During the 13th National Black Writer's Conference held at Medgar Evers College annually, I was able to sit down and briefly speak with one of the 2016 honorees, the widely accomplished actor, author, playwright, and theatre producer Woodie King, Jr. (Find a brief biography here, and visit his theatre's website here.) In light of his legacy as such a profound figure in black theatre and a major pioneer in bringing black people to the forefront of American theatre and film, I was more than excited to meet him and sit down to talk. When I finally got through my star-stricken nervousness, we were able to speak fluidly about the unique minority struggle in theatre, his take on #Oscarssowhite, and his advice to students and emerging professionals looking to leave their mark the way he has. Here are some highlights of the interview.
"Education is sort of a thing that I tell young people you absolutely need in order to compete in this cutthroat world."
"When we started New Federal Theatre, when we worked in the theatre as an actor, when we tried to make an inroad, an impression, really, White Americans, who really ran the theatre, basically said 'There's nothing here for you.' ...It was very hard for black Americans to get into the game other than play a small role as a buddy of a white person, or an extra to a white person... [A] lot of us said "We're not gonna do that anymore. We would rather start our own institutions and take the risk of being our own boss. We would not go [pause] and beg for work, [pause] and get the work really based on your blackness; it had nothing to with your artistry... It's institutions like New Federal that existed, in opposition to that—National Black Theatre existed, in opposition to that."
"[W]hat I'm saying is... Wherever black people in America are, at any given time, is exactly where Americans in art, dance, music, theatre, will find themselves reaching out, really encouraging the white people to let them be involved in what they're doing. It's nothing wrong with that, you know? ... And there's a lot of us who want to start our own organization, who have started their own organization, and these organizations are struggling, just as our [chuckle] forefathers, our parents, struggled. And the struggle continues."
Time restraints prevented me from asking the legendary figure a question I've been burning with since Tyler Perry's rise to fame. With the emergence of his Madea character, I find that people either love his movies or hate them, partly due to the specificity of their target audience. I can imagine that there is a bittersweet edge to producing black theatre and film, because of our history in America and the realities that still plague minority communities today. My question was whether there is a certain tension between the need to tell the full story and wanting to showcase a certain resilience of our people. I wanted to ask Mr. King: "Do you ever feel as though a production is 'airing out our dirty laundry' for the world to see, so to speak?"
I don't intend to speak for King or (mis)represent his opinions on this question. But based on the brief moments I spent speaking with him, I would reach to say that perhaps he would respond that our "dirty laundry" was made dirty on a public stage—the American stage—but that only one side of the story was depicted. He might agree with the posit that the New Federal Theatre was, and continues to be, his way of retelling the story of blackness, in all its glories and its scars. The unique perspective we bring to the American narrative has historically been denied and illegitimized, and fallen largely on deaf ears. Will we get to a time when people are listening? Will we get to a time when we collectively don't care? Will we come to a point where we stop seeking approval for being black, spirited, talented, resilient? I should hope that one day we will reach all these moments. But until then, in the words of the legendary Woodie King, Jr., "the struggle continues."
