New (to me) Worlds

I've seen three very exciting pieces over the last week and before I fly off to Texas for a work trip (hopefully it will be interesting enough for a report when I return), I thought I'd jot down some thoughts.

I went to an early preview of If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka at Playwrights Horizons.  I have my subscription, you know, and I've also heard about the playwright, Tori Sampson, for a while, so I was happy to check it out.  It tells the story of Akim, the most beautiful girl in her African village, and of the people around her.  The story is told very stylistically and, at times, rather like a folk tale.  There are heightened sections with music and dance throughout, and I've never seen anything like it!  I thought it was funny and thought-provoking and really really fascinating.

We first meet Akim when she comes downstage to give a monologue about her beauty and feeling for our ugliness.  It's all really smart and charming and a bit pointed - the ideas of beauty and the power of it are very well-done.  There are other girls in the village, who each get a monologue to talk about their different types of 'beauty', plus we also meet Akim's parents, who want to keep her locked up in the house, and a young boy who has his eye on Akim.  The fact that one of the other village girls has her eye on the young boy is sort of what sets the story in motion.

Notions of female power, female jealousy, parental unawareness, and societal pressures on young girls are everywhere in the piece.  There's a lot to laugh at and a lot to seriously ponder.  I'll admit that I was a bit confused by a section towards the end, and the ending might be rather controversial, I don't know.  I'm not sure what I thought about it, but I do know that I was completely engaged and thoroughly taken with If Pretty Hurts....  I'm thinking of going back after it opens (I have a friend on the production team and she said there have been quite a few changes made - I'd be really interested to see them).  But I don't think you'll see another story told in quite this way, and I think this playwright has a singular voice, so I recommend you check her play out.

I went to Signature Theatre to catch the revival of Lynn Nottage's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark.  The original production at Second Stage was one of the first reviews I ever blogged (you can check it out HERE).  I just think Lynn Nottage is one of the smartest, most terrific writers around and I'm so grateful to Signature that I can watch some of her 'old' stuff while I look forward to her new plays.  

As you can see from my review above, I really enjoyed Vera Stark the first time I saw it - I think I liked it even more this time (since I lay out the plot in that post, I don't need to do it again).  I thought the cast was really fantastic all around and time has made the differences between acts one and two even more pointed.  In the aftermath of #OscarsSoWhite and other nonsense that more and more people are finally beginning to notice, the struggle of women of color in Hollywood continues to be an issue, and Nottage's use of the past and present is even sharper.  Who can play what roles?  And what are the consequences of playing them?  Or NOT playing them?  So many fascinating ideas.  The play is still fast and funny, but it's also biting and sad and very true.  The production's run has been extended and you should definitely check it out.  

I have friends who are participating this year in the Cherry Lane's Mentor Project, and when I went to the kickoff celebration, the Cherry Lane offered a discount if you bought a ticket to all three shows.  Last Friday was the first in the series, by a writer I'm not familiar with.  But you can just bet that I will be keeping my eye on Kareem M. Lucas - I thought he was FABULOUS!  His piece is called The Maturation of an Inconvenient Negro (or iNegro).  Lucas is an actor and performance artist and he's been working on a trilogy of plays about 'The Poet,' and he's been working with poet Craig 'muMs' Grant as his mentor.  The piece is about a young man working through issues of understanding himself, the world, and of being seen as his authentic self.  Lucas plays 'The Poet' and has a charming, very ingratiating performance style, but when it's time for him to be intense and focused, he is laser-sharp.  The piece begins rather informally, with Lucas walking through the audience, talking about how "he wants to write a piece so Black that..." and then he shares an idea.  They start off pretty funny, but then he has bigger and bigger ideas about what he wants his piece to be.  I especially laughed at (my paraphrasing) that he wants to write a piece so Black that Roundabout will only cast it with white people, and that he wants to write a piece so Black that it won't be performed unless there's a certain percentage of people of color in the audience.  These were a couple of the lighter, earlier thoughts - they got deeper and darker as the piece went on.

He engaged with the audience throughout (he had one line about how a one-night-stand turned into a bad three-year-relationship and there was a girl in the audience who clicked her fingers; he looked at her and said 'you clicked for THAT?!'  It was pretty funny) and spun a tale of a young man desperate to find himself and where he fits in the world.  But it wasn't like any other story I've ever heard.  His impassioned letter to Disney about how they're ruining young minds was inspired.  Much of the piece was inspired and I was so glad to have been there.

After the piece, there was a talkback and I was just as impressed with Kareem Lucas after the play as I was during.  He made sure to engage with all of the young people in the house who asked a question - he asked them their name and said it was nice to meet them and he thoughtfully gave very smart and detailed answers to all of the questions.  He made a lot of fans that night, including me.  Though I'm more jazzed about all of the young people who are now fans of his, I'm sure, after a terrific show and a terrific bit of engagement.  iNegro runs until March 2 and I highly recommend you see it.  Again, it's something I haven't seen before and my eyes are a little more open than they were last week.  That's always a grand thing.