A Juneteenth theater event that will spotlight a new play and raise funds for Black stage programs certainly has a lot of people behind it.
How many? How about 30 theater companies, two non-profit arts groups, Bay Area theater icon and teacher Aldo Billingslea, playwright Vincent Terrell Durham, seven actors, stage director Peter J. Kuo and, well, we’re probably leaving quite a few folks out.
All those parties are behind a live-streaming event Friday, June 19, that will present a reading of Durham’s timely new play, “Polar Bears, Black Boys & Prairie Fringed Orchids,” a comedy/drama that explores many of the issues behind today’s racial and social unrest. At the same time, the event is a fundraiser for a new drive spearheaded by Billingslea called the Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project, which aims to aid Black stage works around the country and combat what organizers cite as “systemic racism in the theater industry.”
“This collaboration of theatres is exactly what theater was meant to do: uniting for change, responding to the current moment, raising awareness and resources to support marginalized communities, and amplifying the voices of artists of color,” Billingslea said in a statement. “With a perfect blend of wit, pathos and humor, this play speaks to some of the most pressing subjects of our time — gentrification, white fragility, the sustainability of the planet, the Black Lives Matter movement, and police violence against Black bodies.”
The play, originally commissioned and developed by PlayGround, the San Francisco new-play developer, and Bay Area-based nonprofit Planet Earth Arts, revolves an eventful evening in which a white liberal couple entertain several Black Lives Matter activists. And, as the saying goes, things don’t go as planned.
Bay Area actors performing in the reading include Jennifer Bradford, Britney Frazier, Rodney Earl Jackson Jr., Carrie Paff, Patrick Russell, Gabriel Q. Solomon and Michael Ray Wisely. More than 30 Bay Area theater troupes in all are contributing to the new play and the Theatre Justice project. Theater communities in other cities and markets are joining the campaign as well, organizers say.
The reading will be live-streamed 7 p.m. June 19 (Juneteenth). The production is free but donations are encouraged and will go toward the Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project. You can access the play and learn more about the project at PlayGround-sf.org/Juneteenth.
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Author: Randy McMullen