Contemporary Plays by African American Women

Ten Complete Works

Sandra Adell

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780252097812
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

African American women have increasingly begun to see their plays performed from regional stages to Broadway. Yet many of these artists still struggle to gain attention. In this volume, Sandra Adell draws from the vital wellspring of works created by African American women in the twenty-first century to present ten plays by both prominent and up-and-coming writers. Taken together, the selections portray how these women engage with history as they delve into--and shake up--issues of gender and class to craft compelling stories of African American life. Gliding from gritty urbanism to rural landscapes, these works expand boundaries and boldly disrupt modes of theatrical representation.

Selections: Blue Door, by Tanya Barfield; Levee James, by S. M. Shephard-Massat; Hoodoo Love, by Katori Hall; Carnaval, by Nikkole Salter; Single Black Female, by Lisa B. Thompson; Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine, by Lynn Nottage; BlackTop Sky, by Christina Anderson; Voyeurs de Venus, by Lydia Diamond; Fedra, by J. Nicole Brooks; and Uppa Creek: A Modern Anachronistic Parody in the Minstrel Tradition, by Keli Garrett.

NIKKOLE SALTER

A native of Los Angeles, California, Nikkole Salter began her career in theater as an actor. After earning a B.F.A. in acting from Howard University in Washington, D.C., Salter continued her study of acting at New York University, where she earned an M.F.A. While in graduate school, she co-wrote with Danai Gurira In the Continuum, a play about two black women, one living in Zimbabwe and the other in Los Angeles, who are dealing with AIDS. The play won an Obie award in 2006 for Salter and Gurira, who also performed the roles of the two women during the play's 2005 premiere and two-year international tour. In addition to an extensive theater and film acting résumé, Salter lists among her accomplishments a 2012 Robert S. Duncanson residency at the Taft Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she wrote and performed in Of Great Merit, a solo play inspired by the art of the African American painter Robert S. Duncanson. She has received a 2014 Map Fund Grant, New York Outer Critics Circle Award, Helen Hayes Award, and recognition from the Theatre Hall of Fame. Other plays by Salter include Lines in the Dust, The Princess and the Paparazzi, Torn Asunder, and Repairing a Nation. Strongly committed to community activism through the arts, Salter is the founder and executive director of the Continuum Project, Inc., which seeks to empower young people through the arts.

Carnaval received its world premiere in an extended run at the Luna Stages Theater in West Orange, New Jersey (Jane Mandel, Artistic Director), where it opened on January 30, 2013.

Director:	Cheryl Katz
Raheem Monroe:	Terrell Wheeler
Jalani:	Jaime Lincoln Smith
Demetrius:	Anton Floyd
Set:	C. Murdock Lucas
Lighting:	Jorge Arroyo
Costumes:	Deborah Caney
Sound:	Steve Brown
Projection design:	Jay Spriggs
Production manager:	Liz Cesario
Stage manager:	Mary Ellen Allison
Assistant stage manager:	Christina Balkovic

Carnaval received its New York City premiere at Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre in Harlem, where it opened October 21, 2014. Jonathan McCrory, Director of Theatre Arts Programming, Sade Lythcott, CEO.

Director:	Awoye Timpo
Raheem Monroe:	Gabriel Lawrence
Jalani:	W. Tre Davis
Demetrius:	Bjorn DuPaty
Set:	Daniel Zimmerman
Lighting:	Alan C. Edwards
Costumes:	Latoya Murray-Berry
Sound:	Eric Sluyter
Projection design:	Emre Emirgil
Production manager:	Belynda Hardin
Stage manager:	Laura Perez
Assistant stage manager:	Taylor Carter Jones

CARNAVAL

SETTING

1996: John F. Kennedy International Airport, Long Island, NY—the departure terminal; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—a three-bedroom condominium

2010: Club Carnaval in the borough of Manhattan, New York, NY

CHARACTERS

DEMETRIUS

In 1996: a twenty-six-year-old police officer, husband, and father to a five-year-old daughter, from the Bedford-Stuyvesant community in Brooklyn. Overwhelmed with responsibility, he struggles to reconcile his moral conscience with his desires; who he wants to be, with who he is.

In 2010: a forty-year-old man suffering from insurmountable injuries sustained while trying to make peace with the role he played in his own fate and his need for reconciliation.

JALANI

1996: A twenty-one-year-old college student from Bedford-Stuyvesant. The younger brother of the recently deceased Jared, Jalani is riddled with insecurities that he tries to mask with sexual prowess and bravado while striving for attention, recognition, respect, and individual identity.

In 2010: A thirty-five-year-old husband of a Dominican wife, and father to an eight-year-old son. Jalani is spiritually evolved and is the lynch-pin to any reconciliation Raheem and Demetrius may have.

RAHEEM MONROE

1996: a twenty-six-year-old educated yet failed entrepreneur, also from Brooklyn, looking for a way to gain the necessary capital to launch his Manhattan night club. Unsatisfied with the outcome of mediocrity displayed by his own parents and peers, and deathly afraid of poverty, he is willing to do anything to make sure he rises to the top.

In 2010: the forty-year-old owner of Club Carnaval, a premier hip-hop night club with the theme of Brazil's biggest cultural attraction, Carnaval. He is shrewd and resourceful, and yet, because of his success, he is even more entrenched in his “by any means necessary” mantra.

LANGUAGE NOTES

// indicates the moment the next line begins and overlaps the end of the line being spoken

—indicates that the next line cuts off the line being spoken

…indicates a trailing thought after which there should be a bit of a beat before the next line

The gestures written into the dialogue should not impede the flow of the conversation.

Prologue

New York, NY, February 2010. An empty Club Carnaval in Manhattan. Perhaps DJ Khaled's “All I Do Is Win” blares from monster speakers. Raheem, centered in light, appears onstage.

RAHEEM: What's up, y'all? If you seein’ this message you must be real special, cause that means you're a VIP at the most exclusive party in the c...