Reading: "The Island" at TheatreFIRST

I'm not going to go into great detail about the reading I went to tonight. It was a benefit fundraiser for TheatreFIRST, kind of kicking off their new regime. But it is worth talking about the reading, too.

The Reading

This was a staged reading of Athol Fugard's 1973 anti-apartheid play, "The Island," with Carl Lumbly and Danny Glover recreating the roles they played in a full production of the play in 1977, this time under the direction of Delroy Lindo. The reading itself was fairly unspectacular, a very simple staging, and the actors with scripts in hand. But the power of the play came through to the packed house, and the star power on stage helped to pack the house in the first place.

Without going into too much detail, the play chronicles a slice of the lives of two black political prisoners in South Africa under the apartheid regime, and among the things they do is work on a two-man version of the trial of Antigone for a kind of prisoner talent show. For much of the play, this seems ridiculous, and the humor is used to good effect, but when it comes to actually performing it, the true subversive nature of the play comes through. The message of the disconnect between the legal and the just, the law of man and the law of god, resonates with these victims of apartheid.

So that was really cool, and the talk-back session afterward with the two actors (plus local actor Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, who read the stage directions during the reading) and the director was fascinating and wide-ranging over topics of art, politics, and social justice.

But all of this is really about promoting...

The Company

New Artistic Director Jon Tracy made no bones about this being a shameless ploy to attract money for the new direction of the TheatreFIRST company, but he made it well worthwhile by using the reading to provide an example of what TheatreFIRST is going to be about.

You can read all the details and mission statements and such at the TheatreFIRST website, but suffice it to say here that TheatreFIRST's new direction involves including a diverse body of artists at all points: artists, company, staff, board, etc., and creating new works written, directed, and performed by those artists and others locally. They aim to tell stories that don't normally get told, using artists that might not otherwise get heard and seen.

It's a very ambitious undertaking, and my description probably doesn't do it justice. But for all the talk of diversity and inclusion in theater (or mostly, about the lack thereof), this company intends to put their money where their mouth is.

I'm kind of excited to see what will come of this endeavor. They have grand ideas, and a lot of support from within the theater community. The proof will be in how they are accepted by the theater consumers, and how well they are able to expand that audience to include more people who, like many theater makers, are currently unrepresented or simply not present in any meaningful numbers.

Stay tuned. It's always exciting to see what happens when big ideas get a real try-out.