On Wednesday, August 5th at 8pm, Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, CT, will livestream “Black Trans Women at the Center: An Evening of Short Plays”.
The three new works will be: Sunshine by New Haven native Douglas Lyons, Things Unknown by Dezi Bing, and You Will Nevaaa by CeCe Suazo. The night is co-produced by none other than DC Black Trans playwright/performer Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi.
I had the rare opportunity to sit down with her, and Black Trans artists Dezi Bing from DC and CeCe Suazo from NYC. Even in a digital medium, their presences and characters shone through the musicality of their language in a way that mere text does not encapsulate.
Tell us what people are going to see tomorrow night?
Dane: So, a bit of history: Doug had written this piece called Sunshine, which I’m directing for the evening. I did some dramaturgy for him. He told me that Long Wharf was gonna be onboard with producing the piece.
So I went into my meeting with Long Wharf leveraging my access. I had an agenda and that was to get Black Trans playwrights commissioned and produced, Black Trans actors in the space, get Black Trans directors a theater directing credit, and create relationships between Black Trans creatives and theatrical institutions. And Long Wharf Theatre followed my leadership. I went into that meeting a director and left a producer.
Hopefully, people will see Dezi’s and CeCe’s plays and commission them to make them longer. One of my hopes for the evening is that Tourmaline, Assistant Director of Things Unknown, will be helped to assist on other projects. Tourmaline is an amazing film director. Tourmaline’s gifts could really bless the theatre as a director. All the people who are part of the evening are already working and already slaying.
My vision is creating relationship between institutions and Black Trans Women who are fucking brilliant. For me the evening is about us looking at the amazing Black Trans creatives, celebrating them, loving them, loving on them, lifting them up, and really centering their work no matter what that means.
Dezi and CeCe, how did you get involved?
Dezi: Well, I was brought on by Lady Dane who was familiar with my work as a playwright.
CeCe: Me and Dane, we have this long history together, creating and collaborating. She reached out to me, and said: “Hey, I’m doing this thing at Long Wharf, I’d like for you to be on board in writing a 10-minute piece.” When she said that, there were no questions asked. Me and Dane are sisters.
We’ve collaborated together. We sit on panels together. I trust whatever Dane involves herself in. It was a ‘yes’ as soon as she mentioned it.
Care to talk a little bit about the piece you wrote?
CeCe: The piece is called: You will Nevaaa Enter Our High Holy Land of Blackness, Aiyah. It tackles a little bit of everything. It tackles Racism, gender equality, unity, gentrification, and urban tenements, or as I call it, the projects.
It’s about three childhood friends that grew up in the projects, watching all this gentrification happen right in front of their eyes. They’re not going to allow nor tolerate the white folk coming into their neighborhood and taking over. It speaks of other values, too. It speaks a lot about love, the friendships among those three, the love for themselves by standing up for their rights, especially in the kind of neighborhood we grew up in.
Dezi: My piece is entitled Things Unknown. It’s basically an examination of LBGTQ, POC life in regards to dating, but also about community and the beauty of knowing that you’re never alone. I think the spark of the piece was just seeing a lot of friends having the worst time putting themselves out there in terms of romantic relationships/dating, especially those who have information that might need to be disclosed to a potential partner. For example, so few people know about the facts surrounding the treatment methods now available for fighting HIV and that those treatment methods have made it impossible for anyone who is undetectable to spread the disease.
But still, I’ve encountered people who don’t know these facts and even when they are told these SCIENTIFIC facts, lol, still chose to live in willful ignorance. So, I wrote the piece to bring awareness to this stigma and to also use my voice to let anyone who is living with HIV know that I see you, I hear you, and your life is valuable and worthy of love.”
Dane, what do you admire about these plays?
Dane: Sometimes it feels like the audience can say: “I’m removed from the system that is causing these characters pain.” But these audiences are also integral in those systems of oppression that are being experienced by the characters. Doug’s play, while already about Black Trans women, became about having the right to defend themselves against violence after I got my hands on it.
And, you know, if anyone knows my work then you know that that’s a common thread in my relationship with Black women. I believe that Black women have the right to rage, to defend themselves, the right to feel safe, and affirmed.
What do you hope will come from this night of new works?
Dezi: Well, Jon Jon, I learned a long time ago that having expectations about things will most definitely always leave you disappointed. So, I’ve just been looking at this whole event as another way to foster my creative talents, use my voice to get a really important message out there, and help in the spreading of more acceptance and visibility for Trans women of color who also happen to be artists. I had no idea that I would be mentioned in the New York Times as a playwright, but when it happened, it exceeded my expectations of what this event – what this entire night – could be and mean for Black Trans women. So I’m gonna stick with that plan and continue to have no expectations and hopefully what is meant to be will bring everything into alignment and surpass my wildest dreams!
CeCe: I want the audience to leave thinking about change. I think that’s the core of my play. It’s about change, and change can either be good or bad. We’re in the middle of several crises. We’re in the middle of this election, this stupid president, this unemployment, this housing, this healthcare. And wherever the swing vote goes at the end of the year, we just have to accept it and keep going.
Dane: I think it’s several things. I want every theatre to actually commission Black Trans creatives to write for the institutions. I want every theatre to create a framework where more of this can happen at more theatres.
Cece, on her own, and I, on my own, were going to do writing workshops for Black Trans women so they could have their own plays ready to go when theatres ask for them. So I actually would like for theatres to get together, and like, PAY us to do those workshops with people. Because so often I hear “Who’s writing the things?” “Who’s doing things?” “Who got the training?” with no kind of understanding of barriers that Black Trans women have to go through in order to even occupy those kinds of spaces.
We talk about Studio Acting Conservatory. I want them to create full scholarships that must be filled with Black Trans actors and directors. I would love for places like Shakespeare [Theatre Company] to have scholarships for the girls to occupy those spaces and get that quote-unquote “training”. I say quote-unquote because training can feel subjective and elitist.
But if Cis institutions really want more from us, then Cis institutions with the money need to facilitate it so that we have the ability to eat, keep a roof over our heads, and also survive and thrive while getting the training that’s expected of us.
I really want Cis Institutions/Cis People/White People to know their place in the oppression that folx face. Even this program could have gone further. Do you understand what I’m saying to you? But Long Wharf is the first Tony-Award winning theatre to do what it’s doing.
I just want audiences to feel activated. I don’t want them to be like: ‘Oh I just saw these great plays’ and be done with it. All the things that CeCe’s named? All those crises affect us. We’re being murdered.
Theatre has the chance in this moment to live up to its greatest potential.
CeCe: Don’t just attend. Support fully. Don’t just be a spectator and babble your mouth. Make it happen after. Make shit happen. Realize it. We all have the gift of gab. Take that gift of gab to the next level and make change. Make it happen.
To be honest with you, we are the “theatre girls.” They’re always gonna come to me, Dane, or Dezi when it comes to everything. But there are many more of us. And they don’t have that platform. We’re very fortunate to be given these platforms, but sometimes I’m tired of being a teacher and a leader. I wanna see other voices besides mine writing for these institutions. This is not my first rodeo. Thank you for approaching me, but no thank you. Because I wanna see new works and new voices.
I’m telling the institutions, the door is closed. Unless you pay me equitably.
Dane: And also don’t just only think about Black Trans creatives in the sense of playwright-actor-director. Think of us as producers. Think of us as dramaturgs. Think of us as actually being able to occupy more spaces with leadership with more structural power.
Is there anything else you’d like to add before we wrap?
CeCe: Let’s uplift the casts for these shows. They are fucking phenomenal. They could be spending their time doing much bigger projects, but for me it’s an honor that they’re taking part in this beautiful evening of new work.
Dane: I want to add how grateful I am. I am so deeply grateful to my sisters and to my brothers who continue to trust the vision that I am trying to bring to life for us.
CeCe: My thing is like…my God puts certain people in my life, temporarily. 5 minutes, an hour. Sometimes they’re here to see each other’s growth and journeys. We could be at a tug of war sometimes, like at Wild Cafe.
Dane: WE WERE!!!!
CeCe: But at the end of the day we love each other. I love Dane so much. I love Dezi so much. I love Tamara so much. I love Ianne so much. I’m very honored to be in their presence. I thank my God every day for putting them in my life.
Dane: To have people to be like, even when I don’t understand everything that’s happening behind the scene, I know your character. I know how much you love us all. Especially the girls. ESPECIALLY the girls. And so, to be invested with that much trust from your sisters….we might not always agree. We might fight, we might read each other. But when I asked my sisters to show up for me?
They showed up.
We are so used to showing up for those in our own affinities, identities, and community. My challenge to our readers is simply a reflection of Dane’s words: Will you show up for Black Trans Creatives tonight?
Black Trans Women at the Center: An Evening of Short Plays
Wednesday, August 5. Livestreamed 8pm
SUNSHINE by Douglas Lyons (He/Him) (Beau, Chicken and Biscuits)
Featuring Angelica Ross (She/Her) (Pose, King Ester) as Sunshine
Joaquina Kalukango (She/Her) (Slave Play) as Ericka
Martin BATS Bradford (He/Him) (King Ester, Tales from the Hood 2) as Ramon
Dramaturgy and Direction by Dane Figueroa Edidi (She/Her) (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem, For Black Trans Girls…)
THINGS UNKNOWN by Dezi Bing (She/Her) (Actor: Wig Out!, For Black Trans Girls…)
Featuring L Morgan Lee (She/Her) (A Strange Loop) as Marsha/Riley
Samy Nour Figaredo (He/They) (Into the Woods) as Samuel.
Directed by Paige Hernandez-Funn (She/Her)
Assistant Directed by Tourmaline (She/They)
Dramaturgy by Dane Figueroa Edidi
YOU WILL NEVAAA ENTER OUR HIGH HOLY LAND OF BLACKNESS (HIYA) by Cece Suazo (She/Her)
Featuring Ianne Fields Stewart (She/They) (The Feels, The Bold Type) as Cheyanne
Tamara M. Williams (She/Her) (Pose, The Garden Left Behind) as Delicious
Jaime Cepero (He/Him) (Smash, Francois & The Rebels) as Marco
Direction and Dramaturgy by Dane Figueroa Edidi
