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"
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