Theater production aims to undermine Black stereotypes, highlight Black experience
Keegan Shepard, Contributing Writer
The Black Virginia Theatre Alliance for Youth kicked off Black History Month with their production of the play “The Colored Museum,” presented from Feb. 1 through Feb. 11 at the Virginia Repertory Theatre, according to the BTVA Instagram.
“The Colored Museum” is a stage play written by playwright George C. Wolfe. The play is Wolfe’s indelicate way of handling sensitive subjects related to the African American community, according to the BTVA Instagram. The play was meant to undermine Black stereotypes and return to the facts of what being Black means.
BTVA is a Black-owned non-profit theater in Richmond, according to its website. It offers shows, youth programming and community engagement year-round and works to bring change and equity to theater.
“The group’s mission behind ‘The Colored Museum’ is to display not only the stereotypes of Black Americans, but how we have overcome them, and their cultural significance in current times,” according to Tajma Graham, the stage manager of “The Colored Museum.”
Graham hopes that Black boys, girls, men, women and non-binary people will be able to see themselves in the play and connect their own experiences to what is happening on stage, she said.
“It’s icing on the cake for it to be during Black History Month, but this shouldn’t be the only time these principles are put into action,” Graham said.
The overall purpose behind the play is to highlight as many Black experiences as possible, according to El Strickland, director of “The Colored Museum.”
“A lot of non-Black people in this society live with the subconscious notion that there is only one way to be Black — that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Strickland said. “We all have different upbringings and lives, yet we will forever be on the same team because regardless of what type of Black you are, we have all experienced racism.”
Due to the diversity of the characters and the stories, Strickland hopes that everyone who sees “The Colored Museum” will have something to relate to, she said.
“Everyone will leave the theater after seeing it with a different interpretation, taking away a particular scene more than the other,” Strickland said. “I just hope everyone gets to enjoy it, and whatever they take away from it is up to them.”
The BTVA is a Richmond-based theater company designed to end inequities in theater through education of theatrical practices and social-emotional skills, according to MalaKai Lee, chief of operation and artistic director of education for the BTVA.
“Our students will learn how to be principled and conscious artists who will take up the space needed to be fully immersed in a creative setting built for them, by them,” Lee said.
Putting together the show was a lot of work for both actors and crew members, Lee said.
“We have to understand our characters, and it’s a lot of work on just the actor in general,” Lee said. “If you think about the characters we’re playing, the things that we are doing on stage, the lives we are inhabiting on stage — that is definitely tough for the actor.”
However, the cast and crew were able to forge connections with each other during this process, according to Lee, who is also an actor in the show, playing the roles of June Robinson, Walter-Lee-Beau-Willie-Jones, Flo’rance and Topsy Washington.
“The community that the actors have built within each other has been really amazing, and the way that we’ve all been able to just respect each other, respect our opinions, respect the process that we’re in together,” Lee said.