BWW Previews: ON JUNETEENTH, FREE READING OF POLAR BEARS, BLACK BOYS, & PRAIRIE FRINGED ORCHIDS BY Stageworks Theatre, Jobsite Theater, And Rory Lawrence Productions

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. In response to the civil uprising, a reaction to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others before them, Jobsite Theater and Stageworks Theatre have teamed up with Rory Lawrence Productions. They will join a national presentation of the Juneteenth Justice Theatre Project, a nationwide movement by American theater companies striving to "change the world, one play at a time."

The Juneteenth Justice Theatre Project was launched by Aldo Billingslea to center black theater artists and new voices, address systemic racism in the theater industry, and help raise funds for black theaters around the country.

Actors from Jobsite and Stageworks will perform a socially distanced staged reading of Vincent Terrell Durham's new play, Polar Bears, Black Boys, & Prairie Fringed Orchids, a finalist for the 2019 National New Play Network's National Showcase of New Plays. It is a play that, with a surprising amount of humor, speaks to gentrification, white fragility, the Black Lives Matter movement, and police violence against black bodies.

The video performance will be made available all day through their websites and social media platforms and streamed for free.

As the need for collective action and a mutual commitment to speak the truth has never greater, there is a tremendous opportunity to dismantle systemic racism everywhere, including in American theater. Theatre communities around the country will provide their response to the current moment with this live virtual production.

"We need art more than ever; we need to bear witness to stories that matter. To paraphrase what Kenneth Burke once said about literature but which I believe applies to all narrative forms, they act as equipment for living, people tell all kinds of stories (plays, films, graphic novels, etc.) as responses to situations -- personal, global -- and we who consume them are offered tools to help us respond to those same situations," said Jobsite Artistic Director David M. Jenkins.

The six-person cast (Emily Belvo, Johnny Garde, Patrick A. Jackson, Nancy Mizzell, Andresia Moseley, and Derrick Phillips) will appear via video socially-distanced at Stageworks under David's direction.

"One of the imperatives artists have is to create images of society that force conversation and understanding. Given what is happening in our culture today, we are required to produce and share work that challenges assumptions and make our fellow travelers look upon each other with generosity, compassion, and empathy. We need to affirm the necessity of being humane, not merely human," said Karla Hartley, Stageworks Producing Artistic Director. "David and I have very similar outlooks on what art should be, so it is entirely natural that our organizations should partner and collaborate on important work and important issues."

The play is about a liberal white couple who open the doors of their renovated Harlem brownstone to host a cocktail party for a Black Lives Matter activist, his gay white lover, and the mother of a slain 12-year-old black boy. A night of cocktails and conversation spark emotional debates ranging from under-weight polar bears, Lana Turner, saving the planet, gentrification, racial identity, and protecting the lives of black boys.

"I think that this play does such a great job of what Karla says in terms of work that challenges assumptions, forcing us to look upon each other with generosity and empathy. Because of Vincent's gift for very clever, snappy banter it gets so easy to drop any emotional or ideological armor you may carry as witness to it because you think you "know" them: the bougie well-intentioned white gentrifiers, the sassy, strong black woman, the metro interracial gay couple, the grieving single mother of a slain child. This is a genius subversive move on his part because as the cocktail party moves from small-talk to crisis, we're already comfortable within what we think we know, allowing the climax to land home even harder. That's a very difficult thing to do right now with how (for good or bad) en garde we all are," said David.

"Toward the end, one character offers what she sees as the only solution to ending police violence and the murder of innocent black men. "It's not by putting him on the endangered species list. It's getting people to see him and not what they think they see."

Guided by the principle that live theatre can "change the world, one play at a time," the collaboration between Stageworks, Jobsite, and Rory Lawrence Productions, along with hundreds of theatres across the country, is an opportunity to change the world with one single play on one historic day.

In a press release, Aldo said, "This collaboration of theatres is exactly what theatre was meant to do: uniting for change, responding to the current moment, raising awareness and resources to support marginalized communities, and amplifying the voices of artists of color."

The stream is free, but viewers are encouraged donate to select charities such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, the NAACP, Black Lives Matter, and a new national fund for Black American theater.

For more on the play, the author, and the Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project: jobsitetheater.org/juneteenth

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