*Two hundred and twenty-five tons may be a lot of weight to carry, but this lady is in no way trying to shed those pounds. In fact, she is quite proud of them. I’m talking about the Statue of Liberty, and the new play, ‘The New Colossus,’ a production that shares its title with the sonnet written by poet Emma Lazarus in 1883, was inspired by ancestral courage. Lazarus reimagined the statue’s original intent and turned Liberty into a welcoming mother, a symbol of hope to the outcasts and oppressed of the world.
Yes, its a heavy load to carry.
‘The New Colossus’ is in direct response to our government’s anti-immigration and anti-refugee policies. Written and performed by The Actor’s Gang ensemble, along with Tim Robbins, who also directs, the time is somewhere between the 19th century and now, and the play tells the story of forced migration and the constant struggle for survival and dignity in an uncertain and hostile environment. The cast of twelve, all from different parts of the world, are manifestations of the ancestors who fled their various countries in search of a better life.
Liberty’s plea to “…give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” brings about this multicultural blend of what makes America, like it or not, all that it is today. Everyone speaks in different tongues, and share self-penned stories about their ancestors’ journey. But these men and women don’t just speak the experiences of their family members — they morph into them. They hit Jason Lovett’s dimly lit stage running, literally, for their lives. Worn ragged suitcases in hand, scared out of their wits of all the strange noises, sirens, traffic, voices — as they scramble every which way looking for shelter and safety. They aptly become their grandmothers, grandfathers, fathers, mothers and even great-great-great-great aunts — as in the case of Quonta Beasley, an African American woman in the cast.
Audiences may be surprised to see an African American in this production. After all, even with Black folk being taken away from Africa, brought to America as slaves, and fleeing the South for freedom in the North, we constantly face racism — but are rarely acknowledged as refugees. Apparently, director Tim Robbins saw things differently when he brought Quonta Beasley, who portrays Sadie Duncan, of Tensas Parish, Louisiana, in the year 1830, on board.
Robbins, a Los Angeles native who was born in West Covina, California, says the cast — all strong actors — want to tell a story that draws attention to the true nature of people that live in this country.
“Save for the Indigenous, all of our families came here as refugees or immigrants,” says the man audiences will always look to as Andy Dufresne from the iconic film,’The Shawshank Redemption’ (1994).
Robbins shares, “The characters in the piece all seem different, from different parts of the world, travelling at different times – but the stories are remarkably the same: the common experience of all refugees is that they are fleeing some kind of oppression and moving toward safety and hopefully, freedom. Our hope is that we will be able to illuminate the courage, fortitude and humor of the refugees that have defined this land and, in doing so, discover the similarities that exist between our ancestors and those who are currently struggling for dignity and freedom today.”
Both Robbins and Beasley spoke to EURweb senior editor, DeBorah B. Pryor, on what inspired this production and Beasley’s contribution to it.
“We started working on this during the Obama Administration during the Syrian Refugee Crisis. We were hearing the dangerous rhetoric connecting this crisis with potential terrorism and saw the reluctance of European countries and the United States to give asylum to these people who were suffering form the forced displacement from their homes,” says Robbins, who has been artistic director at The Actors Gang for the past 37 years, and acknowledged the ensemble on stage in his acceptance speech for an Academy Award in 2004.
Robbins continues, “…I asked everyone to reflect on their own stories, their own families, and their own ancestors’ journeys from oppression to freedom. So it was the actors themselves that wrote their stories.”
Quonta Beasley is one of the ensemble’s newest associates. In fact, this is her first production with them.
“Years ago I researched my family tree and discovered a young girl who was sold away never to be heard from again. When I saw this it struck a chord, which made all of the stories I had read and learned about true for me,” said Beasley, when asked what inspired her to write about her great-great-great-great aunt in particular.
“Even though, I knew there was a possibility of someone in my history of slavery being sold away from the family, it really hit home when I saw it on paper. This made me feel an even deeper connection with the history of Blacks in the south during this time, and a wider connection with everyone else who shares this lineage.”
“When Tim approached me about the project,” she continued, “I listened to the story that was being put together by the other actors. I looked over the span of my history and asked at what time could Blacks be considered refugees within America–leaving one area and moving to another within the country, and this is the period which stuck out.”
‘The New Colossus’ dramatically reveals how it is possible to be alone…together. Because no one speaks the others’ language, there is frustration, and sometimes, anger — all enhanced by Cihan Sahin’s beautifully dramatic projection images and David Robbins’ (accompanied by Mikala Schmitz) brilliant musical direction. Yet and still they must all stick together because they are all in the same proverbial boat. The language barrier becomes burdensome at times, making it difficult for the audience to adequately understand what may be happening in crucial moments. This is most obvious when the people have found a temporary safe shelter, possibly underground, and they all run to an opening to get the attention of something they see outside.
And oh do we, the audience wish we could understand each individual’s obvious plea for compassion. We can only surmise the director’s reasoning for this is intentional. These barriers are what these people endure each day in this country.
I asked Quonta about the process she went through to learn more about Sadie Duncan and her research on post-slavery.
“The project has been in development for a couple of years, and I just recently joined the cast this year. Tim approached me about a month ago after they had already begun rehearsals and invited me to write a story. I kind of jumped onto a moving train, so I needed to provide some text within a few days. Luckily, I had already done the research on my family tree previously, so I knew the states where most of my family lived and to where they traveled. As for the detail of Arkansas’ history, I relied on town registers, and basic searches on website pages such as the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and other official sites.
I used my own memories of visits to my grandmother’s house and my mother’s memories to create the landscape of rural Arkansas.
Quonta has performed in numerous productions in New York and California, including productions with the prestigious Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, La Jolla Playhouse, Robey Theatre Company, and numerous performances with the Classical Theatre of Harlem, where she was nominated for an Audelco Award for best Ensemble in their widely acclaimed revival of The Blacks.
She trained in classical text with the New York Shakespeare Festival and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting from the University of California, San Diego.
Because of her large body of work as an actor, portraying an array of presumably fictional characters, I asked Ms. Beasley if she found it less challenging to portray someone she actually “knows.”
“I find it less challenging because the desire to honor the story keeps me in a place of authenticity. It’s not about me trying to find the character or backstory, I am simply listening to the facts of everything that was happening during this time, and they are enough to keep me connected and true,” she says. “It’s about sharing this story with the audience which keeps not only my ancestors’ memories alive, but everyone who lived back then and continue to live through oppression and certain human injustices.
It will be interesting, however, to see how my mother and father will respond to the portrayal,” she adds.
FACT: The New Colossus was donated to an auction and used to raise funds to purchase the pedestal that the Statue of Liberty stands upon today. In 1903, the poem was engraved on a copper plaque and mounted inside the lower level of the pedestal.
It is extremely rare to come upon ensemble theatre, especially in a metropolis like Los Angeles. Theatre where actors can grow together and feel a true sense of camaraderie. In the spirit of a recent faux pas, where journalist Laura Ingraham told LeBron James — one of the most decorated American athletes of all time — to just “Shut up and dribble,” actors at The Actors Ensemble are encouraged to do more than just act.
In encouraging his actors to write and act out their own ancestors truth, Tim Robbins says, “The actors have a lot invested in this. Not only are they telling deeply emotional stories, in doing so they are portraying people at the extremes undergoing great hardship, but they are also giving voice to the stories of their ancestors. We have found that when we take this seriously and commit fully to the emotions that it takes to get to the truth of the story then we are doing right by our ancestors. If we don’t commit to the extreme emotions that are involved in the telling of this story, we are doing a disservice to our ancestors’ stories.”
After digging so deep to learn about Sadie Duncan, and researching post-slavery life so thoroughly, I had one more question for Quonta.
Has this experience inspired her to go further?
“Yes, definitely. I feel inspired to keep writing about this story. Through researching the State of Arkansas I’ve learned some amazing facts about what exactly was going on there during and after the Civil War. I learned about the contraband camps set up by unions solders for freed and escaped slaves. I learned about the political militia wars of 1868-69, where Governor Powell Clayton declared martial law and recruited a freed Blacks and sympathetic whites to fight against adversarial groups like the Ku Klux Klan and others. Most heartening,” she adds, “are the everyday stories I learned of my family and how my grandparents and parents lived on plantations until moving to the north in IL; stories of marriage and children. This is what I feel needs to be told and heard.”
The New Colossus runs through Saturday, March 24, 2018 at The Ivy Substation at 9070 Venice Blvd, Culver City, CA, 90232. General tickets are available for $34,99. Seniors may purchase $30.00 tickets and young adults under 30 years of age and full-time students may purchase tickets for $20.00. Thursday evenings are “Pay-What-You-Can.” For tickets, please call 310-838-4264 or visit www.theactorsgang.com to purchase tickets online or to view the complete Season of Thugs, Outcasts and Heavenly Myths schedule.
At the end of each performance, Tim Robbins comes out and he, along with the actors, engage the audience and ask them to share either their experience of immigration or their family’s experience. On several of the workshop performances of this piece the ensemble found people from all over the world in our audience; a true representation of the character and make up of this country we share.
The 2017/18 Actors’ Gang season is about grifters, dreamers, fighters, cowards, con men and saints, our ancestors, their poetry, our story, their dance, our winter solstice and a spring of brand newly hatched plays developed, nurtured, and incubated at The Actors’ Gang Theater.
The New Colossus has its beginnings in the previous 2017 Refugee Project Workshop Production, in which actors from The Actors’ Gang told their own stories, the story of their ancestors – where they came from, why they had to leave, and where they arrived and settled.
About The Actors’ Gang
Over the past 36 years, The Actors’ Gang has produced over 200 plays in Los Angeles, in forty-five US states, and on five continents. The company was founded in 1981 by a group of young artists looking to build a theatre that would present relevant and vibrantly entertaining plays. Guided by Founding Artistic Director, Tim Robbins, the company provides a supportive environment for a diverse ensemble of artists and the development of their groundbreaking work.
The Actors’ Gang has presented the work of innovative theater artists including Georges Bigot, Simon Abkarian, Charles Mee, David Schweizer, Bill Rauch and the Cornerstone Theatre Company, Tracy Young, Roger Guenver Smith, Eric Bogosian, Oskar Eustis, Danny Hoch, Beth Milles, Brian Kulick, Stefan Haves, Namaste Theater Company, Culture Clash, Jason Reed, Michael Schlitt, and Tenacious D.
The Actors’ Gang ensemble has included accomplished actors such as Jack Black, John Cusack, John C. Reilly, Helen Hunt, Kate Walsh, Fisher Stevens, Jeremy Piven, Ebbe Roe Smith, Jon Favreau, Brent Hinkley, Kate Mulligan, Lee Arenberg, Kyle Gass and Tim Robbins.
Guest artists that have appeared on The Actors’ Gang stage include: Jackson Browne, Sarah Silverman, Ben Gibbard, John Doe, Tom Morello, Jenny Lewis, Wayne Kramer, Paul Provenza, Zooey Deschanel, Serj Tankian, David Crosby, Pink, Felicity Huffman, Jill Sobule, William H. Macy, Phillip Baker Hall, Jeanne Tripplehorn, T.C. Boyle. and the late, beloved, Gore Vidal.
Recent touring productions include Harlequino: On to Freedom, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, George Orwell’s 1984, The Exonerated, Tartuffe, Embedded, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine and The Guys. Over the last thirty years The Actors’ Gang has toured the U.S. in forty-five states and on five continents, performing across the world from London to Milan, Bucharest, Athens, Madrid, Barcelona, Bogota, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Buenos Aires.
With their productions, education and outreach programs and tours the ensemble strives to strengthen communities in a way that only the medium of theater can. They produce plays that contribute to the ongoing dialogue about our society and culture, while never forgetting that theaters primary purpose is to entertain.
To learn more about The Actor’s Gang, and how you may get involved, visit their website here.
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