Boise Contemporary Theater’s BIPOC Playwrights Festival gives new voices the stage
One of the outcomes of the global pandemic coinciding with a tumultuous year of social reckoning and political unrest is that it set the stage for change both far away and close to home. Next-level change. The kind that comes from within.
And there is no better way to express that than through art.
Boise Contemporary Theater Producing Artistic Director Benjamin Burdick took time to reflect when the world stopped, he said. Then he took a deep dive into that change by offering a platform for Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC) who struggle to get their voices heard.
So the BIPOC Playwrights Festival was created.
“Historically, most regional theaters simply have not been reading or staging plays from certain underrepresented groups — even from groups that exist within their own community,” Burdick wrote in an email. “If we are only hearing a small portion of the stories in our community and our world, then we are limiting our opportunities for thought, empathy and conversation.”
Why here, why now?
Boise might seem an unusual place for a BIPOC festival of this caliber, but it falls squarely into BCT’s mission to foster an understanding of ourselves and the world through “thought-provoking stories of the human experience,” and its goal to develop and produce new work for the American stage.
Because of the short time frame, Burdick made lots of calls to fellow artistic directors, as well as artists he has worked with in the past. And keep in mind that these artists are some of the best who are working in theater today, Burdick said.
“These are extremely accomplished writers, directors and actors working in professional theater, film and television,” Burdick said. “We have been missing out on hearing some great stories and witnessing the work of some great performers. By widening our reach in terms of representation, we also widen our opportunities to bring accomplished artists to Boise for everyone’s benefit.”
Over the next two weeks, three playwrights and directors and 10 actors will workshop three new plays at Boise’s Morrison Center, then present staged readings on Aug. 6-7 and performance on Aug. 13-14, also at the Morrison Center. On Aug. 10, you can participate in a panel discussion with these artists.
How it came together
BIPOC Playwrights Festival came to be quick. Once the idea sparked, it took off with a grant from the Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation. The organization is now a founding sponsor for the event, which Burdick plans to grow into an annual festival.
BCT also received funds from the Morrison Center Endowment Foundation and support from the center’s executive director, Laura Kendall, and her staff. All the workshops, readings and performances will be held at Idaho’s largest proscenium theater, where artists and audience members can spread out and observe COVID protocols.
The community also has rallied around the project, with the locally-owned Riverside Hotel donating rooms for all the visiting artists.
The key element for success, Brudick said, was hiring Boise-based theater artist and writer Lily Yasuda as the festival’s director.
“Her impeccable artistic eye and leadership have been instrumental in bringing such an accomplished group of theater artists to Boise,” he said.
Yasuda grew up learning about and doing theater at BCT’s Theater Lab. Herself an Asian-American artist, this festival represents a passion to make a more inclusive and accessible theater.
“An industry that is disproportionately white tends to showcase stories that feature white, straight, cis characters (those whose gender matches their identity),” she said. “It is that much more important to have access to these kinds of festivals to polish a great script and make it stage-worthy. We were lucky enough to get an influx of amazing plays, so we’re honored to be playing a small part in bringing them to an audience.”
BCT also is bringing in 10 actors, including C.S. Lee, of “Dexter” fame, and a veteran of the Arena Stage and Yale Rep; Melinda Lopez, an Elliot Norton Award winner who is a current Artist-in-Residence at Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company, and Debra Ann Byrd, artistic director of Harlem Shakespeare Festival.
Don’t miss the playwrights panel discussion at 8 p.m. Aug. 10.
The plays
“Middle of the World,” written by Juan Alfonso, directed by Jaime Castañeda
Readings: 8 p.m. Aug. 6, 2 p.m. Aug. 7.
“Middle of The World” centers around the unlikely friendship between Glenn and Victoria. He grew up in the projects and is an investment banker with everything he ever wanted. Yet somehow, he feels unfulfilled. She is the exiled democratically elected leader of a South American country. Her assets frozen, she now drives for a ride-share company. Neither could imagine how their unlikely friendship, forged over a ride through Manhattan, would change them.
“Half of Chopsticks,” written by Stephanie Hyung Sun Walters, directed by Jeff Liu
Readings: 2 p.m. Aug. 6, 8 p.m. Aug. 7.
Emmy Young’s dad was the “King of Koreatown” until the day he was swallowed by a hole. Now it’s not just the ghost of her dad that cracks the plaster off the walls of Young’s Chopsticks, a traditional Korean restaurant. Emmy’s half-secret, half-white half-brother shows up with half the deed to her dead father’s restaurant, and everything Emmy thought she knew about her home, family and father begins to crumble.
“Becoming Othello: A Black Girl’s Journey,” written by Debra Ann Byrd, directed by Tina Packer
Performance: 8 p.m. Aug. 13-14.
In this autobiographical one-woman show, Byrd explores her miraculous journey from being an abandoned child growing up in Spanish Harlem to a sexual assault victim to a classical Shakespearean actress. She worked with Shakespeare & Co. artistic director Tina Packer to develop this multimedia theatrical production. Called a “prodigiously gifted author” with “limitless charisma” by The Wall Street Journal’s Terry Teachout, Byrd blends the soulful songs and music that shaped her life with more than 200 lines from Shakespeare’s canon of plays to recount her arrival at her personal crossroads, a fateful encounter with a company of Shakespearean actors and her remarkable journey on the road playing Othello in an all-female production of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
Get tickets
What: Boise Contemporary Theater’s BIPOC Playwrights Festival
When: Readings are 2 and 8 p.m. Aug. 6-7, and 8 p.m. Aug. 13-14; playwrights panel 8 p.m. Aug. 10.
Where: Morrison Center, 2201 Cesar Chavez Lane, Boise State University
Festival Pass: $42 general, $32 students. Single tickets are $22 at MorrisonCenter.com.
