DRAMATIC WORK

by Ayvaunn Penn

CHARACTER NAME, BRIEF DESCRIPTION, AGE, GENDER

 

PROF. BLACK: A Black uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­tor 35+ Any

 

PROF. WHITE: A White uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­tor 40+ Any

 

PROF. BENTON: A Latinx uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­tor 40+ Any

 

PROF. HALLOW: A uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­tor. Any Race. 40+ Any

 

TYRONE: Black college theatre student 17–21 Male

 

MARQUIS: Black college theatre student 17–21 Male

 

JAVIER: Latino college theatre student 17–21 Male

 

TIFFANIE: Bira­cial college theatre student. 17–21 Female Iden­ti­fies as Black but does not look Black.

 

NATOSCIA: Black college theatre student 17–21 Female

 

RASHONDA: Black college theatre student 17–21 Female

 

ENSEMBLE: Other college theatre stu­dents 17–21 Any Most are white

Setting

Any PWI (pri­mar­i­ly white insti­tu­tion) college or uni­ver­si­ty in the United States of America

Time Period

Post George Floyd, 2020 — Present

LIGHTS UP ON:

A college theatre class­room at a PWI (pri­mar­i­ly White 

insti­tu­tion). It is packed with student and faculty 

pro­duc­tion team members — cast, understudies, 

design­ers, etc. — for a pro­duc­tion of Why Ain’t a Grape a

Berry? that is hanging in the balance. To be clear, there 

are more White people in this room than people of color. 

Ten­sions are high. Emo­tions are high. Everyone’s tired. 

Evening approach­es. This meeting has already been 

going strong for two hours as some fight to keep Why

Ain’t a Grape a Berry? alive while others fight to shut it 

down.

PROF. BLACK

Would you have felt better if co-direct­ing were on the table? The Black direct­ing can­di­date and Latino direct­ing can­di­date working togeth­er on the show?

NATOSCIA

That would have been fine with me.

Other stu­dents nod in agreement. 

TYRONE

No. There’s no way around it. This wasn’t the right way to handle things. You had a Black student apply to direct this show, and you didn’t pick them.

PROF. BLACK

The right way to handle things? I’m sorry, but I strug­gle with how you phrase that. First, as your faculty, we have an oblig­a­tion to be objec­tive when review­ing appli­ca­tions. The person with the strongest appli­ca­tion was select­ed. As you move forward in life you are going to want to know, now and in the future, that when you apply for an oppor­tu­ni­ty, the best person is being select­ed. It is your job — all of our job — to always do our best to be the best. If a Black student appli­cant had the best appli­ca­tion out of the direct­ing can­di­dates, that’s who would have been select­ed hands down. That was not the case, however. The other right thing to do was what we did — consult the play­wright, Lovette Lowery. She is the ulti­mate author­i­ty on this — not you, not me, not this depart­ment. Lowery owns the play. It is her work. The sit­u­a­tion was explained to her. She was asked point blank if she felt the integri­ty of her work would be com­pro­mised if it did not have a Black direc­tor. Please know that if she had told us not to proceed, we wouldn’t even be here having this con­ver­sa­tion. She is a grown Black woman who knows how to say what she does and does not want to happen with her work. Her response letter was read in your hearing.

With all of this concern about Black voices being heard, should we not listen to hers?

(eyeing MARQUIS and TYRONE) 

I am dis­turbed by how easily her voice is being dis­missed and by who is dis­miss­ing it.

MARQUIS

It’s just not the right time.

(to JAVIER)

And I want you to know that this has nothing to do with you as a person. We like you. We support you. Why Ain’t a Grape a Berry? just isn’t the play for you to direct as a Latino.

JAVIER

Thank you for that. No, I under­stand. I com­plete­ly under­stand. The last thing I want is for anyone to feel uncomfortable.

TIFFANIE

Can I just say? When it was announced that our depart­ment would be pro­duc­ing Why Ain’t a Grape a Berry? I was excited. I wasn’t think­ing about who would be direct­ing. Audi­tions were exhil­a­rat­ing — doing scenes with my Black peers for a Black show. I was looking forward to having the oppor­tu­ni­ty to portray a Black woman on stage. As someone who does not nec­es­sar­i­ly look Black, I haven’t had that oppor­tu­ni­ty yet. This was going to be my moment. Finally…finally…I…I just…I just wanted to say that.

NATASCIA

I think the thing for us to do at this point is take a vote, right? So we can see who still wants to par­tic­i­pate in this pro­duc­tion and who doesn’t. See if we have enough people to move forward.

TYRONE

Wait wait wait…what does moving forward look like?

PROF. WHITE

That’s for you to decide. I think this is an impor­tant and timely show. I want to see us do it. I hope it moves forward, but I do not want anyone to feel uncom­fort­able. If that means not doing the show because those cast do not feel com­fort­able, then…that means not doing the show.

RASHONDA

What if Prof. Black directs and Javier co-directs?

PROF. WHITE

Caveat. This is the student-direct­ed show slot. We cannot take this oppor­tu­ni­ty away from the student select­ed. That wouldn’t be right.

TYRONE

If there’s no Black direc­tor, I’m not doing it.

MARQUIS

Me neither.

NATASCIA

(Dis­ap­point­ed)

That’s that then. No point in con­tin­u­ing the vote. We had just enough Black stu­dents to pull off the show, so if two are out…

PROF. BENTON

Whereas it is true that if the two Black leads cast in this show back out it’s enough to shut down this pro­duc­tion, that is not an accu­rate assess­ment of our student body. Hon­est­ly, we have more Black stu­dents than Black roles in this show. As later report­ed, some Black stu­dents — those aware that the Black direct­ing can­di­date was not select­ed — opted out of audi­tions. In protest. So the argu­ment I’ve been hearing the past few days about Black stu­dents being tok­enized or forced into this show without being able to be con­sid­ered for other roles simply is not true in this sit­u­a­tion. Fur­ther­more, tok­eniza­tion was not an argu­ment or concern when the student-favorite What to Send Up When It Goes Down was on the table during show selec­tion. And don’t forget that student rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the DEI com­mit­tee got to be a part of the show selection.

PROF. HALLOW

(Erupt­ing after sitting quietly in this hours- long meeting) 

I’m so sick of this shit. Every year I watch this faculty bend over back­ward to please and meet the needs of stu­dents, and I be damned if, every time, all of that hard work is undone because what? One or two stu­dents don’t get their way? This is lit­er­al­ly how shows die in the indus­try. This is how progress is halted. Do you realize that out of our theatre department’s 80-year history, this was going to be the first Black show by a Black play­wright to be pro­duced at this PWI? Do you realize what it took to get to this point? In the town hall that we held after the murder of George Floyd, you — our stu­dents — said you wanted change. Said you wanted to see your­selves reflect­ed onstage and have Black stories told. That you didn’t just want lip service about sup­port­ing Black lives and Black artists. That you wanted to see real work, real evi­dence, real progress. And when we finally make it happen…

RASHONDA

So we’re just sup­posed to smile, shut up, and be grateful?

MARQUIS

Yeah, that’s what it sounds like you’re saying.

PROF. HALLOW

Wow…okay…so we can’t even have a logical conversation.

PROF. BLACK

Since when are we not sup­posed to be grate­ful for the oppor­tu­ni­ties afford­ed us? And I don’t just mean “us” as in Black people. I mean as human beings. I mean as theatre artists. In life and espe­cial­ly in this indus­try, no oppor­tu­ni­ty is promised. Grat­i­tude is not a bad thing or a concept to scoff at.

PROF. HALLOW

My com­ments by far were not that Why Ain’t a Grape a Berry? is a handout that you should just be grate­ful for. My words do very much point out the history of this depart­ment and the fact that a pos­i­tive step forward has been halted.

 

PROF. BLACK

(to stu­dents)

If the irony of who is halting that progress is lost upon you, it is not lost upon me. His­tor­i­cal­ly this script is usually flipped.

PROF. HALLOW

(Taking in PROF. BLACK’s comment) 

You know…at this point…all I can say is good luck. Good luck select­ing a new show that pleases every­one in what? Two weeks? Good luck select­ing a new show that fits the exact needs of this cast. Show selec­tion takes a heck of a lot longer than that and is a painstak­ing process. It takes a lot of thought. As stu­dents, you are not aware of all of the moving pieces that must be con­sid­ered. Not only that, you have to find a show that can be built in this short period of time in terms of set, lights, cos­tum­ing. You do not fully realize the short-term or long-term ram­i­fi­ca­tions of this deci­sion. Under­stand that your peers had already put in months of work toward Why Ain’t a Grape a Berry?. Shows don’t just happen overnight. If you didn’t realize that prior to this point you’re about to find out.

PROF. BLACK

Can we even bring our­selves to ask the play­wright for our money back? We have already paid for the rights and every­thing. Asked her thoughts about how she felt the show should be handled…and wow. Now we’re not even doing the show.

This is extreme­ly dis­ap­point­ing. On a certain level…even embarrassing.

(to stu­dents)

Are any of you think­ing about this on the deeper level of the wealth gap in America and what it means to take money out of a Black woman’s pocket?

PROF. WHITE

We won’t request a refund. We can’t in good faith do that. We’ll just eat the cost. It’s the least we can do as a depart­ment after what is effec­tive­ly the silenc­ing of a Black woman play­wright — the exact oppo­site of what we were trying to do.

NATASCIA

I don’t think it’s fair to say that we’re silenc­ing Lovette Lowery. We just feel this show cannot be effec­tive without a Black director.

PROF. BLACK

What else is there to call it? The show isn’t hap­pen­ing because stu­dents feel they can tell a Black woman play­wright that she doesn’t know what it takes for her Broad­way play to be suc­cess­ful on a college campus. Also, I’m going to just throw this out there. A lot of stu­dents were fine with Javier direct­ing and me serving as his direct­ing mentor until they learned that a Black student had also applied. If in your mind the show had the ability to be suc­cess­ful with a Latino direc­tor then…reflect on why you feel dif­fer­ent­ly now.

TIFFANIE

Ulti­mate­ly this is a debate of whose voice is most impor­tant. If every­one has a right to be heard and a right to feel what they feel. Whose voice should win? Whose feel­ings should win? Marquis. Tyrone. You’re willing to burn it all down because of how you feel when other people in this room — espe­cial­ly other Black stu­dents — are inter­est­ed in still doing the show?

MARQUIS

I mean…I know I don’t want someone who isn’t Black telling me how to act Black.

(to PROF. BLACK) 

It didn’t matter if you were going to be the faculty mentor on the show.

PROF. BENTON

So you, as a Black student, want to be able to be con­sid­ered for any role, but you don’t want a Latino direc­tor to be con­sid­ered for direct­ing any show — not even with a Black faculty mentor in place?

PROF. WHITE

I want to apol­o­gize. Par­tic­u­lar­ly to our Black stu­dents. When we as a faculty made this deci­sion we made it purely and objec­tive­ly based on qual­i­fi­ca­tion as demon­strat­ed in the mate­ri­als sub­mit­ted by each student appli­cant. That said, I had a gut feeling. Some­thing just didn’t quite sit well with me. I made a mistake and for that I am sorry. I’ll own it. When review­ing student appli­ca­tions I, per­son­al­ly, was looking at the type of direct­ing credits each can­di­date had. Have they com­plet­ed the direct­ing course, and, if so, how well did they do? How strong was their written analy­sis of the show? I was looking at qual­i­fi­ca­tions over fit — fit meaning the ability to iden­ti­fy with the race and culture being explored in the show. Now I see that some­times fit is more impor­tant than qualifications.

NATASCIA

(Tearful…moved)

Thank you for that apology. It means a lot because that.…this really hurt us.

PROF. WHITE

From the bottom of my heart, I truly am sorry.

(A few moments of silence)

Now what needs to happen is select­ing a new show. Obvi­ous­ly, that won’t happen today, but it needs to happen in a matter of days. We need to inves­ti­gate rights and have time to pivot if nec­es­sary. Also, as mentioned…designers and the direc­tor need a fair amount of time to be able to prepare.

RASHONDA

Won’t we still have the same problem?

PROF. WHITE

What do you mean?

RASHONDA

With the excep­tion of one White char­ac­ter, the whole cast is Black. We still have a Latino direc­tor. Doesn’t that still leave us at square one no matter what show we pick? Not to mention we have to find a show with exactly two Black men, two Black women, and one White woman.

PROF. HALLOW

Like I said…good luck. There’s a very real pos­si­bil­i­ty that this show slot may end up being empty.

(beat)

I have to go now. Gotta pick up my kids from school.

PROF. HALLOW exits. 

MARQUIS

It’s not that the show can’t have Black char­ac­ters. Just not some­thing that deals with what it means to be Black and the strug­gle since we don’t have a Black director.

TYRONE

Yeah. Hon­est­ly? We’re tired. I don’t want every role I play to have to be about being Black. Some­times I — we — just want to be. White actors never have to worry about stuff like that. Why should we?

PROF. BENTON

And why should Javier?

PROF. WHITE

Every role? Let’s not forget that Why Ain’t a Grape a Berry? was going to be the first Black pro­duc­tion in the history of this uni­ver­si­ty. You have all been cast in numer­ous roles over the years without regard to race. I just want to remind us of that.

PROF. BLACK

On a slight­ly dif­fer­ent yet related note…is it still our goal to make sure this show slot ful­fills the objec­tive of being by and about persons from his­tor­i­cal­ly mar­gin­al­ized groups? I just feel it would be a shame for us to lose this newly-instat­ed spot in our pro­duc­tion rota­tion before it can even begin.

PROF. WHITE

I think at this point…it’s just impor­tant for us to pick a show. With that, meeting adjourned. Be think­ing about what shows you would like to suggest to fill this spot in our season. We have no time to lose. Thank you and have a good evening.

Stu­dents begin filing out of the class­room. PROF. 

BENTON runs to catch up with PROF. WHITE before 

he/she exits. All of the stu­dents have now cleared. Only 

the pro­fes­sors are left. 

PROF. WHITE

That was one heck of a meeting, am I right?

PROF. BENTON

Yeah…um…

(beat)

When you say you made a mistake with the student direc­tor selection…do you mind clar­i­fy­ing what exactly you are calling a mistake?

PROF. WHITE

Uh…

PROF. BENTON

I just feel a need to stand in the void and speak up for our Latino student. He heard you say that, and…I would hate for him to feel like he is a mistake. He right­ful­ly earned the posi­tion of student direc­tor. That is nothing to be sorry for. In fact, I feel you shouldn’t have apologized.

PROF. BLACK

I would actu­al­ly have to agree with that. The playwright’s response letter should have been “End of story. We’re moving forward with the show.” The play­wright appre­ci­at­ed knowing that Javier, our strongest can­di­date, was aware enough of his iden­ti­ty and cul­tur­al­ly respon­si­ble and con­scious enough to request men­tor­ship from a Black faculty member as a con­di­tion for direct­ing the show if he was selected.

PROF. WHITE

This is def­i­nite­ly a tough sit­u­a­tion. I didn’t…I’ll have to talk with Javier and make sure he under­stands that I’m not calling him a mistake. What I meant…uh…What I should have explained more thor­ough­ly, is that…I feel we should have simply paused and re-eval­u­at­ed the sit­u­a­tion before announc­ing the deci­sion for the student direc­tor slot. I’ll be sure to clarify where I was coming from in our next student body meeting. Thanks, Prof. Benton, for bring­ing that to my atten­tion. I hon­est­ly just kind of don’t know what to do. All I can say is that this whole sit­u­a­tion is a tes­ta­ment to the fact that change is messy — even if it’s for the better. As we work to diver­si­fy our season among other things we can’t keep the same old process­es — a lesson we’re learn­ing live in the moment along with many others. In the future we will need to either com­plete show selec­tion prior to solic­it­ing student direc­tor appli­ca­tions or have student direc­tors apply later. We were trying to do a good thing. I hope at least some of our stu­dents can under­stand and appre­ci­ate that and also under­stand that no process is a perfect process — at least not when it’s new. New steps are often wobbly steps. Wobbly though they may be, I hope we con­tin­ue to do our best to move our depart­ment in the direc­tion of pos­i­tive social change, equi­table rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and inclu­siv­i­ty. I have to go now myself. My kids are prob­a­bly at school won­der­ing where I am. See you guys tomorrow.

 

PROF. BENTON

Bye.

 

PROF. BLACK

See you later.

 

PROF. WHITE

Thank you for all of the ways you two con­tribute to and enrich our department.

 

 

Exit PROF. WHITE. Just as PROF. BENTON is about to 

exit…

PROF. BLACK

I’m so glad you brought that up. I’m another casu­al­ty of that apology.

PROF. BENTON

How so?

PROF. BLACK

Well you know I had a meeting with our Black stu­dents about all of this pre­vi­ous­ly, right?

PROF. BENTON

Right. How was that?

PROF. BLACK

Rough. And her apology under­mines every­thing I said — all the tough truths.

PROF. BENTON

Her apology under­mines Javier and anyone who ever worked hard to prepare them­selves for a job. It under­mines you and me as pro­fes­sors here. We have enough people who think the uni­ver­si­ty gave us these jobs to fill a diver­si­ty quota when in reality we earned our jobs with qual­i­fi­ca­tions at least equal to those of our peers. It’s no secret that people of color have to work twice as hard just to break even with our White peers.

PROF. BLACK

Right. Well, what I had to say was not what our Black stu­dents wanted me to say. They wanted me to say that the Black can­di­date not being select­ed was an injus­tice. They told me to my face that I let them down. That I let this happen. That I should have done more. Mean­while what they don’t know is that I did all I could do in light of the appli­ca­tions that were before us…suggested an alter­na­tive solution…a happy medium. But that alter­na­tive was met with mul­ti­ple oppo­si­tions. Thus leaving the unde­ni­able truth of the strongest appli­ca­tion and the moral “either or” deci­sion that we all had to make. That apology…his/her apology…makes me out to be the Black bitch who can’t under­stand where the Black stu­dents are coming from. “If the White pro­fes­sor can see it was the wrong direc­tor choice why can’t the one Black pro­fes­sor see it?” Now I’m the villain in their eyes. What they need to under­stand is that NOTHING in life is ever handed to people who look like us. And it’s not always a walk in the park for people who don’t look like us. Mil­lions upon mil­lions of artists scratch­ing and scrap­ing to get to the top to make their mark and many who won’t even see the light of day. Every­thing is fought for in this indus­try. We don’t get any­thing handed to us just because we are Black. Heck it’s usually the oppo­site. Prof. White’s apology, though well intend­ed, was damning…absolutely damning, and these Black young men and women cannot enter the world think­ing that their color will ever under any cir­cum­stances be a golden ticket.

PROF. BENTON

You’ve got that right. That would be one rude awak­en­ing. I’m so sorry that you’re car­ry­ing all of that weight. I’m always here if you ever need to talk or vent. Just keeping it real with you though, as much as I’m willing to be a friend and listen and under­stand and relate…you need to share that with Prof. White.

PROF. BLACK

I don’t know…maybe I will.

PROF. BLACK and PROF. BENTON make their way out 

of the class­room and head offstage. 

PROF. BLACK

Prob­a­bly won’t.

FADE TO BLACK.

LIGHTS UP ON:

PROF. BLACK at his/her office com­put­er scrolling 

through emails. It is a few weeks after the university 

pro­duc­tion of Why Ain’t a Grape a Berry? would have

closed.

PROF. BLACK

Oh my gosh the emails never end

(Types and stilt­ed­ly nar­rates along with it.) 

If you have already used all of your absences, no, you may not be excused from class for a Greek Life event.

(Strikes enter key. Beat.) 

Alita? Who is Alita? Hmm.…oh Lovette Lowery’s assis­tant. “Hello, Prof. Black. Prof. Lowery wanted to check in to see how the show went. She very much appre­ci­at­ed you and your depart­ment con­tact­ing her about your unique sit­u­a­tion. She also wanted to ask if it would be ok if she shared your exchange with some of her stu­dents and col­leagues. She said it per­fect­ly high­lights what so many col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties are strug­gling with. She’s on a Drama­tist Guild com­mit­tee that works to provide support for con­ver­sa­tions like this in the indus­try and in higher edu­ca­tion. She’ll remove your name and insti­tu­tion name if you give per­mis­sion to share. She feels that the letter from you and your depart­ment is a great example of how to proceed in a thought­ful and respect­ful manner. We look forward to hearing back from you soon.”

Fade to black as PROF. BLACK stares pen­sive­ly at the 

screen. The End.

This story orig­i­nal­ly appeared in Stonecoast Review Issue 19. Support local book­sellers and inde­pen­dent pub­lish­ers by order­ing a print copy of the mag­a­zine.

Photo by Roel Dierckens.