her professional power left her open to being called a 'tough bitch.'  If she'd been a male the phrase would have been a 'self-made man.'

Perception of colour and power is a theme through out the play: how Alberta has survived the negativity about her colour; what it means to work with other women who have fairer skin so automatically assumed to be more beautiful and have more opportunities offered them.  Also the play looks at  how colour and class interrupt Alberta's relationship with her lover. And what the perception of colour means the two young male dancers on the circuit with Alberta.  Then there's her guiding spirit who performed during his professional career in black face.  

Skin colour is never neutral for anyone in this country....that's probably true around the world if we examine closely.  And few of us recover totally from how we were (mis)treated because of skin tones.  My own mother never thought I was fair skinned enough while some kids in my neighborhood taunted me with 'yellowface!' 

But dismissing colour (You know that worn out phrase: I don't see colour") is a disaster not progressive.  In the old days of television make up artists and lighting designers refused to see that people with darker skin or varying skin tones needed different make up and lighting.  People of colour often showed up as greenish or sucked in the light so fiercely our features were unintelligible!  To be real--technically, socially and spiritually--we have to acknowledge the variations and the emotions that go along with colour; it gives us a better sense of everyone's reality not just our own.  And a chance to honestly appreciate who people are.

Next time we look at the actors who are putting on their make up, stepping into the lights and telling us a story we can all celebrate whatever our colour!

***

Post Auditions NYC!

Auditioning for a role in a play is an exhausting and terrifying experience.  And that's just for the director, writer and staff sitting behind the table watching!  

I have such immense respect for the artists who make their careers by standing up in front of mostly strangers and performing--often lines of dialogue they've had 10 minutes to read through or tap dancing to a tune in their heads, or singing a song they hope will not be one the director has hated all of their life!

After two days of auditions we (director, Mark Finley and I) sat with the other staff of TOSOS to discuss who we'd seen and what the likely prospects were.  We were all blown away by the talented people we seen...way more than one might expect considering it was a show with music and very little money!  But we had choices...real choices so we were excited and thoughtful at the same time.

I had to get back to Oakland so didn't attend the final call backs on the next day.  However we'd all kicked around our opinions long enough so Mark got a real hearing about each possible choice.

Michael, the president of the board of TOSOS and I have our meetings about this process over cocktails and chicken wings.  And now we await the white smoke arising from the chimney to see what the final decisions are.  

The show goes up at The Flea in TriBeCa on January 15th no matter what!

Alberta Hunter

Leaving the Blues

I used to have a separate blog for each show but decided that was taking up too much air space...or whatever the hell the space is that these blog things hang out in.  So I'm launching GomezDramaDuchess which will cover all the theatre stuff I do.  I didn't want to be DramaQueen, I don't think I quite deserve that title although I do have my days!  And I've always wanted to be called Duchess since my father was called Duke.  So I've bestowed the title on myself!  It seems appropriate in this space where I get to share w/folks the love of drama that I have and the work I want to do.  Which brings me back to "Leaving the Blues."

In the 1980s I went to see singer/songwriter Alberta Hunter perform at the Cookery in the Village (NYC) about 5 times.  Once I took my grandmother, Lydia, who'd been a dancer around the same time that Hunter was in her heyday--1930's and 40's.  Lydia was the person who confirmed for me that Hunter, as the rumour had suggested, was a lesbian.  From that moment on I wanted to write something about her. She wrote Bessie Smith's first big hit.  She then wrote and recorded dozens of her own songs (which she held the rights to).  She had a reputation among blues musicians that she should be the one to premier a blues song because that would win it an audience first!

So I wanted to know what did it mean to survive as a woman, a Black woman and as a lesbian in those years?  What did it mean to be in control of your career and your music--not common for Black performers in general and women in particular?  And what was it that drove her as a performer; so strongly that she returned to singing after 20 years in so-called retirement which she spent being a nurse?

These questions lead me to writing "Leaving the Blues" a two act play that was commissioned by New Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco where it premiered in 2017.  The script was originally written with the actor Desiree Rogers in mind.  She'd played Lorraine in "Waiting for Giovanni" my earlier production.  I knew she had the moxie to capture both Hunter's tough, no-nonsense businesswoman persona as well as her vulnerability!

Desiree Rogers by Lois Tema

We had a rollicking time!  The entire cast melded with the idea of Alberta and her extraordinary life and the difficulties (like sexism, racism, lesbophobia, colourism) she had to confront as if they understood and were on her team.  I was extremely honoured to have that second amazing experience at New Conservatory Theatre Center.

Now I get to do it again with TOSOS-The Other Side of Silence.  After Mark Finley's emotionally wrenching and visually stunning mounting of "Waiting for Giovanni" at The Flea Theatre last summer he's wading back in to do "Leaving the Blues!"  I guess I wasn't too much of a nuisance...as some playwrights can be.  The company holds auditions in November and the play opens in January at The Flea. As I did with the last production I'll keep tossing out tidbits and pictures. 

I'll share some history here about Alberta Hunter and you can always find her music on YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLoPKQZRjOQ

So watch this space and soon I'll have some pictures of the new TOSOS cast members!  And the inside scoop on how the show is shaping up in New York City!

Cast & director of the TOSOS production of

Waiting for Giovanni

2018

Anyone who knows my spouse, Diane, knows she understands that a production stands or falls on how well its cast is fed.  So she kept the theatre stocked w/fruit, cookies and candy back stage. Yes, I did sneak back there to get peanut butter cups for myself.

Of course it helped that we had a wonderful director, Mark Finley, (2nd from the left) who wasn't afraid to strip the production down to its elemental ideas and images.  He privileged the words and actors over set pieces and my (notoriously long) stage directions.

The party we had for opening night was the opposite of minimalist. It featured a cornucopia  of soul food catered by Melba's on W114th Street www.melbasrestaurant.com which had the best chicken wings ever.  Ultimately the food must have been magical because the cast sure was!

This is my very first experience having a second production of one of my plays by a new company!  So at first it was a little difficult for me to re-imagine the characters with other actors in the roles.  The company at New Conservatory Theatre did such an amazing job and were patient as I cut and pasted the thing together. They helped to crystallize the meaning of the play for me.

Before the new production started I did have the amazing input of one of my icons, Martin Sherman (BENT)   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sherman. who helped me re-imagine the ending.  He basically said when the play begins we see Baldwin in a struggle with the ghost of his father; you need to resolve that struggle for Baldwin's growth to be dramatized.  That totally changed the end of the play.  The TOSOS production gave me the opportunity to see that new ending for the first time and Mr. Sherman was absolutely right.  I'll hope I can remember that for the next and final play ("Unpacking in Provincetown") in this trilogy about African American artists in the first half of the 20th century. 

Some favourite moments: Me ( the ultimate atheist) on the search for just the right bible to be used on stage.  I was very specific about what it should look like and finally tracked one down at Strand Books. Or the audience member who wanted to talk to Robert, who played Jimmy's lover, Luc, in French since Robert's accent was so good. And seeing the joy on the face of James Baldwin's sister-in-law, Carole when gave me her blessing. Since her partner, David, Baldwin's brother, figures prominently in the piece, that could have been sticky! And of course the birthday party we had on Jimmy's birthday, August 2 where legendary performer, Andre De Shields   www.andredeshields.com came to celebrate with us!

Because they work in the hometown of James Baldwin the TOSOS cast brought a different energy and viewpoint for which I'll be eternally grateful.   So this is my chance to say more thank you to them for helping the play have a new and vibrant life.  Here's hoping I see Michael Striano, Neil Dawson, Joy Sudduth, Jonathan Dewberry, Jordan J. Adams, Robert Jeffery, and Ken Simon in other works of mine or just anything! 

Andre De Shields helps us celebrate Jimmy's birthday.