Losing it

How do you get Jesus, Patrice Zumumba, Queen Victoria and the Duchess of Hapsburg in the same forum? How about a zany script laden with a slightly deranged main character that suffers from multiple-personality disorder and a discombobulated sense of culture and gender identity?

Third-year theater performance major Ashphord Jacoway is Negro-Sarah, a light-skinned African-American in the 1960s struggling for sanity. Each of her many personalities comes to the forefront of her mind to engage her on topics of gender, race and politics. Written by Adrian Kennedy, “Funnyhouse of a Negro” garnered negative reviews simply because of the tumultuous time in American history during which it was released, while now it is regarded as incredibly advanced and surreal for its time.

“It’s not a play for people who want their theater wrapped up in a nice little bow like, entertainment, here you go,” director and theatre pedagogy graduate student Adanma Onyedike said. “But it deals with a lot of issues; identity issues, biracial issues, hair – there’s hair being pulled out on the stage – and history.”

The play is the playwright’s response to what was happening during the Civil Rights Era with each of the personalities representing some cultural voice, thus creating many questions for the audience to dwell upon.

“I’m interested in sparking questions so that when people leave the theater, they’ll talk amongst themselves and seek that information, Onyedike said. “Even if they don’t like it, that’s a visceral response. The heart of the art is the emotion.”

One character whose irreverent inclusion in the play will surely spark controversy is theater performance sophomore Aliki Pappas’ character.

“My role is Jesus. I’m a hunchback, yellow-skinned dwarf,” Pappas said.

Pappas said the play brought new challenges because of the vagueness in the way it was written.

“There are no answers inside the script. It’s just filled with questions,” Pappas said. “As an actor, you kind of have to derive the answers from different pieces that you can give to the character or just try to list questions for you or the director to answer.”

Jacoway and Pappas both said while playing the part of Negro-Sarah in a play filled with question has it’s challenges, Onyedike’s vision and willingness to allow actors their freedom has contributed greatly to the creative process.

“She wanted us to dive into the script and gather what we could ourselves,” Pappas said. “I was so confused and so lost and she just asked me more questions and led me in the right direction.”

“She lets us work in a way we want to work. She’s a very good coach . makes suggestions . doesn’t impose,” Jacoway said. “She told us, ‘If it doesn’t work or feels unnatural, then don’t do it.’ She was very open to us being as creative as we wanted to.”

“Funnyhouse of a Negro” opens Friday, Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Shafer Street Playhouse’s Newdick Theater and continues Saturday and Sunday nights. Doors open at 7:30 with the show starting at 7:42. Admission is free to the public.