Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico by Ishmael Reed

Author:Ishmael Reed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Baraka Books

So excited were the students that they had already come up with costumes, hand props, and music for scene transitions. The producer, Dean Zeng, had contributed the idea of creating rear projections to establish the scenes, necessitating only the most minimal of set pieces to complete each setting. In the two days we had to work together, I focused on getting the play on its feet, by finding ways to achieve a fast-paced rhythm and moments of strong action. We focused on quick pick-ups of cues, worked on entrances and exits and rapid scene changes, and inserted two moments where we could take advantage of the luxury of their double casting to create crowd scenes. As we ran through each scene, we asked the students what they thought was happening for each character, sometimes clarifying the playwright’s intent with them, until the motivations of all the actors were interconnected. I encouraged the actors to keep trying for new bits of action and assured them that the only way the audience would know a “mistake” had happened would be if they informed them, by their own actions. Within our instantly created backstage, as commonly practiced by professional athletes, we managed to find a few moments to join together to encourage and thank each other, while Professor Ling introduced the play to the audience, before music cued the play had begun.

Of course, Carla is a miracle worker in the theater and has collaborated with such luminaries as Robert Wilson. In 2013, she spent ten weeks in Ramallah directing the Phillip Barry play, Holiday, whose cast included Syrian and Palestinian actors. Reviewing Mother Hubbard, Hunan Daily called it the highlight of the conference. This is a newspaper with 2.2 million circulation. Unlike the black playwrights who were chosen by the mainstream to appeal to audiences who like their black theater tame or blame-the-victim, not once was I asked to censor my script.

From there we moved on to Hangzhou Dianzi University in Hangzhou, China where our host was Professor Huijuan Tan, and in March, I attended an international conference in Germany, France and Switzerland. Sämi Ludwig, who has published an anthology devoted to my works, organized this conference in my honor. Delegates from Poland, China, and other countries read papers.

Tennessee my daughter, a poet, and I performed with some students from the Jazz School in Basel, Switzerland. The performance was reviewed in China.

Not only are European, Asian and African scholars acquainted with the number one designated black, Native American and Asian American tokens, they know other writers belonging to these groups as well. One scholar whom I met in China is writing about the work of the brilliant Adrienne Kennedy whose writing is neglected here because she writes plays about subjects like police brutality. Her play Sleep Deprivation Chamber, which was co-authored by her son, Adam, the victim of a police assault, did not receive the kind of recognition that has been accorded plays identifying black men in the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean as the source of worldwide misogyny.

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