At American Stage: History through a ‘Colored’ lens

In its review of George Wolfe’s play The Colored Museum, the New York Times called the playwright “the kind of satirist, almost unheard of in today’s timid theater, who takes no prisoners.”

That was in 1986, when The Colored Museum, a fast-paced collection of 11 vignettes depicting – and taking apart – well-known moments and blistering stereotypes from the African-American historical experience, was first produced.

In St. Petersburg, American Stage has just opened a production of The Colored Museum, directed by Keith Arthur Bolden.

“This play, the provocative nature of its satirical pieces, and the fact that this satire was unapologetically Black; changed my life,” Bolden wrote on the company website.

Bolden was an 18-year-old actor in a production of The Colored Museum.

“The themes are still just as relevant today, if not more so now. However, what has become abundantly clear to me is that through the pain there is still ultimately the fight for joy and specifically Black joy.”

The director went on to explain the very relevant difference between satire and parody. “While both use comedy, parody pokes fun with the intent to make laugh, while satire, while funny, its intent is to be provocative and thought-provoking.”

American Stage’s five-person cast takes audiences through more than 200 years of satirically-skewed history, from a scathing re-telling of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun to a nightclub diva who wonders what she’s sold out, to a perky stewardess aboard a “celebrity slave ship.”

“It’s clear,” said the New York Times, “that the baggage of slavery cannot really be banished from The Colored Museum. But the shackles of the past have at the very least been defied by Mr. Wolfe’s fearless humor, and it’s a most liberating revolt.”

The cast includes Jemier Jenkins, Alicia Thomas, Yewande Odetoyinbo, Brandon Burditt and Jermaine Robinson Jr.

Read more, and find tickets, here.