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| Larissa Brewington (left) and Alejandra Luna (right) |
by Gil Bebrook
This Friday, Mesa Encore Theatre premieres We Tell the Story, The Inclusion Works One-Act Play Festival, which will run March 18-27 at the Mesa Arts Center. MET created this festival to focus on inclusion and diversity, with a lineup of four one-act plays which will rotate during the two-week festival.
The festival will feature plays about people of color, immigrants, and members of the LGBT community, with a diverse group of actors, playwrights, and theatre artists behind the scenes. MET hopes to create an unforgettable experience with this year’s inaugural festival.
Part 1 of the Festival will feature three short one-act plays, including Curveball and Frederick & Ida, both written by local playwright Larissa Brewington, and The Cuban Swimmer, which is directed by local theatre director Alejandra Luna. Part 2 features the play Boy written by Anna Siegler and directed by Patrick Walsh
Larissa Brewington has written, directed, performed and produced for theater professionally for close to 30 years, including 15 seasons writing and producing for Herberger Lunch Time Theater. Brewington has also been a participating writer for Phoenix Theater’s Festival of New American Theater, and written for Bridge Initiative Women in Theatre, plus performed in numerous plays at Theatre Artists Studio, Zao Theatre, and Don Bluth Front Row Theatre.
The bilingual Mexican-born actor and director Alejandra Luna holds a BFA in Theatre Performance with a concentration in Acting from Western Michigan University. After moving back to Arizona in 2019, Luna became more involved with directing, including two main stage shows at Mesa Community College and Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival, as well as participating in multiple virtual readings and performances with Teatro Bravo, Signifying Nothing, Virtual Theatre of Arizona, The Bridge Initiative and Borderlands Theater.
Brewington and Luna sat down in between final rehearsals for their plays to answer some questions about the festival, the plays they are involved with, and what they believe needs to change for there to be more inclusiveness in theatres in town
Larissa Brewington
What can you tell us about your two plays that are in the festival?
Brewington: "Curveball checks in with an aged Toni Stone (first black female to play baseball for the all-male professional Negro leagues in the mid 1940’s) who is being reluctantly interviewed for a magazine. The show gives us a peak into the life of a woman who kicked through barriers, but whose true intent was to simply play ball.
Frederick & Ida takes place at the Haitian Pavilion inside the 1893 Columbian Exposition - Chicago World’s Fair. Frederick Douglass was a mentor to Ida B Wells. Both were trailblazers, passionate about gaining equality for black people in this country."
How did the ideas for them come to you?
"Both of these shows were featured in the Lunch Time Theater Outreach Program of which I’ve been participating for the last 15 years.
I got the idea for Curveball because up till that point, most of my productions centered around educators like Sadie Alexander and civil rights activists like Daisy Bates. I wanted to try something different… Sports seemed like the place to explore options.
With Frederick & Ida, I had wanted to write a one woman show featuring Ida. Ida was a very passionate, opinionated person who didn’t fear debate. I ran into a bit of a wall, feeling, that a one-woman show wouldn’t allow her to unfold theatrically. I discovered Frederick Douglass was her mentor and had asked her to join him at the Haitian Pavilion during the fair. It sounded like a story waiting to be told."
Why did you want them to be included in MET’s inclusion works festival?
"Michael Wallot, Artistic Director for Mesa Encore, contacted me last year to let me know that he was working on a diversity festival and asked if I wouldn’t mind featuring a piece or two. I found it to be an amazing opportunity and said, 'Yes!' "
What do you think we need to do to ensure there is more inclusiveness in theatres in town?
"I feel we need to start putting trust in local talent and produce more new works. I also think that we don’t have much of a network when it comes to connecting on the basis of preparation. I think we scramble to cast shows and be inclusive when it comes to need, and NOT when it comes to forethought and real planning.
Building any community takes lots of time, commitment and physical effort. The first of anything isn’t always the greatest, but it’s a start."
What do you hope audiences will take away from attending this play festival?
"I hope audiences will walk away from what they see and understand that because of their participation in supporting the arts, more of this kind of entertainment will become much more available. I want them to tell the people around them what they experienced so that it’ll be an expected, annual event."
Alejandra Luna
What can you tell us about the play you’re directing, The Cuban Swimmer?
Alejandra Luna: "It is a surprisingly rich story for being such a short one (running on 25 minutes). It explores so many different dynamics through a Latine immigrant lense. It also doesn't fall into the stereotypes we are used to seeing and explores some really complex layers when you immigrate to a different country to have a better life for yourself and your future children and how that pressure for 1st generation children of immigrants affects them. "
Why did you want to be a part of MET’s Inclusion Works festival?
"I was excited to showcase a story that features the different roles in a full family dynamic. I see my family and my story in this and I was excited to add that familiar point of view. "
What has the casting and the rehearsal experience been like?
"My experience has been unique. When doing shows that require non-white performers, there is more work to be done than just posting an audition notice and expecting people to show up when there hasn't been any evidence in the past that the effort is consistent. There's so much pre-work to be done and it can honestly take years. A lot of it is reaching out, networking and building relationships. You have to earn people's trust and if you don't have it, people can be weary. This is also a non paid gig for actors so when doing work that features BIPOC artists and it is unpaid, it is understandable that the talent pool significantly diminishes because, especially now, many people cannot afford to work for free. Because of that, I wanted to make sure that the rehearsal process has been rich and worth their time. I will always be transparent about pay, and if I am directing a non-paid show I want to make sure my actors get the most out of it and always prioritize their time and availability because their time is a gift. Most of the actors in my show haven't had that much exposure, so I hope them showcasing their talents can lead to more opportunities for them in the future."
What do you think we need to do to ensure there is more inclusiveness in theatres in town?
"This is a hard question to answer. Because it goes deeper then having an EDI statement in an audition notice or website. American Theatre was created in a systemic racist structure which is why these topics are more relevant than ever, and why it's hard to make a change. The people that have always benefited from the structure are the ones mostly in charge. I've noticed that if something doesn't directly affect someone, the work that goes into being anti racist seems like too much work (IT IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE).
To be an accomplice to the BIPOC Community, you have to be willing to actively listen to hard conversations, and not let the instant-hurt you may feel, dictate how you respond to constructive feedback. The work never ends and even true accomplices can still make mistakes, because you don't know what you don't know. Active listening, without getting the ego in the way, is a good start. If someone who is BIPOC addresses something directly with someone, it will never be okay to tone police them. If it feels like something is said "too aggressively" instead of focusing on the tone, the message is MUCH MORE important then the tone and ALWAYS VALID. Many people dismiss the message because they don't like the tone in which it was said and THAT is dismissing the real problem.
Additionally, If you don't pay your performers there's not much to be done, BUT there are things I think can help when theatres can't pay their actors but the following can be said for companies that pay as well. It goes beyond having purposefully "inclusive" programming. If you have a season where you are doing Shrek, Sound of Music, Legally Blonde, etc. Strive to put the same work to find BIPOC actors in BIPOC Specific shows in non-race specific ones as well. Hire BIPOC Directors and Artistic Directors. Having mostly white leadership doesn't help with inclusion, and hiring one BIPOC person is harmful to their well-being if they are the only one there. Know the difference between color blind and color conscious casting. Color conscious casting should be a continuous and never-ending practice.
Also find new works. There's so many new, rich, and well written plays and musicals by BIPOC Playwrights that don't focus on the trauma of being systemically oppressed, I am not saying to stop doing them but showcasing BIPOC joy is just as important than seeing the difficulties."
What do you hope audiences will take away from attending this play festival?
"I hope their takeaway is that not everything is black and white and that this is all, still, a work in progress. Hopefully, if they see both days, they can see the difference between true equitable showcasing vs Tokenism."
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