- Hello everybody, I'm Satori Shakoor.

Welcome to Detroit Performs Live from Marygrove, where Detroit's talented artists take the stage and share insights into their performances.

This episode is curated by Obsidian Theatre Festival.

We'll hear from CEO and artistic director John Sloan, plus three directors of three short plays that ran during the Festival.

Enjoy it right here on Detroit Performs Live from Marygrove.

- Funding for Detroit Performs is provided by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, the Kresge Foundation, the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the DeRoy Testament Foundation and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(jazz music) - I'm excited to be sitting here with CEO and artistic director of Obsidian Theatre Fest, John Sloan III.

Welcome John.

- Thanks Satori.

So glad to be back.

- So you're bringing us back some more beautiful and wonderful exhilarating episodes.

- Yeah, yeah, that's the goal.

This is our second season for OTF and our first season producing in person.

'Cause last year because of the pandemic, in our first season everything was virtual.

So we're really excited this year about the content that we have and, and really excited to be able to produce here in Detroit.

- All right, well what have you brought us as gifts?

We're gonna be talking about a few of our different plays.

So at the bowl at the YMCA, that was our main stage house and so we featured four wonderful plays.

"We Own Everything", which was written by Shante Brown right here from Detroit.

Wild Horses", "A Rodeo Clown", which is a fantastic and amazing piece that really talks about this wonderful line between what do we as artists and like where do we as people let go of our own agency, right?

Where it becomes somebody else's to be able to shape and when do we hold onto it for ourselves?

And then "Miss Education", which is also a piece that in today's culture and society, I think is really interesting, talking about that line between activism and change.

Like how do you change the system from the inside or from the outside.

- Okay.

And how is it received?

- Well, I, I hopefully all it's received really well.

We had hundreds of people coming to see our work in person.

We wanted to start this season in person, coming right outta the pandemic with more small invited audiences, was definitely open to the public, but with everybody still being aware of COVID, making sure that we were being safe right, in how we presented this work.

And what we held onto from our first season was that virtual production.

So where our first season we shot here at Marygrove, all six of our shows this year we shot all 12 of our performances in those variety of theaters and then streamed them out.

- And can you remind us again of your mission and vision?

- Yeah, so the Obsidian Theatre Festival, the goal is to be able to use theater and the theatrical arts to uplift the diversity of blackness, to uplift emerging black voices.

And doing that because we recognize the history that theater and art and music has had in activism, in civil rights and in the amazing ability that we have as artists to reflect life for an audience.

And so, you know, OTF is really framed around the ability to make that platform available for artists that otherwise might not have the opportunity.

So we do the big lift ourselves, right?

We put out a big call for submissions, we take all those different submissions that we produce all the shows, we spend our own money.

We don't ask anything of the artists.

In the past two seasons, I think we've created over 215 jobs for people, the majority of whom are all right here in Detroit.

- And when you are getting all these play submissions, what do you look for in a work?

- This year it's, it's always a blind process 'cause we know that we're gonna know different artists, right?

And we don't wanna be influenced by those personal relationships.

But we have a panel.

So what that panel does is this year we had 145, 150 submissions from across the country.

That panel whittled that down to about the top 25 or 30.

And then along with the panel and myself, our executive staff, we sat down and kind of combed through the rest of them.

And it's a little bit like trying to put a puzzle together without knowing what the picture actually is supposed to look like.

You wanna find pieces that celebrate diversity.

So you don't want every piece to feel the same.

You wanna find pieces that are honest and that talk about the black experience in a way that feels authentic and not presentational.

You wanna find pieces that are just well written that are exciting.

And the key part I think about what OTF is really trying to do is find pieces from artists that are emerging, that haven't necessarily had an opportunity to see their work produced in a larger theater or theater of scale.

And all those things have to kind of play together.

One thing that I'm really excited about is our ability to start delving even more into the differences in identity across the diaspora.

And so not just talking to heteronormative playwrights, right, but talking to playwrights that that identify in different ways and being able to show those experiences as well.

- Well thank you.

Any last words?

- No, I mean I just encourage everybody to come check us out.

Obviously we're excited to be able to continue growing this partnership with DPTV, with Detroit Performs and all of our content is available online.

If people wanna get involved, if they wanna learn about our submission process and how to watch, if they wanna support, all they have to do is go to ObsidianFest.org.

- Thank you very much.

John Sloan III.

- Thank you.

- Next I'm gonna sit down with NyEa Reynolds, director of "Wild Horses".

- Oh, we getting started already.

- We're celebrating.

- Celebrating?

- Yeah, your first voyage into nature.

(bottles clink) - I'm excited to be sitting here with NyEa Reynolds, director of "Wild Horses" for Obsidian Fest.

Welcome NyEa.

- Thank you so much.

It's good to be here.

Thank you for having me.

- So can you tell us a little bit about Obsidian Fest and your role as director of" Wild Horses"?

- Yep, so Obsidian Theatre Fest is a festival that's taking place right here in Detroit.

We have several productions that consist of plays, cabarets, musicals.

So I happen to be a director for one of the plays and these are short plays that are put on.

And so we had a couple weeks to rehearse and then we got into the theater space at the Y and we put on our show.

We had an amazing, amazing time.

I'm absolutely honored to have been a part of that process.

- Okay.

And you directed "Wild Horses".

- "Wild Horses", yes.

- What is that about?

- So "Wild Horses" is actually, it has a couple of different meanings if you really think about it.

But what "Wild Horses" really hit on was the idea of the image of the black person in America.

So you got this couple, this black couple in particular, and they decide to go camping and there's this running joke that black people don't camp, black people don't camp.

This is not something that black people do.

So they're out, they're trying to enjoy their time in the wilderness and as they're doing that they're being looked at as a spectacle in the white eye frame.

So a white woman comes in and you know, she eventually presents herself as this friendly person, but there's this undercurrent that, you know, there's a lot of microaggression happening, there's a lot of prejudice and assumptions on both ends and things get really, really outta control towards the end.

And it's just the idea that, you know, black people are looked at as this thing to be stared at or looked upon, but they're also something to be afraid of.

Like a wild horse.

They're beautiful to look at from a distance, but you might be scared to get too close to 'em because you don't know what they're gonna do.

And it kind of plays on that idea that we are black people, we are humans, and you know, we have a range of emotions and you can't just pick at us, you know, just because it seems like something interesting in the moment or because you're afraid.

So it really plays on a lot of different things and it's just a really beautiful piece overall.

- They're here.

- The Rangers?

- No.

Horses.

Look.

Wild.

- And free.

- What should we take away from the piece?

- I would say the biggest thing to take away from it is that we are not a monolith.

As black people we are complex, we are beautiful, we are afraid, we are powerful, we are loving, we are sad, right?

But at the end of the day, we are people and that's black, white, any race that you are, we're all people.

And we should look at each other as such with that eye of humanity and not come in by looking at somebody's color of skin and judging them based off of that and assuming X, Y, and Z about a person.

- We were just about to take a walk.

Do you think that's such a good idea?

Walking alone in the dark with him?

- Who, the thug of (indistinct)?

- That's enough Jenny.

Now please go.

- I had the honor of being able to meet our playwright and to talk with her.

We talk to each other on Zoom because she lives outta state, but, - And who is the playwright?

- Brandy, so she was, she was our playwright and I was able to really like get a understanding of who she is and just, you know, where she comes from, what inspired her to write this story.

I think those are important things to know when I am about to go and direct something.

Not that I'm just taking a piece that's already done and I can just do whatever I want with it.

But I really like to take the time to understand why a playwright went in the direction that they did.

And then that helps me in the collaboration process to begin to think like that as well.

And then put my own creative vision in it.

So it's, it all works together.

- Yeah.

- All works together.

- How long have you been directing?

- So I've been directing for about four to five years, off and on.

I do some other things in the arts as well, but my heart started with acting and then it moved into directing and I, I really see myself in the long run just being behind the scenes and really taking on that directing role.

I just, I love to create stories.

I love to be given stories and to create from there too, you know, it's like someone giving away their own baby and you just have to take it and build on it.

- What is your mission as a director of stories?

- I really, really value the idea of camaraderie and just empathy.

Even if there's a play where you have characters where it's like, I'm not rooting for that character.

That character is the bad guy.

At least we have to have an understanding of where every character comes from.

There's a backstory, even if the backstory is not on the pages, we gotta create that because these are still people.

Each one of these characters are still people.

And that's what I wanted to emphasize, even with our other character who most people probably may not root for because it was that idea of we don't know what this lady's about, what she's gonna do.

We made it a point to make a backstory for her and really understand who she is, what her influences in life were.

Because she didn't just wake up and do whatever she wanted to do just because we needed an opposing character, right?

And to look at the other two characters and understand what are their perspectives?

Are there things that maybe they've been sheltered from that they might misunderstand about the other side?

It just, I'm very interested in in playing on all of those different things but still telling the same story.

- I love it.

It's like you're a synthesizer of humanity.

- Yes, I'm all about it.

Just working together.

I mean we already know the world is just so many things.

So it's nice to have moments where we can really just come together and create art authentically, but also at the same time make sure that we understand even if we're all coming from different places, let's try to have a understanding somewhere.

- Thank you so much NyEa Reynolds.

It was pleasure talking with you.

- Thank you.

And next I'm gonna be talking to Kelli Crump.

- I've been digging through photo albums all day, getting the slides show together for the funeral.

- (indistinct) appreciate that.

You know Unc would, he loved a photo of himself.

- Always in style.

Rest in peace, Uncle Eddie.

- I am excited to be sitting here with KellI Crump from Obsidian Theatre Fest.

Welcome Kelli.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- So what did you direct.

- This year of directed a piece by Shante Brown called "We Own Everything".

- Oh, I love that title.

(chuckles) What is it about?

- So it's about a lot of things.

It's about the legacy of Detroit, about the people of Detroit, the effects of gentrification and you know, our role, what we feel our role is in the city as folks of color and legacy families in the city.

- What resonated with you?

- Well her writing is contemporary.

It's real, right?

Like the characters sound like myself and my family and my friends.

She's not preachy that the characters that she writes really go through the conversation and you watch the process, you can hear the process and there are different characters throughout the piece that you can agree with.

- Airbnb is right here in Midtown.

- Sorry, Midtown?

Sound like one of them Detroit imports.

- Imports?

- Yeah, even living around Wayne State campus so long using the gentrifiers' language.

Sound like one of them new Detroiters.

But this is the Cass corridor.

- You go.

- And she's able to write the complexity of certain situations with grace and with a style that is just refreshing, especially from a young playwright.

Like it's exciting to see where the craft of playwriting is going with playwrights like Shante.

- All the news talk about every day is how many jobs Gilbert is bringing into the city.

- Well let me use your Ann Arbor address to put on my resume and maybe I can qualify for one of them.

Everybody knows those jobs that earmarked for Detroit imports.

- It's not what the mayor says.

- Of course not, but you know, like I know, my zip code translate to not skilled.

- Now it takes place around a pool table.

Are the balls shot?

Do you, I don't know what you call it.

Theater magic.

- It's a little bit of theater magic because it's hard to, because it's a play, right?

We had an amazing crew, awesome production leadership who found a pool table, put it together for us as the iconic piece, right of the, of the play.

It takes place at the Bronx Bar.

And so it's, it's a staple in Detroit and that the game, what the game represents, who's running the game, right?

So we, we played with different sound cues of when the balls hit, when they click, you know?

And with pool being, it's just like babies and dogs on stage, you can't control them.

So we had to find a way, (laughs), we had to find a way of making it work to help fill out the environment.

So everything is choreographed.

The pool game, the hits are choreographed and the actors did a great job.

(laughs) - The next game.

(laughs) Come on.

Who challenges me now?

I can't hear you.

(laughs) - Okay, fine.

You got it for now Auntie Jane.

- Ooh, I know I got it.

- And what do you think the value is in telling these stories and unearthing these histories?

- I think, you know, it goes back to the, the phrase we see on bumper stickers and whatnot.

The representation matters.

I think the arts and theater specifically, we are the mirror of society.

We are the storytellers, we are the history keepers as theater practitioners.

And so playwrights, actors, different artisans.

We are the excuse for people to have these conversations.

You know, so many people came out to see the show, which means that people are hungry for theater, they're hungry for the types of storytelling that is happening at Obsidian Theatre Festival.

And so hopefully more theater companies in the area will pick that up and wanna run with it.

And if not, then OSF is the place where folks can see themselves reflected on stage and have those important conversations and artists can write the words that are important to us.

- And is that what you hope audiences will leave the theater talking and taking the stories and their experience into the world?

- Yes, yes, yes.

I hope that our piece will help, like I said, plant the seed to have the initial conversation that maybe they're too afraid to, that they're not certain other folks will wanna engage in, that hopefully our piece, as with all the other works of OSF, will help crack that door open so that someone can get their foot through to start to engage with others and have those important conversations, to have the change that we need in the city and in our communities and start to engage our communities.

- See y'all, Y'all got memories but I was here and where y'all been?

No really?

Where was y'all taking Ubers and driving the company car with the commune of consumers with expensive bicycles.

Ain't bothered to pull up in months but got a right to his will.

Ain't put a dent in entire trading years.

But you got a right to put your name on it because of memories?

- Do you have any last words?

- I just want everyone in the city to stay strong, support the arts.

We have to understand that the arts are necessity to our society and we all have something to give.

- It has been a pleasure speaking with you, Kelli.

Thank you.

And now we're gonna talk with Lynch Travis of Obsidian Theatre Fest.

- All right, well I'm Sammy the clown.

Welcome to the Archer County Rodeo.

Let's start the show.

Woo hoo.

- I'm sitting here with Lynch Travis, the director of "A Rodeo Clown".

Welcome.

- Well thank you for having me.

- So can you tell us a little bit about "A Rodeo Clown"?

- "A Rodeo Clown" was a one-act short play, I guess it ran about an hour long.

It was written by a young man, Marshall Shafer, about another young man who was an up and rising rodeo clown who happened to be African American.

And for those that don't know, rodeo clowns are the folk that you see running around trying to keep the bulls from mashing the rodeo riders.

And the plot was, was about him facing perhaps stardom, how to accommodate himself to the wishes of the producers, you know, 'cause it was show biz, show business and they wanted a certain thing and he also had certain issues to reconcile with his deceased father who was a former rodeo rider.

- And how did you approach the piece as a director?

- One line at a time.

I'm a start at the beginning, let's see what happens Kind of process person.

I'd read to play several times.

Obviously I knew most of the cast in terms of there was one person that I had not worked with before, so it was pretty much trying to unpack it.

It was kind of cinemagraphic in terms of how it was structured.

So that was one of the challenges, how to make these transitions from scene to scene to scene.

As a director, my style, I don't like to stop the play to do set changes or you know, costume changes or any of that.

So it was a matter of trying to, let's get on our feet and see how this goes.

And I was blessed, as is the usually the case here in, in our part of Michigan with a fine cast.

So it was easy to do in terms of just getting the work out of the way.

Not easy in terms, it's never easy to put out on play, but just a easy relationship with us in terms of us doing this, this type of exploration.

- Well sorry to break it to son, but that's what's happening.

- And after this we're gonna be done, right?

- I'll let you go son.

I promised you that.

But I know you better the most.

As long as that door's open you were gonna jump and dive right through it.

Your daddy was a good man, but he was the same.

- Can you tell us a little bit about the playwright and what attracted you to direct the piece?

- Well I did not know the playwright at all.

He's a young man actually going to university in New York City from Texas, kind of been all around.

It's kind of a interesting situation.

I wanted to direct in the Festival.

I wanted to the first year, but I got COVID and it was not just good timing for me coming, you know, try to recover.

So when John asked me if I wanted to participate, I said of course.

Then I read the script and I was like immediately all in.

I'm a big African American history buff.

I'm very familiar with Bill Pickett and the work he did as a rodeo writer, one of the first cowboy movie stars, that type of thing.

My dad was like the biggest cowboy fan ever.

So I grew up reading like Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour and all those types of things.

So it was something I had been interested in for a very long time.

Coupled with that, the actor that we had as our lead actor, his grandmother trained him as a clown when he was a child.

So he was really all in into doing the piece as well.

And he and I had not worked together for a very long time, so I was very eager 'cause he's fantastic - Who is this?

- Edmond Jones.

- Okay.

- I mean absolutely top notch.

- I guess It's the daddy humor starting to develop.

How's the little role doing?

- Calm yourself.

We just found out yesterday and you already acting like it's bigger than a tomato seed.

We got time, but what time you coming home.

- Soon baby.

I do got some news for you.

- Oh, what's that?

- There was a scout at the competition.

He wants me and Christian at Douglas County.

- So I was like, okay, I got the actor I want.

I got this really cool script that's about something that's different.

And it was also very universal.

His relationship with his pregnant wife, his relationship with his deceased father.

Things that we could always identify with, his, his wrestling in the entertainment business between the needs of the producers who wanted him to be a clown and his need to fulfill what he thought was his duties.

As you mentioned when we were off camera, being a rodeo clown is very dangerous.

Being a rodeo cowboy is even more dangerous.

And he was drawn into this because his father died riding the bull and he, he had grown up watching these rodeo clowns save his dad on other occasions and so on and so forth.

So that's what he wanted to be.

- Oh, he had no choice but to give his life to his sport.

He was made specifically to be a part of this industry and because of it, he's dead.

Now ain't that just a kick in the head and I'm sure you spend as much time with your father as I did with mine.

Maybe even more, huh?

Genuine family time.

- Are there any last words?

- If you ever get a chance to go to see live theater in metropolitan Detroit, take advantage of it.

I think that we do great work around here and it's an opportunity there for you to really see the best of what's happening in our community right now.

Young people, middle-aged people, seniors like myself that have pursued and are pursuing a great art form.

- Thank you so much Lynch Travis, it's been a pleasure speaking with you and hearing your vision.

- My pleasure.

- Thank you for joining us today on Detroit Performs Live from Marygrove.

And thank you to Obsidian Theatre Festival and its directors for sharing their stories.

Make sure to join us next time on Detroit Performs Live from Marygrove, where we'll have more dynamic performances right here.

See you then.

- Funding for Detroit Performs is provided by the Fred A.

And Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, The Kresge Foundation, the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the DeRoy Testamentary Foundation, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(jazz music)