By Aaron Jafferis (Bookwriter/Lyricist of Kingdom)
At the end of the first day of rehearsal, after the actors finished their first read-through of the script of
Kingdom, I thanked them for helping us tell this story, which is the story of young people I've known, past and present, alive and dead. I said thank you, but I meant be careful, I meant be passionate, I meant be truthful, I meant please do justice to this story which means so much to me, and means even more to people who have lived and died this story, not just acted in it. Not just written it. Now, three weeks later, these characters are coming to life in the actors, and of course they are doing them more justice and making them more real than I ever could.
Today, before they had their first little performance, doing a rap from the show at the NYMF press conference, our director (Louis Moreno) and I passed out black and yellow bead necklaces to all the cast members. These are the same necklaces that Latin Kings wear, necklaces that I bought at the same Botanica Chango in New Haven where Latin Kings sometimes get their beads. It felt dead-up serious, and the warnings about not going outside wearing the beads were as strict as the warnings cast members got before they were handed their fake guns in rehearsal. We don't want a cast member getting shot by any rival clique because he's mistaken on the street for a real King.
And then the cast went on stage and performed, and it felt a little strange. Somewhere between comedy and drama and pimping the Latin Kings. Just strange. Doing a palatable show about a group that truly tries to be revolutionary (as in overthrow the government, create an independent Puerto Rico, class struggle in the US), in a festival who's motto is "it's not a revival – it's a revolution" feels a little weird. The word revolution is of course constantly used for different things besides the good old-fashioned social/political/military revolution. It's cheapened. After being around people in Nicaragua and Chiapas who had been part of actual or attempted revolutions, it feels a little weird to see the word applied to a festival of American musicals. And our musical, which purports to tell the story of some people who purport to be real revolutionaries, is very happy to be in such a festival. And I guess eventually hopes to be in a situation where it actually makes money. The trick will be to see what kind of real change this show can effect, not just change in the world of musical theatre.
