By Steve Simmons – Published 12:16 p.m., Monday, Feb. 22
Acting company Theatre West is not letting a pandemic stop it from honoring and celebrating Black History Month.
With its L.A. venue closed due to Covid-19, the company has turned to film and YouTube and created Who I Am, a 30-minute piece combining poetry, visuals and seven African-American actors offering personal stories as well as life lessons learned from their parents and grandparents, exploring the impact of their heritage in shaping the artists they are today.
Because the company “wants the important voices of our artists to be heard and seen by as many people as possible,” Who I Am is available free through Sunday, Feb. 28 at https://youtu.be/VTD8G9dOB5Q.
Putting It Together
The film was produced by Dina Morrone, vice-chair of the company’s Artistic Board. The inspiration came from a 2019 program of solo shows the company produced that included Karen Bankhead (who appears in Who I Am) as the elderly and funny Etta Mae Mumphries, church mother/sister/friend, and Leslie A Jones in Willard Manus’ Prez-The Lester Young Story, directed by Dan Keough.
“We had never had a Black History Month Show,” says Morrone, “so I said next year we’ll do a showcase of solo shows with African American artists.” When the pandemic closed the Cahuenga Boulevard West theater last year, “we had to cancel our plans and it really upset me. I couldn’t let another year go by where we don’t celebrate Black History Month. It’s insulting to the African American members of our company,” says Morrone.
So Morrone decided to reach out to company members and other artists and create a vehicle for actors to submit and “tell their stories.”
Morrone, who created the popular one-woman show The Italian in Me, asked participants to share stores passed down through generations by parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles about what it means to be Black.
“I wanted to know things they remembered and how it effected who they are today,” says Morrone.
Participants were also invited to discuss what Black History Month means to them, how they celebrate it and feel a part of it, and what being Black in America means after the death of George Floyd and the events of last year.
They all ran with it, and the pieces are moving and comedic,” says Morrone. “They cover all the bases.”
Telling Their Stories
The celebration of African-American heritage features:
Karen Bankhead, who talks about the importance of roots– from slavery to her grandmother who was a maid (“like in The Help”), her grandfather who possibly prevented a lynching, her father who drove a school bus at 13–and her mother negotiating Jim Crow laws in Florida.
Andrew Lloyd Preston, who discusses the challenges of growing up “ethnically ambiguous.”
Levy Lee Simon, originally from New York’s Harlem, shares touching and dramatic stories about traveling to South Carolina to visit his bootlegging, sharecropper grandfather. “Imagine the kind of racism he faced,” says Simon.
Solandra Reese’s poetic contribution features lessons from her mother and grandmother: “Speak up and have a voice. Do right and you will be blessed. Who you are and where you come from is the essence of your soul. If you do forget, it can leave a shameless, gaping hole.”
James A. Goins, a company member and composer who contributed the film’s music, talks about about growing up in Riverside, his parents planning family vacations down south in 1967-69 to take part in the Civil Rights movement and his father’s advice about where not to go and remembering his “deportment” and how to talk to people and respond. “Don’t call attention to yourself.”
Morrone saw Kevin Tomlinson, an associate member of the company, at one of the Theatre West’s Saturday morning acting workshops a friend had invited him to. “She reached out to me and when I saw her brief, the program seemed open-ended and something I could put a personal touch on,” says Tomlinson. The finished product, he says, “shows the richness of everyday Black life and the bonds with friends and family. This film is celebrating stories that go untold.”
Tomlinson, who grew up in a devout Black Catholic family in suburban Maryland, talks about feeling like an outcast (“There weren’t a lot of Black Catholics”) and the wisdom his grandmother Miss Frances shared when he began to question his faith.
All the actors filmed their own work and editor Clara Rodriguez weaved together the individual stories to accentuate the contrasts and common themes like the importance of religion, humor, strength and family. She also created the opening credit montage that features figures ranging from Frederick Douglass to Kamala Harris
On A Mission
Morrone, a Theatre West board member for four years “has been active and vocal” about championing African-American artists and increasing the diversity of the company which has a new managing director, Eugene Hutchins.
Morrone’s own one-woman show The Italian in Me, is an autobiographical story of a young aspiring actress who leaves her overbearing old-fashioned Italian grandmother seeking new opportunities in Rome. “ I see how people respond to my ‘Italianess,’” says Morrone. “It’s important for me to tell my story and for people to go down the road with me and go inside my world. And I feel the same way about other people’s stories and going down their paths. I want to hear personal stories of different religions and cultures.”
She reached out to L.A. Women’s Theater Festival founder and executive producer Adilah Barnes (this year’s event is March 25-30) and told her “I was putting together a show featuring African American Artists.” She put Morrone in touch with one of her students, Angel Guice whose powerful slide show and poem I’m Tired opens Who I Am, ‘It makes a great intro,” adds Morrone.
Against a backdrop of photos of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and protesters carrying signs reading “End Racism Now,” “Why Is It So Dangerous Being Black” and “My Dad Is Not A Threat,” Guice’s poem includes lines like: “I’m tired of being looked at as a criminal, pretending to be strong, when really I’m just not okay. Being Black sometimes gets exhausting. I want to be able to freely walk down the street and boldly speak my mind without fear of being killed.”
Moving On
“I’m proud we got our work out there to reach a lot of people,” says Morrone. “People can watch a free program with good production values that we produced with zero budget. It was a labor of love and the right thing to do this month.” The film has garnered praise as “moving, informative and even spiritual.”
“We didn’t celebrate Black History Month in my house,” reflects Tomlinson. “And so, me thinking about Black History Month it was always about incredible leaders, from Harriet Tubman to Martin Luther King Jr., and where do I fit into that? We’re part of the legacy, and I feel part of it, the seed is already in me. Black History Month represents a wider lens to remind us how all these stories are connected, and we’re part of the legacy. Our charge is to pay ir forward and do great things for next generation.”
