It can be maddening to realize how much you don’t know. It can also be just as liberating to have knowledge gaps you weren’t even aware of filled in wonderful ways. Those are only two of the impressions that’ll linger in your mind after catching The Neo-Futurists latest entertainment sparkler, 45 Plays for America’s First Ladies.
It’s always been hard to describe this band of bright, unconventional and daringly imaginative actors, writers and directors who can lean hard into comedy and, as they’ve evolved, take on topics of real gravity; treating it all with skill and formidable intelligence. In many ways, the theater of The Neos is the theater of the right now as well as of the future. A place where people who are either “unreached or unmoved” by conventional theater really can go to see the world explained from a vantage point that not only brings a unique understanding of our culture and other people; but genuine joy.
By spending a few minutes on each of the women who filled the role of First Lady to the nation, either officially or by default, we get sharp but nuanced lessons about our country that we will likely never forget. Not all of them married into the role. A few were daughters, one was adopted. Not many left a discernible trace of their impact on history after they left the White House.
Six actors either portray or provide astute narration on 50 women whose inner lives have, generally, remained obscure. All that changes almost immediately when we find out more about not only Martha Washington but also George. Of course, we know they owned slaves; but we have had few hints of their attitude toward the people they held as property. One of them, Ona Judge, fit few assumptions of how Americans usually envision the enslaved people of our past. Her mother was the property of the Washington family and mulatto. Her father was a white indentured Englishman; making Judge more white than she was black. But because her mother was a slave, she was a slave, and when she escaped at the age of 20 and fled to New Hampshire, both George and Martha Washington were adamant to have her returned as their property; spending years in a vain effort to do so. Their posture might easily be excused as a reflection of the times. But the absence of enlightened leniency tarnishes both Washingtons who provided no educational or religious training to a person who was said to have been brought into their home as a child to act a playmate to their niece.
Being handed the kind of awareness 45 Plays for America’s First Ladies offers sharpens our vision and helps us to better comprehend the totality of America’s past. Rather than revising history, the goal is to provide a more complete picture of who these people were who helped to forge what the United States we know today. Freed from the confines of a stage, the play had the freedom to roam through different landscapes and backgrounds to tell these women’s stories. Some scenes are out of doors, others in studios or apartments. The setting would be contemporary and casual or stark; but filled with the vivid hallmarks of imagination. Inspired adaptations to the virtual stage prove directors are becoming more and more adept at using technology to create emotional impressions and spatial illusions. As the play’s director, Denise Yvette Serna shows she’s completely mastered the concept.
As an ensemble of experiences written by six splendid playwrights, the stories are fast paced bursts of savvy drama performed by elite actors who make you smile while they tweak and tease your brain with a steady avalanche of astounding facts and evocative commentary.
The Neo-Futurists have always been expert at using the most basic items to act as connecting links in their work and that resourcefulness thrives in this production as well. Here, a simple headscarf reappears throughout scenes to designate the wearer as the First Lady in a vignette, allowing the audience to easily focus on the central character of each segment. Just don’t expect the prop to always be used or worn in conventional ways.
Whether you’re learning about women who amassed power for themselves but never thought to extend it to others of their sex or women like Eleanor Roosevelt whose integrity, principles and actions commanded the respect of a nation, you’re inevitably left with the thought that each of these women influenced, either negatively or positively, society. It’s also clear that complicity is not benign.
The gang of six making up the play’s cast hail from Neo-Futurists outposts on the east and west coast as well as Chicago. Each one glistening with talent and presence. Those attributes along with their strong confidence made this marathon run through the hearts and minds of our 50 First Ladies as exciting as it was revelatory and as exhilarating as it was fascinating.
45 Plays for America’s First Ladies
October 13 – Nov 2, 2020
(Appropriate for high school ages and up)
$15
https://neofurturists.org/events/45-plays-for-americas-first-ladies/
