Rachel Lynett’s ‘Letters to Kamala’ to debut at American Stage

The motor that drives her play Letters to Kamala, Rachel Lynett explained Friday on The Catalyst Sessions, is imagining vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris facing a single question: How do you mend a country with a broken heart?

Commissioned by American Stage, Letters to Kamala debuts – virtually – next week.

Three important women appear in the play, to offer Harris wisdom and advice, based on their own experiences: Charlotta Bass, the first Black woman candidate for vice president; Charlene Mitchell, the first Black woman to run for president and Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink, the first woman of color to be elected to the House of Representatives, first Asian-American woman to run in Congress and the first Asian-American to run for president.

Lynett, from her home in Wisconsin, talked about her history in theater, and her commitment to “decolonization” of it by dedicating her production company to works by QPOC (as she herself identifies), and to equalization of the playing field with regard to race and other markers.

American Stage CEO and producing artistic director Stephanie Gularte joined the interview approximately halfway in, and together she and Lynett discussed the process by which Letters to Kamala came together, and what they both want/need/expect from community-minded theater.

Tickets and info on Letters to Kamala here.