The things I remember about theater I’ve worked on are behind the scenes — you don’t remember the way an audience laughed at a line on the third Friday, but you remember the story someone told in the bathroom between scenes, or the night something went wrong.
It’s been an honor and a privilege just to be in the same room with the folks who put together A Raisin In The Sun at the Huntington. There was a lot about the people and the process to love (“there is always something left to love”) but there’s one moment I had to myself, which I will hold dearly to.
At the end of this production, Lena Younger says goodbye to her home and is helped into her coat and hat by the ghost of her husband, who’s watched over the family throughout the play. It was a stunning and beautiful moment, mightily theatrical; with no words this moment spoke powerfully about love, family, endurance, devotion, and a million other things that no speech could capture.
While Grandma said goodbye to the house, the rest of the cast and crew stood offstage awaiting curtain call (during previews it was the FULL cast; a few migrated to stage left by the time we opened). A monitor on that side showed the audience’s view of the stage.
Everyone done with their job, there were jokes, fussing with props and Kleenex, getting ready for curtain call, the typical business backstage. But every night, without fail, the tizzy resolved to silence and stillness as Grandpa Walter held out the coat for Lena. Everyone stopped, their eyes fixed on the monitor, their faces lit by love and something unspeakable. Even Li’l Cent, the Wiggle Worm who sometimes pretended to be a 9-year-old boy, stood still and stared at the monitor, transfixed, as if his soul knew it was a moment to be still for.
Here words fail me; they’re never much good compared to life. I have always been deeply moved by families of choice, and to see these actors and artists who loved each other so hard and so quickly, to see them absorbed and moved and unflinching from that moment . . .
Their faces lit by the screen, by love for each other and for history and for story.
One night I tried to take a picture and I felt ugly inside. Invasive. And also my gut knew that a photograph could not claim the moment.
So instead it’s something I’ll keep in the deepest pockets of my heart. Not a dream deferred, but a dream no less, of the possibility of unflinching love. At least for a moment, before the work begins again.
John J King is part Texan and part Tyrannosaur. He lives in Boston where he makes plays | art | music, and scares little children who thought dinosaurs were dead. He has a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY Boondocks and an accent from his mama. Goals include recording a great dance tune, making impossible things from cardboard, and singing in a girl group.
The full cast and crew of A Raisin In The Sun at the Huntington
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M. Bevin O’Gara (Clybourne Park director) has previously directed For You for Me For You and Love Person (Company One), Matt and Ben (Central Square Theater), The Pain and the Itch (Company One, IRNE Award nomination for Best Director and Best Ensemble), Two Wives In India and Gary(Boston Playwrights Theatre, Elliot Norton Award nomination for Best Production), 2.5 Minute Ride(Downstage @ New Rep, IRNE Award nomination for Best Solo Performance), Othello and The Crucible (New Rep On Tour), Melancholy Play (Holland Productions), Bat Boy: The Musical (Metro Stage), Tattoo Girl, Painting You, and Artifacts (Williamstown Theatre Festival Workshop), and ANTI-KISS (3 Monkey’s Theatrical Productions). Other companies include New Repertory Theatre, the Gaiety Theatre of Dublin, and the Actor’s Center of Australia. Ms. O’Gara is associate producer at the Huntington Theatre Company. She has a BFA from Boston University in Theatre Studies.
Liesl Tommy (A Raisin in the Sun director) previously directed Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom for the Huntington Theatre Company and Ruined for the Huntington/Berkeley Repertory Theatre/La Jolla Playhouse. Other credits include Peggy Pickett Sees the Face of God by Roland Schimmelpfennig (world premiere, Luminato Festival/Volcano Theatre); Ruined by Lynn Nottage (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Eclipsed by Danai Gurira (world premiere, Yale Repertory Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre); and Angela’s Mixtape by Eisa Davis (world premiere, Synchronicity Performance Group, New Georges). She was awarded the NEA/TCG Directors Grant and the New York Theatre Workshop Casting/Directing Fellowship and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. She has also been a guest director and teacher at The Juilliard School, Trinity Rep/Brown University’s MFA Directing and Acting Program, and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is a graduate of Newton North High School and a native of Cape Town, South Africa.
Founded in 1992 by Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault, SpeakEasy Stage Company is Boston’s premier theater staging Boston premieres. Its mission is to connect, inspire, and challenge its audiences with the most socially-relevant theatrical premieres featuring the most talented artists in Boston. SpeakEasy’s mainstage is the forum for the Boston premieres of new musicals and plays, showcasing works never before produced in the area. In addition, the company contributes a unique artistic perspective to the Boston theatre community and creates a nurturing environment for artists, audiences, and arts administrators. Through its programs, SpeakEasy makes Boston's South End neighborhood an artistic and cultural destination, keeps vibrant, high-quality theatre thriving in Greater Boston, and provides jobs for locally-based actors, directors, designers, technicians, and administrators.