Category Archives: Monologue/Solo Performance

The Magic Negro and other Blackity Blackness, as told by an African-American Man who also happens to be Black

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There are three things that will stick with me from going to see Mark Kendall’s “The Magic Negro” last night at the Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage. Before the show, I found a stack of stickers in men’s room that said “Be patient, Atlanta! We’re all in it together.” and had a picture of an I-85 sign. Secondly, the existential depth of cookies and the fact that my companion for the evening totally scored some cookies. And, finally, that I was awarded and then denied an Oscar for my part in the show. I’d probably feel better if it went to “Moonlight” because everything about that movie is amazing, but it went to some random person in the audience, which left me wishing that Kanye West had been there to stand up for me.
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Tara Ochs: White Woman in Progress

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“White Woman in Progress” is a one person show in which Tara Ochs, who also wrote the script, explores her own understanding of racism. Ochs’ role in the 2014 film “Selma” as Viola Liuzzo, who was murdered for her role in the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, helped her realize her own lack of knowledge of the Civil Rights movement and her lack of understanding of the prevalence of racism, both in society and in her own behavior.
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Ofir Nahari: No(se)onenowhere

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I love traditional clowning. I’ve mentioned in the past how much I lament that American culture has offhandedly rejected the art-form, with people who have never seen a real pantomime comedy performance declaring their disdain for it. Given that Atlanta happens to be in the United States, we don’t get terribly much clowning outside of circuses passing through, so I get pretty excited when I have the chance to see a clown in the classical tradition of clowning and pantomime perform. I regretted not being able to see Ofir Nahari’s No(se)onenowhere when it last ran at 7 Stages and, so, when I found out that they’d be bringing it back as part of the Exposed Festival, I took some time off to make sure that I’d be able to make it. Like many of you, I was feeling awful for most of the day and, I must say, going to this was the best medicine I could possibly have taken.
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Atlanta Fringe Festival: Infinite Expectation of the Dawn

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Braving the heat, a friend of mine and I went out to see “Infinite Expectation of the Dawn,” a Giant Nerd Productions show written, directed, and performed by L. Nicol Cabe and presented as part of the Atlanta Fringe Festival. The first of two things that made me choose to see this was that it was billed as a science fiction story set in a dystopian near future, which is something that I thought that my companion and I would find interesting. The second was that it is a solo performance piece written, directed, and produced by a woman in a world of theater where women playwrites and directors are still often given the shaft for no other reason than their lack of a Y chromosome and this person is bringing this show from Seattle, WA all the way to Atlanta, GA. To be frank, I feel that putting oneself out there for a solo show like this is a pretty tough thing to do even without being of a class that suffers discrimination in this field and in an unfamiliar city and the least that I can do to support that kind of bravery is to sit in a chair and let someone try to entertain me with a story that already sounds like it’ll be pretty interesting.
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