Posted by Double 7 World

My man Ayinde keeps bringing y’all what’s next, new, and current on the NYC art’s scene. Peep the latest blog below.

~ Pete Chatmon

About A month ago a friend of mine said to me in casual actor conversation about the battle of “making it in NY as an actor. She said “ well u can make it in this town if ur willing to take ur pants off”… I was thinking about the old casting couch thing, and she continued to say “if ur a black man and willing to show ur penis on stage u will get recognized” and we debated, now is this because we just don’t see that much male shlong in general? because most theater reviewers are gay males? or does it have to do with some deep seeded fascination of the infamous black male genitalia…

fast fwd a month or so, it’s Sunday afternoon my good friend Evan Florry-Barns is in town from Seattle and we have to kill some time before attending another friend of ours Erwin E A Thomas’ critically acclaimed play later that evening. In our travels I run into an awkward moment with a friend of a girl that I kinda started dating (it’s a long story)

Evan runs into a friend of his from Seattle walking down Broadway and we take a U turn end up hangin out in Union Sq having a picnic with some extremely skinny model types killing time joyfully…. blah blah “sooo what do u do?” blah blah “there was coke everywhere”.. blah blah “kanye west” blah blah…

So Evan and I bid adieu and make our way over to PS122 on 1st & 9th in LES to see Erwin star in “Southern Promises” the flyer for which has been at the bottom of my bag for a bout two weeks. After finding seats, we make jokes about the audience and settle in lights go to black. The play opens like any slave narrative I am admittedly a little disappointed and feel like though I have not seen this play I have seen this play… I mean it’s Obama time do we still have to take these yessa massa roles? no sooner than I think this I am staring at Erwin’s penis! now I’m no prude but this is one of those small LES playhouses and so I wince and squirm through gut wrenching scene which is only the tip of the iceberg in “Promises”. Now I’m no 70 year old white woman but I’ve seen a few plays in my time but I have not seen a play that has given me such a visceral reaction in … well never. “Playwright Provocateur” Thomas Bradshaw as the flyer puts it. continues to tell a twisted story of power, lust, abuse of God’s will and general slavery fucked upness through characters so powerful that it literally gave me a stomach ache. about half way through I went from be mad, to uncomfortable to trying to close my gapping mouth to understanding what it takes as an actor for my friend to perform on stage to critical acclaim necked for all the world to see. And don’t get me wrong this is a excellent piece of work I just want to see us in a different broader scope of characters. but when ur an actor in NYC there are only so many choices and all too often broke is the first one so u fine a role that may be trite and put all u have into it, this is what we do. The cast of Southern Promises does it to a T and I support the troops.

Southern promises

Thomas Bradshaw

playing till the 27th of September.

ps122.org

-AH