Last night I got to go see Dominique Morisseau’s “Skeleton Crew” on Broadway. The play stars Phylicia Rashad, but truly, the entire ensemble acted their fucking asses off. Being in the theatre that night and getting to experience the very specific and intimate magic of watching players on stage taught me a few really timely lessons.
First, in order to pull from the richness and AVAILABILITY of your creative center, your core, the well from which all important creative shit flows, you have to actively nurture and invest in it. You hear all the time that the best writers are readers who write consistently. We know that’s true because reading gives us tools (language, structure, concepts, etc.) and writing sharpens them. Not just in ways that show us what can be done, but equally important, presenting us things that may show us how we want to do them differently. Those inputs come from reading, but they also come from watching, and listening, and seeing, and interrogating and turning something over and over in your head to then dissect and re-assemble on the page. Having a night with Dominique was inspiring and that inspiration is more available to me if I’m actively seeking it out.
Second, and this was very specific to me, don’t spend too much time agonizing over a completely original story. Instead, focus on telling the story you have so well that it’s clear only you could tell it.
The Skeleton Crew is not an unfamiliar story. It’s the struggle of working class Black folks and the tense relationship with middle class upper working class(?) Black folk who used to be poor(er)/working class. Navigating how to maintain those important relationships and that attachment to perceived authenticity, while also trying very hard to not lose yourself (or hurt anyone) in the pursuit of a better life.
I recognized this story before I even got to the theatre, but I still spent 2hrs and 10mins completely committed to Dominique’s characters, and their cares, and the very messy politics they were having to navigate that was life and death for all of them in very different ways. By focusing on the characters in the story and leaning into the idea that no two people will approach any situation from the same vantage point (and by being really fucking good at putting words and sentences together!) she gave us something to FEEL about. Together. And that’s really all I ever want to do as a writer.
Shit I Wish I Wrote
New segment where I just share really dope lines that are so good I wish I’d written them.
Orlando Jones spoke out against his treatment in season 2 of the show American Gods and how he was basically used to mine lines for the Black characters. In season 2 of the show, he played a personification of Anansi the Spider from West African/Ghanaian folklore and now every time I watch this clip it pisses me off that we didn’t get more of him.
