11.01.18

PW OPINION PW NEWS PW LIFE PW ARTS
22 PASADENA WEEKLY | 11.01.18
INCENDIARY TIMES
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21
and Lank, and the conflict that erupts when Lank
opens their unlicensed basement bar to shelter an
injured white woman, Caroline, as the riot rages in the
city. Fueled by the characters’ cross-wired attempts
to understand each other, the drama echoes events
roiling America today.
Director Gregg T. Daniel, who also directed
Mfoniso Udofia’s refugee-themed “Her Portmanteau”
at Boston Court this summer, says he and the youthful
cast immersed themselves for a week in photos, video
and other historical mementos from that “incendiary
time.”
“In some ways they’re beneficiaries, I told them,
of the civil rights movement of the ’60s,” he recalls.
“What’s really uncanny and sad is that the same conditions
and themes which existed that produced those
uprisings in many ways still exist today. Perpetual injustice,
racism, bigotry — if anything, on our national
scene it’s made a resurgence that I would never have
seen coming. In this play, a young man is beaten up
pretty badly by the police; again, it was indicative of
the time and is still indicative of the time. …
“It’s eerie that we’re talking about things in 1967
that have such contemporary resonance. It’s a very
violent world this play exists in. These people are
marginalized. The basement where ostensibly they
hold parties to make a living, rent parties, is really
their little piece of sanctuary, because once they go
outside of this house they may never come back in
terms of police violence and the violence within the
city. We steeped ourselves in the politics of the time
nationally, racially, economically. We often talk of how
it resonates in 2018.”
The production, which is being staged in the Pasadena
Playhouse’s 99-seat Carrie Hamilton Theater, is
part of an ongoing collaboration between the Playhouse
and the USC School of Drama. (Adam Bock’s
“The Receptionist” will also be presented under its
auspices at the Carrie Hamilton Nov. 15-17.) David
Warshofsky, director of USC’s MFA acting program,
calls it a “formally informal” and mutually beneficial
arrangement. Both he and Daniel rave about how
the opportunity to perform at a prestigious regional
theater like the Playhouse greatly expands the students’
training — and, hopefully, future professional
networking options. A dedicated fan of Morisseau’s
writing, Warshofsky says he had been eager for an opportunity
to present one of her plays.
Actress Deja Thompson, who portrays Chelle, calls
the play “a story that needs to be told” and says it’s
close to her heart, not least because, like Chelle, she
has a younger brother. She likens the relationship between
Chelle and Caroline to a very fast roller coaster.
Riding it has been a “whirlwind,” she says, because
she personally has never had to have conversations
with someone “not fully understanding or comprehending
their privilege due to their skin.”
“It’s been mindboggling sometimes, because it’s
real, and these conversations do need to happen
[today],” she says. “So when I am stepping into the
arguments that me and Caroline have, it makes me
tingle; my whole body kind of tenses up because I
think about the reality of our world. I think about all
that has happened to African Americans, and I’m in
shock. It’s hard for me. To be the one who’s delivering
and be very on the point of my delivery in my speech is
rewarding, yes; but at the same time, I’m frustrated. …
Why are we so divided? Looking at the bigger picture,
our world has come so far, yet we have so far to go.”
The play’s action is backdropped by songs of Motown
— classics by the likes of Smokey Robinson, the
Four Tops, and the Temptations. According to Daniel,
their placement is not incidental.
“It’s amazing that this black man, Berry Gordy,
started this record empire and perfected a sound, the
Motown sound, at a time when black music wasn’t
even played on many radio stations,” he notes. “So
the music is almost in resistance to the times. … It’s
more than just feel-good music. The actors are going
through the lyrics, discussing what this song is about,
what might have influenced the song. Because it really
is a way of resistance; of saying we love the way we
love, why we love who we love.” n
“Detroit 67” runs from Thursday, Nov. 8, through Saturday, Nov.
10, at the Pasadena Playhouse’s Carrie Hamilton Theatre, 39
S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena; $20 general admission/$10 USC
students and staff and Playhouse members. Info: (626) 356-7529.
PHOTO: Davis Allen/Aurora Theatre Company