Black Voices Celebrated At Kirk Douglas Theatre

By Darlene Donloe

The voices of Black artists will take center stage during the second season of “Not A Moment, But A Movement” a three-day festival taking place Sat., June 22 – Mon., June 24, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.  

The event, presented by the Center Theatre Group (CTG) in collaboration with The Fire This Time Festival and Watts Village Theater Company, is an initiative created to amplify, center, and celebrate Black voices. 

This year, six woman-identifying or non-binary playwrights were commissioned to write new plays beginning in January 2021.

Five of the playwrights - Z & Co” f/aka AzizA Barnes, Roger Q. Mason, Tahirih Moeller, Cynthia Grace Robinson, and t. tara turk-haynes—will have their resulting works read during the festival. This will mark the first time that any of the plays will be presented to the public.

The themes of the plays range from personal coming-of-age stories and explorations of gender identity and body dysmorphia; to experiences of intimacy and joy; to complex issues about civil rights and queer identity; and the loss of independence while enduring dementia. The final play is an imagining of when Diahann Carroll, Sidney Poitier, Joann Woodward, Paul Newman, Duke Ellington, and Marlon Brando came together to make the 1961 movie Paris Blues about jazz expatriates in Paris. 

Roger Q. Mason

On Sunday, June 23, at 7 p.m., playwright Roger Q. Mason will present ‘Night Cities’ about a young Bayard Rustin before Civil Rights Movement fame.  In the play, Rustin must choose between his private desires as a queer Black man and his public calling as an agent of social justice and civic change.

The play, directed by Nancy Keystone, is set against the labor movement of the 1930s and 40s. It embraces the musicality, dream imagery, and liberation of jazz playwriting to explore one man's quest for complex humanity in a world that limits who we are to how we can be used for the good of others. 

Mason was recently touted by The Brooklyn Rail as “quickly becoming one of the most significant playwrights of the decade.”

Mason appreciates the praise.

“A significant playwright is a scribe who keeps their culture honest, who speaks truth to power, and who inspires the people of the time in which they live to think about the cosmic obligation they have to make this world better for their ancestors, themselves, and the folks yet to come,” said Mason whose plays have been seen on Broadway at Circle in the Square (Circle Reading Series); Off and Off-Off-Broadway at MCC Theatre with Carnegie Hall, La Mama ETC, New York Theatre Workshop, New Group, and more. “The playwright holds a spiritual place in society. The ancients understood that. In classical Egypt and Greece, writers were part of the civic order, granted commissions and places of distinction within socio-political structures because those cultures knew that writers held a key to the divine, reflecting back to people they were, who they could be, and who they had been in the past. It’s powerful work that we do as playwrights: through our creations, we help our fellow humans understand the divine.”

Mason chose to write about a young Bayard Rustin because he “Revealed himself to me as a reflection of our dilemmas: the parts of ourselves that we sacrifice, suppress, or amplify to succeed in the world.”

“We are constantly battling between our private and public selves, our inner desires, and our outward presentations,” Mason said. “What we see in the early years of Bayard Rustin was a man struggling with different parts of himself: his religion, his sexuality, his understandings of race and access, and his social awareness. I want audiences to know that Bayard was a complicated, yearning, searching human, just like the rest of us.” 

The play is called, ‘Night Cities,’ said Mason, because it discusses Bayard's notions of intimacy, particularly his definitions of free love.

“In his lifetime, he pursued a hearty and plentiful sex life which obliterated the lines between monogamy and sex positivity,” said Mason, who holds degrees from Princeton University, Middlebury College, and Northwestern University. “How do you balance the desire for sexual freedom with commitment to individuals who attract you intensely?  There’s a scene in the play where one of his lovers talks about committing to a monogamous relationship and Bayard discusses the ephemerality of queer sex. He equates it to nighttime cities built by lovers through passion, only to disappear in the morning.  That scene is the inspiration for the play's title.”

Mason has been involved with Not A Moment But A Movement for several years.

“My relationship with Not A Moment, But A Movement has spanned over three years and reflects my bountiful relationships with Center Theatre Group, Watts Village Theatre, and The Fire This Time Festival,” said Mason. “Cezar Williams, the artistic director of The Fire This Time Festival, has been a champion of my work for over a decade.  His belief in me is how I was first introduced to Not A Moment, But A Movement.”  

Mason’s playwriting has been seen at numerous venues including on Broadway at Circle in the Square (Circle Reading Series); Off and Off-Off-Broadway at MCC Theatre with Carnegie Hall, La Mama ETC, New York Theatre Workshop, New Group, and more.

Other readings in the festival include Tahirih Moeller’s play “Kia Was Here,” (3 p.m., Sat., June 22) directed by Bruce Lemon. It’s about an 18-year-old named Kia and her 15-year-old niece Kamille. The play takes place in the past and in the present.

Moeller, a writer-doodler from Long Beach, has worked with Greenway Court Theatre, Long Beach Playhouse, and PlayGround-LA. Her works include Actually Oranges (When Life Hands You Lemons), and Heroes of the West. 

Z & Co” f/aka AzizA Barnes presents ‘FKA I AM A BAD BLK PERSON (7 p.m., Sat., June 22), directed by nicHi douglas, is a continuation of the play BLKS: different characters, same question: why do i laugh when i am in pain?  No other information was given. 

‘Letters From Loretta,’ (3 p.m., Sun., June 23) written by Cynthia Grace Robinson and directed by Andi Chapman, is an intergenerational love story about a widow living with dementia who clings to a relationship with her late husband while fighting to maintain a life of independence as her daughter, Nora, assumes responsibility for her care.  

Robinson’s plays have been produced in the U.S. and internationally. Some of her works include Freedom Summer (North Carolina Black Repertory Company); Dancing On Eggshells (The Billie Holiday Theatre) and Peola’s Passing (New Perspectives Theatre Company; Festival de Teatro Alternativo, Bogota, Colombia), and more.

Blue Paris Blues (7 p.m., Mon., June 24), written by t. tara turk-haynes and directed by Khanisha Foster. The play is about when Diahann Carroll, Sidney Poitier, Joann Woodward, Paul Newman, Duke Ellington, and Marlon Brando came together to make a movie about jazz expats in Paris in 1961. 

turk-haynes, a graduate of Lang College and Sarah Lawrence, is a writer whose work has been featured on various stages and screens including Lower Depth Ensemble, Rogue Machine, Company of Angeles, the Hip Hop Theater Festival, the Actor's Studio, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Schomburg and the Kennedy Center. 

Not A Moment, But A Movement, The Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232, June 22-24; $10-$15; tickets@ctgla.org, 213 628-2772.