Magnificent Dunbar Hotel play discussion

Meet me at the Dunbar, meet me at the Dunbar Hotel, on Central Avenue. Meet me at the Dunbar, meet me at the Dunbar Hotel, on Central Avenue. Meet me at the Dunbar, meet me at the Dunbar Hotel, on Central Avenue. The air is filled with music from the Meister himself to Gillington. The friends of Lester midnight, they'll sing and jive, the drinks keep flowing. Come on in. Meet me. Meet me at the Dunbar. Meet me. Meet me at the Dunbar Hotel. Come on in. Meet me at the Dunbar. The Dunbar Hotel, on Central Avenue. Everybody's dressed so fine. Every man has a slip of the shine. Ladies wrapped in minks and pearls. The Dunbar Hotel is out of this world. Come on in. Meet me at the Dunbar. Meet me. Meet me at the Dunbar Hotel. Meet me at the Dunbar. Meet me at the Dunbar. Meet me at the Dunbar. Meet me at the Dunbar. Meet me at the Dunbar. Meet me at the Dunbar. Meet me at the Dunbar. Meet me at the Dunbar. Meet me at the Dunbar. on Central Avenue. Come on and meet me at the Dunbar. Meet me at the Dunbar Hotel. Come on and meet me at the Dunbar. The Dunbar Hotel on Central Avenue. Where? The Dunbar Hotel on Central Avenue. The Dunbar Hotel on Central Avenue. Meet me at the Dunbar by the cast of the magnificent Dunbar Hotel. Welcome to the Qumran Report. May the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family. My name is Melvin Ishmael Johnson, coming at you live from Skid Row Studios. And I'm in the studio with my co-host Earline Anthony. Our call-in number is 1-800-893-9560. Now, I've been reading and studying black theater for over 40 years. And I'm going to say when theater historians talk about the important figures, Livia Lee Simon would be right up there with them. With important works like the Haitian Trilogy and his present work of art, the magnificent Dunbar Hotel. His new world premiere play opens this Saturday, November the 22nd. 2014 at 8 o'clock p.m. at the Los Angeles Theater Center, 514 South Spring Street. Directed by Ben Guillory and produced by the Roeville Theater Company. For ticket information, call 213-489-7402. And I'm delighted to have with us in the studio the playwright, Livia Lee Simon, and some of the cast members. Welcome to the Qumran Report. Hey, Melvin. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, before I get into it. Let's get into an in-depth interview with the playwright. Let's go around the table. Introduce yourself. Tell us what role you portray in the play and how did you first come in contact with the Roeville Theater Company? All right. Well, my name is Petal Davril Walker. And I play the role of Almena Davis Lomax. And let's see. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. So I went, auditioned, I met Ben, I went to the Advancing Study Workshop, and here I am about maybe three, four years later. Wow, okay. My name is Julio Hanson, and I'm honored to play the part of Paul Lawrence Dunbar in this production of the magnificent Dunbar Hotel. And let's see, I met Ben about maybe four or five years ago, and I'd heard about the plays, and I can't remember exactly which was the first play that I saw, but I did audition for his Advancing Study class. I think we, maybe around the same time, Petals and I joined the class, and after that, we just started doing things in the Merck Park, and then we started, we did the festival. And then here we are at the premiere of this wonderful, wonderful play that I'm just so honored to play Paul Lawrence Dunbar and learn more about a poet, an African-American poet, that was just so prolific in so many different ways. So I'm anxious to talk some more about him later. My name is Dwayne Perry. I play Lucius Lomax. He's the owner, or part of the time, of the Dunbar Hotel. Which is what this play is about. I got my start at Roe being many, many, many, many, many years ago. Ben Guillory was producing a play called The Last Season. It was about the Negro Baseball League, and I was fortunate enough to be in that. And then I guess I've just been hanging around ever since. And the Dunbar Hotel, the world premiere play that we're about to do, came to me through Ben. He asked me if I wanted to be involved, and I said, of course. So that's how that goes. Okay, let's move on. But before I get into the playwright, I have to ask you a question. I just found out yesterday that the character, Reverend Russell, was a real character. And he showed me a picture. And I always thought it was a fictional character. And then today, I see some pictures of Kenlock. These are actually, so what I want to ask you is, is Lennox a real character? Only because of you. He's the only character that's not real. He's the only fantasy character. The play is a combination, culmination of fictional characters and real life characters. So, you know, kind of meld them together in order to make this story. Tell the story. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's start off. And can you first tell us, tell our listening audience, how did you first get involved with the theater? With theater in general or with the Robey Theater? With the theater in general, and then we rolled around to the Robey. Okay. I'm a graduate of Cheney State College, you know, all black college in Pennsylvania. The oldest black college in the country. It was founded in 1837. It was a place for quote unquote runaway slaves by Quakers. And so I attended Cheney in the late 70s, early 80s. And I was, I didn't go to do theater. You know, I was actually a journalism major. And one night I had an argument with my girlfriend. And she came to my dorm room, knocked on the door and said, I want you to go see a play with me. And, you know, I was playing on the football team. She said, okay. And play doing a play was so far from my mind, but I had to make up with her. So I went, you know, and, and, and when I went and sat in the theater, the same thing happened that always happened. Every time I saw a live performance, my, my stomach started to flip. I started to feel uneasy, but excited. And because I knew that I could do that, you know, and I, and I would sit there and have the same thought. I could do that. I could do that. And the next day I went to, you know, I was in the theater. And I was in the theater. to the guy, Larry Moses, who was running the theater department at Cheney. And I said, hey, man, you know, I want to learn how to do that acting thing. And he looked at me, because it was a small school, and I was a bit of a cut-up back then, and he looked at me and went, yeah, you? And I said, yeah. And he said, well, if you're serious, come to the theater tomorrow at 7.30 in the evening. And I did, and I took my seat, and I never left. Mm-hmm. Do you remember the first play you had produced? That I had produced as a writer? Yes. Oh, yeah. Well, the first play I had produced was a play called In the Middle of the Bubbling Tards. It was like 1988. And the first play I wrote was done at Nassau Community College in New York City. And then the play that actually put me on the map as a playwright was a play called God, the Crack House, and the Devil. That was done at the Circle Repertory Theater Lab in New York City. Mm-hmm. Okay. Now, what is your process for creating as a playwright now? Do you work from an outline? It's different from play to play. I don't really have one. One that I adhere to. When I was working on this play, it took a lot of research, and it's kind of like an intuitive thing where Ben would come to me and say, well, you start writing it, you start writing it. And I knew that I had to do the research. Not only do the research intellectually, but I had to allow the 1930s and 40s to sink into my body, into my blood. So I would really understand as much as anyone could what it meant to be an African-American person living in those times. And I started to really write it. You know, so. Now, what is it like working with a director who is also a dramaturg? Is this the first time you worked with a director? No, no. Ben and I have worked together since 2001 with the Haitian Trilogy. And he dramaturg all three plays. And so we have a working relationship, and I would like to say a good working relationship. I don't work with anybody. And especially when it comes to dramaturging, because it's such a very specific science in how a dramaturg works with a playwright. Because, you know, you have those dramaturgs or those people who will come and tell you, well, you need to write this, and you should write this, and this is what you should do. And that's not what a dramaturg really does. You know, a dramaturg makes sure that you're telling your story correctly. You know, and finding reasons why it may not be working, and we share those, you know, and maybe suggestions as to how to get to something better, faster, quicker, whatever it may be. But it's never about telling you what to write and how to write it. Now, can you tell our listening audience exactly how did this particular play come about? Oh, last year, last August in 2013, I get a call from Ben, and he said, Lee, I got something I want to run by you. And he told me that they were looking for someone to write a play about the Dunbar because it was reopening. And there were a lot of people kind of looking at that, and he asked me if I would be willing to do it, and I said, hell yeah. I could say hell, right? Already have. It's in the script. Now, I want to start off, here's an opportunity for the actors to ask the playwright any questions that you want to. And the playwright is going to ask the actors later on. But any questions you want to have about your role or anything like that. Well, I have a question. Just off the bat, how do you feel like when it, what does it feel like when you do something like this? You write a script, and you see people actually doing it on stage. Bringing it to life. Making it happen. What is that feeling like? Well, a play is not a play until you have actors walking and talking. It's, you know, you have different forms of literature. You know, people write fiction, non-fiction, poetry. And, but a play specifically is supposed to be seen and heard. And until you have actors walking and talking, you don't have a play. So, for me, it's like, it's not realized until I actually see actors acting and living the parts. And then that's how I know if it's working or not. And as you guys know, we've been in rehearsal now six weeks, and how many rewrites have you got? You know? Because I can see when something is working and when it's not working. And I can see when, when something extra is needed, or I can see an actor's confusion about how to say a certain line. And it's not the actor. It may be in the writing. So it's like, you know, I try to shelve my ego and go, okay, you know what? That line needs to be cut. It needs to be changed or whatever, you know? So, yeah, that's... Is that why you cut my line? Now I know the secret. No, your lines are all Paul Lawrence Dunbar's. I do not cut any of Paul Lawrence Dunbar's lines. Trust me. That's good. He'd come after you. Oh, no. No, no. He's an icon. He's, you know, no. I don't mess with his stuff. Would you want to ask one question? Sure. You are an actor as well as a writer. Yes, I am. And I'm assuming that you've directed as well. Yes, I have. Yes. So, which of those three hats do you glean the most joy from? I have a little slogan that I say that acting is my love and writing is my responsibility. And I love acting. You know, I started out in this business as an actor and I've, you know, done Broadway and off-Broadway and I've performed overseas in London and Barbican and, you know, in places like that. But when I was a young actor and I would get these auditions, and I would go out with sides, with one line and it's like, what am I supposed to do with this? You know? And then one day, my mentor Nathan George who was the original Johnny in No Place to Be Somebody at the Public Theater in New York City and Nathan is a character and I went to his house one day. And I had just read On the Waterfront. And I always loved Marlon Brando. I wanted to be the black Marlon Brando. And I told him, I said, man, I want to do Streetcar Named Desire. I want to do Streetcar Named Desire. And he said, why? I said, because me and Marlon Brando did it. I'm going to do it. He said, Lee, he said, if you want to write, to act in a great part and a great play, write it yourself. And when he said that, it felt like someone hit me over the head with a sledgehammer. And literally, I mean, I was, I walked out of his place and I, you know, it was like a scene out of a movie. I walk on the street, everything was blurry and fuzzy. And I went home that night and I started adapting On the Waterfront to my very first play in the middle of the bubbling tarp. Wow. What year was that? Do you remember? 88. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Wow, that's pretty inspiring. This is going to be hard. Don't hate me for this. Who's your favorite character in The Magnificent Dunbar? It's just like asking who's your favorite child. Come on. My parents have one. We all know who it is. Well, since you asked. We all know who it is. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I don't need them. Right. I love them all. You know, I have so much fun when I'm writing. One of the things that Nathan always said to me, too, he said, you need to leave when you're writing a play. You know, the favorite part about writing a play is you get to play all the parts. And I was like, yeah, I get to play all the parts, you know, when I'm writing, you know. But I love them all. You know, Lennox, my God, he's a hoot, you know. And you know, we've had brief conversations and we'll have brief conversations in the future. conversations with Dwayne about Lucius Lomax and what an amazing character he is. And Dwayne is doing a hell of a job. And the guy's got to come out and see him to play his part, you know. And, of course, Almena is, you know, the thing about her is that there are three women, young women in the play, and they're all so very different. And what she represents to black women at that time, you know, being a professional, you know, being someone who has this drive to do more than what most of the black women were doing back then, I find a fascinating, fascinating character. How about Paul Lawrence Dunbar? What's the biggest challenge in creating that character? The biggest challenge is, I guess, not having, there are a couple of challenges, not having as much information to draw from about. Him, about the other aspects of his personality. Because I think what I've researched and what I've found so far is been kind of the same things have come out of it. So I had to kind of look at, figure out what his personality is through his poems. And I always think, I say, well, I hope I'm getting it right. I hope I'm getting it right. I hope I'm understanding this right. So I have to do a lot of digging in each poem and say, is this? Is this poem is something he said as an angry poem? Or is it something that he said as a matter of fact type poem? Then I have to think of the time period. I have to think of, you know, who was surrounding him at the time. I do know that, I mean, something that I can relate to him is that he had a love for his mother. And so I know that he had a big heart. So that was something that I could connect with because I love my mother a lot. And so that's something I can connect on. So I know that he does have a heart, you know, but I also do know that toward the end of his, his life, he died at the age of 33. It's the end of his life. You know, he was pretty sickly. So I'm imagining him at that those last couple of years being pretty tormented. So, you know, a lot of the stuff that he wrote during that time period probably was out of his sickness, you know. So I'm just piecing him together has been kind of a challenge. But I feel like I. I've had, you know, I think I've gotten pretty close to to him in his poem through his poems. So I hope that I'm doing him an honor. Now, he was known for dialect, you know, a lot of dialect poetry and all that kind of stuff like that. I would like to ask the playwright and also the actor. How did that did that feel to him into the character also? Well, you tried to bring that in through. Well, some of his poetry that I saw him reading. Yes, I mean, yeah, of course, because he was so prolific and he and he could he could switch between standard poetry and also dialectic poetry. And he could do it like in the blink of an eye. And you see that in the play. You know, he was also I think I'm personally I think he was a tortured soul. And, you know, you know, a lot of people who are. You know, geniuses end up being tortured souls, too. I don't know how that works, but it seems like it happens all the time. You know, coming right out of slavery, you know, he was an alcoholic. You know, he died probably from alcoholism and he died at 34 years old. You know, being as great as he was and not being, you know, a black man at that time, even though he was recognized all over the world, he was still not recognized. And I can't even I mean, I kind of get a feeling of what that's like, because, you know, we're sitting here at this table. All of us are artists. And so, you know, we kind of get a sense of what that is. But but to to be in those times. You know, with the depth of of of meaning, you know, with which he wrote his poetry, you know, in that environment, I can't I can't even begin to imagine, you know. What do you what do you think about that? It's being able to move from dialect poetry to and in plays also. Yeah, that was a little bit difficult in the beginning because I wanted to to to make a clear distinction between the two of them, because I was at first I was trying to get the the dialect actually of the time period, which and I was trying to figure out his dialect. Being that. His parents were from the south, if I remember correctly, but he was from Dayton, Ohio, so he wouldn't have had much of a southern thing, maybe. Then he went to an all white school. So I was trying to figure out what was where he really landed. So I wanted to make sure that when I did do his standard poems, that I did it just really clean, because I'm sure that at that time. With him being in an all white school that he at times was able to cross the line at that point with with with the whites in the way that he spoke. And then I'm sure that when he went home, it was something totally different. And so that my my, my, I guess my challenge was challenged was to make sure that I make a clean distinction between the two of them. Dialect in the standard forms. OK, we got Ashley here. Welcome to the Coon Brown Report. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Hey, can you tell us a little about how you got involved in the theater and the role you play in the Magnificent Dunbar? Okay. I play Gloria Ann Pettigrew in the Magnificent Dunbar Hotel. She is a small town Baton Rouge girl that moves to Los Angeles. So she's new to town. I got into theater. I'm from L.A. And I started at Wendy Rockhill's Amazing Grace Conservatory. And so I actually did plays at LATC when I was like 12 years old. And then I went on to school and I went to DePaul University and got my degree in acting at Chicago. And so now I'm back like years later doing a play again at LATC. So. It's cool. We've seen you in some great plays. And the one that Dwayne just finished. Great play. Knock Me a Kiss. Oh, yeah. Knock Me a Kiss. That was fun. Yes. And then the first play I saw you in was. Anna LaCosta. Anna LaCosta. Yeah. Directed by Ben Guillory with the Robies like two years ago. And you were wonderful. Oh, thank you, Levy. Dwayne was in that too. And he was wonderful. Thank you. Let me ask both you and Paola. What is it like in your character moving from young to elderly in the latter scenes? Some of the latter scenes. What's that challenge like? Paola. Okay. Well, Almena has accomplished so much in her life. So it was a matter of going backwards. And knowing everything she accomplished. And then applying it to her youth. Because it takes place right. At that point, she's like right out of college. Working for Charlotte Abbas. So I'm taking it all the way back. Thinking all of the things she accomplished. And the tenacity and the momentum and she drive to go and conquer those things. So that was my challenge. Just going backwards. Because, I mean, she had so much passion and determination. I mean, she had so much passion. I mean, she had so much passion. I mean, she had so much passion. I mean, she had so much passion. I mean, she had so much passion. I mean, she had so much passion. I mean, she was a journalist. She was a civil rights activist. She just had so much that she stood for. The voice for black people and women. So I think the biggest challenge is going backwards. Knowing that she didn't accomplish that yet. However, that's the direction she was going in. So it was an exciting challenge. Mm-hmm. Okay. Gosh. Gloria Ann Pettigrew. She isn't an actual person from history, like, per se. Right. But I believe, like, you know, her story is one of many people from that time. So I focused on, I get married in the play. And I just focused on, when I started, he was just my boyfriend. I was new to L.A. And I just focused on, like, the love progression of my character. Like, you know, her boyfriend comes into town and she gets married. And just, like, holding on to that love and working at this hotel. And just the new friends I met. And living in that more. Because I, you know, I aged about 99 in the play. And so, yeah. And just to still live, that must mean, like, there was, like, a lot of love in my life. So I just, that's fun. That's always developing to me, too, on stage. Just where can I insert a little? Well, let me ask you this. And I always like to ask this for the sake of the young actors that's out here. What is your process for learning lines? I like to focus on what my character's going through. And what circumstances of life would make me say these words that the writer has given me. And in that, I just memorize. I just memorize. I don't know. I started studying at this place, the Imagine Life. And they really changed my perspective on learning lines. It's not just, you know, looking at lines and memorizing. It's really figuring out why I would say this. And in that, you don't have to memorize. They just kind of come to you. And when someone put a script in your hand, do you start off, do you read the entire script? Or do you just read your part first? What's your approach? I absorb the entire script. And then after that, after I do that about one or two times, then I just really get into my character and the relationships I have and what my journey is and the arc and, you know, where I start and begin. How about you, Pam? What's your process? My technique is writing out my lines. I don't know why that makes me feel like it sticks in my head, but I do. And I learned that at a technique I studied. I studied at the Ruskin Acting School a few years ago. And just writing them out, like no punctuations, no anything, just writing them all out. And I would definitely read the entire play. And from there, just starting to break down my character, her objectives, the needs, the wants, the given circumstances, the situation. And then as I'm rehearsing, I go back and I do the same thing again. But this time I kind of journalize the feelings. I've developed in my process at that point just to see where I'm at with my character. That's interesting. What about you? My process, I didn't follow my process this time at all. I started writing out the lines, which is normally what I do. I started typing the lines. But my process is time. And I think that worked better when I looked at the poems and I looked at the rhythm of the poems. I looked at the emotions and mood of the poem and that's what kind of got it in my head. Because I mean, I could write it and see it or whatever, but it just wasn't working for me to do it that way. And since most of my lines are his poetry, I just felt like, I don't know, for some reason, some strange reason. First of all, I felt like, I don't know. I felt like I'm writing his poems. This doesn't make sense. It didn't make, didn't compute to me. I was writing his poems over. If it was lines, I don't know why I made the distinction, but if it was lines, I would write them over. No big deal. But writing, rewriting his poems, I guess because I'm a songwriter, so I would never rewrite somebody's song over. I guess that was my mental block. So I'm not, so I said, I'm not going to rewrite his poetry over, but I'm going to sing his songs. You know, like somebody writes you a song, I'm going to sing his songs. I'm not going to rewrite his song. So. So. So. So. So. So. That was my process for learning the poems. Yeah. Interesting. We talked about this before with the last time you were on the show and I found it very interesting too. I have no idea what I said before. I'm with you on this because I'm with you on this because I'm with you on this because I'm with you on this because I'm with you on this because I'm with you on this because I'm with you on this because I'm with you on this because I'm with you on this because what I said before. And you said young actors, so I just immediately eliminated myself from that conversation. No, I have a different answer probably this time than I gave the first time. Bruce Lee, in his study of martial arts, talked about the fact that no way is the way. So you have all these different techniques and you can learn all these different forms and fashion. And so no way is particularly the right way or correct way, but you find the way that works for you. So all ways are, all the different ways are the correct way. I don't use any method at all. I come into the rehearsal, I trust that the playwright, and this time we have an excellent one, has provided me everything that I need in the script. I trust the script. I trust the moments that I'm going to share with the other actors. And, the lines just seem to come to me because we've rehearsed. And I stay present in the moment, stay true to that moment. And, you know, I do have to go home and read them a little bit, but for the most part, I learn them in the rehearsal process because I'm staying true to what the character is. Yeah, exactly. That's what you and Toya said the last time. What about you, Levy, in terms of, from an actor's point of view? Well, I believe in behavior. I believe the lines are so far behind. Lines are secondary, maybe even third. You know, I believe in behavior and character. If I know my character and I learn my behavior, why I'm doing, not saying, but why I'm doing what I'm doing, then the lines come after that. You know, because I think that's what we do in life. You know, I'm motivated to speak by my circumstances, by who I'm around, by what I'm doing, and so I try to, like, replicate that any time I have a role. You know, that's kind of like from a very internal place. An external place, though, a little fun exercise I like, which I read, again, Marlon Brando. I read Marlon Brando's autobiography, and he used to, like, he would take his script and he would cut the lines out and he would paste them all over the house out of order. And so no matter where you went, you saw a line, you just thought, read the line. I've done that. I've done that. I want to try that. That seems fun. It's fun. And you know what? It works. And that was his math album? That was, yeah. I read it in one of his autobiographies. I think he wrote two. Yeah. Okay, let's take a break for our community calendar, and then we're going to come back and we're going to talk a little about the state of black theater and also the possibilities of national black theater company. Yeah. All right. This is the community calendar for upcoming events. The Robie Theater Company presents the Dunbar World Premiere of the Magnificent Dunbar Hotel, a stage play written by Levy Lee Simon and directed by Ben Guillory. Opening night with reception is Saturday, November the 22nd, 2014 at the Los Angeles Theater Center, located at 514 South Spring Street, Los Angeles. It's about the 30s and 40s on Central Avenue in Los Angeles where the Duke, the Count, Dorothy Danrich, and Lena Horne perform your favorite songs. This place is the Magnificent Dunbar Hotel. Performances will run through December 21st, 2014. For contact information, for tickets, for the premiere, the performance, general admission, for the veterans, for the students, senior group sales, please contact the LATC at 213-489-7402 or LATC.org. The box office number is 866-811-4111. And you can also contact the Robie Theater Company, info, robitheatercompany.org. If you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to dramastage1 at yahoo.com. Attention, Earlene Anthony. The call-in number for our show is 800-893-9562. Now, back to our host. Okay, thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony. At this point in our show, I would like to move to a roundtable discussion. Let's welcome to this with Mr. Dwayne Ferry. Hello and welcome to today's roundtable discussion and talk about the state of black theater and your thoughts on the National Black Theater Company. But first I would like to play a short two-minute clip of an interview that I did with Mr. Dwayne Ferry. And I asked him about the possibility of a national black theater. "...the davon davon davon davon davon davon davon davon davon davon davon