The Department of Theatre and Performance Studies concluded its week-long showing of “In the Red and Brown Water” on Sept. 25 at the Onyx Theatre.
Set in the bayou of Louisiana and utilizing West African religion, “In the Red and Brown Water” takes the audience to a whole new world and allows them to experience African-American culture that has been lost. The play raises questions about the relationship between race, gender and opportunity, as well as the effect of suppressed grief on adolescence.
The play follows Oya, a young, impoverished African-American girl as she deals with the difficult decision of whether to pursue a track and field scholarship at a university in Louisiana or take care of her ailing mother as she struggles between adolescence and adulthood.
Dr. Angela Farr Schiller, KSU’s assistant professor and resident dramaturge for the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies directed the show. She believes that the play came at a perfect time as the nation goes through a tumultuous time involving racial inequality.
“It’s really rare in our society that we get a chance to hear the stories and the experiences of black women,” Farr Schiller said. “We have black women who have run for president, black women who have worked for NASA and black women who have been murdered by police, yet we don’t hear about them.”
Assistant director and choreographer Damian Lockhart, a KSU alumnus, discussed the importance of “In the Red and Brown Water” in terms of representation.
“We often get these stories of black women where they might be the focus of the story,” Lockhart said, “but it’s what someone else thinks what a black woman is.”
“In the Red and Brown Water” was originally produced by the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and written by Tarell Alvin McCraney. This is the first play in McCraney’s “The Brother/Sister” trilogy. It discusses sexuality, identity, adolescence, community and the black church in two hours and 10 minutes.
“The play is directly influenced by the tragic poem ‘Yerma’ by Spanish poet, playwright and theater director Federico Garcia Lorca. It’s also influenced by the Yoruba myth of Oya/Oba. The myths and stories were used to tell the urban story of African-Americans in housing projects,” McCraney said in an interview with the McCarter Theatre, Princeton.
At the performances at the Onyx Theatre, “In the Red and Brown Water” had the audiences roaring with laughter.
“I began exploring the mixing of two stories from two different cultures — ‘Yerma’ and Oba — and how they mix,” McCraney said, “essentially how those mixtures are what make up the people in Cuba, the Spanish Caribbean, African and European Spanish.”
Future performances by the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies can be found on its online calendar or its Facebook page.
