BY DOMINIQUE MORISSEAUDIRECTED BY JOSEPH W. RITSCH

APRIL 29-MAY 17, 2015

REP stageREGIONAL THEATRE IN RESIDENCE

Howard Community College10901 Little Patuxent Parkway

Columbia, MD 21044

Tickets: 443.518.1500WWW.REPSTAGE.ORG

TABLE OF CONTENTSThe Play

About the Playwright.........................................................................3Black Liberation Movements..........................................................7Nina Simone.....................................................................................12References.........................................................................................15Themes..............................................................................................17

The ProductionDesign.................................................................................................17Cast.....................................................................................................20Explorations of History....................................................................21Theater Etiquette..............................................................................22

“Can we grant forgiveness without reconciliation? Can we make peace with a damaged relationship? How can we shift our rage so that we can both honor its origin while at the same time find freedom from its grasp? These are some of the questions Dominique Moriseau asks in her beautifully complicated play Sunset Baby. When I first read it, I was overwhelmingly moved by the characters and how their past has deeply affected their present. Ms. Morisseau is a poet. She weaves history, politics and the human experience into complex and poetic storytelling. Her plays are layered with emotion and questions that slowly surface

and grab hold of our hearts, and Sunset Baby is no exception. In her notes about the play Ms. Morisseau says “It is about untreated wounds between the generations, and the hope for healing. It is about love. That is all…” We are very much excited to bring this play to our audiences so that each of us can look our history, our ability to heal and the possibilities that can come the morning after a brilliant sunset. - Joseph Ritsch, Director

REP Stage presents

SUNSET BABYBY DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU

DIRECTED BY JOSEPH W. RITSCH

2 . Sunset Baby STUDY GUIDE

PREPARED BY:

Khalid Yaya LongGuest Dramaturg

Zheyan DamavandiGraphic Design

REP STAGE STAFF:

Suzanne Beal & Joseph RitschCo-Producing Artistic Directors

Nancy Tarr HartManaging Director

Valerie LashFounding Artistic Director

Zheyan DamavandiAdministrative Assistant

Lisa A. WildeLiterary Manager/Dramaturg

Reneé Brozic BargerResident Choreographer

Jenny MaleResident Fight Director

About the Playwright

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AN INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU-By Khalid Yaya Long, Production dramaturg

Khalid Yaya Long: In my preliminary research, I read an article in which you and your works were compared to August Wilson and his dramas. How do you respond to such a statement?

Dominique Morisseau: Definitely August Wilson was an influence of mine, so I don’t negate that. Anytime he can be invoked, I think it’s a beautiful, high compliment. But it’s also the easiest thing for people to say because they don’t know other Black artists. August Wilson is one influence, but he’s probably not even my strongest [influence], and definitely Lorraine Hansberry. She’s been invoked before. She’s defi-nitely someone who I’ve studied growing up; [but] she’s definitely not even one of my strongest influences. And that is not any negation of her work. It’s just that I was exposed to so many writers. And I would say that if you’re talking about my work . . . where my work derives from, the names that need to be [mentioned] are Pearl Cleage and Ron Milner and Cheryl West. Those are people whose work really influ-ence mine more than anyone’s [work]. But definitely August Wilson as well. He writes about Pittsburgh and I write about Detroit.

When I first encountered your work, I actually thought of Pearl Cleage, more than any other playwright, and how your works is similar to hers in terms of style and subject matter.

That’s so funny.

Particularly, there’s something about the activism within your work and the way in which you relate it to history, such as the Black revolutionary movement. That’s where I see a correlation between you and Pearl Cleage.

That’s awesome.

In thinking about Pearl Cleage and your works over a period of time, I see that history is very prevalent within your dramas. How does history manifest itself within Sunset Baby?

Sunset Baby is definitely looking at the history of the Black Liberation movement. It’s not about a particular organization. It’s about a movement. And so I’m very specific in Sunset Baby not to name an organization. It is intentional . . . Some-times I think people look at the work and they get a sense of the Panthers, the Black Panthers, as a go to. Or they think about, maybe, depends on how much they know, they look at the Black Liberation army or they look at the Black Power Movement. But, for me, Sunset Baby is about the ideas of a movement more than anything. It’s also about, I think for me – for history – we don’t get a chance to know and learn about that Black liberation movement without it coming with a lot of negativity. And I think it’s just not fairly talked about. And I don’t know that I’m fair to it. This play challenges. It doesn’t challenge the movement, it challenges the activist of the movement and any activist of any movement who had to focus on changing the world and what that does that mean about how they impact their own families, you know.

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About the Playwright

4 . Sunset Baby STUDY GUIDE

Yes.

And it’s not an indictment because I don’t know the an-swer. I don’t know how you do it, you know. But it’s also, I think, it’s contemporary history because it is also about looking at the origins of the hip hop generation.

Yes, yes.

Because the hip hop generation are bastards of the Black Power movement, you know. And I think they’re bastards because not all of them have a relationship, a strong and good relationship with the movement that they’re the children of. And so it’s really very much the same thing with the characters in the story. They really act out the divide between those two generations that are not closer. But the hip hop generation has abandoned the community development mind of the Black Liberation Movement. And, so, all they took was the anger, and the power, and the fight, but they left the community aspect of it. They left the, what do you call it, the socialism aspect of it and they adopted the capitalism aspect. [Laughter] So, it’s looking at where those – how do those politics get broken like that. What happened between those two generations and what contributes to that generational divide? But, also, what are some of the extreme things that we can do in the world to try to balance power, you know. And how does it impact? So, those are the things that I was interested in exploring historically. But it’s not a history lesson in the way that . . . now I’m not thinking my plays are really a history lesson, they just take place and are surrounded by historical movements or events; but they give a history lesson as almost by default be-cause they take place during that time, so you’re going to get a history lesson. My agenda isn’t necessarily to teach history. My agenda is to let history teach itself. And we live in the real humanity of history as opposed to dates and facts.

So, would you say that though there may be a his-toric moment or period embedded within your work, you ultimately employ what literary scholar Trudier Harris calls “an imaginative point of departure?” That’s something I think about with Pearl Cleage, as well. With that, I’m not talking about the specific his-toric event, but rather the creative imagination that

derives from the event.

Yes, that’s a great way to put it. Because you have to make up some stuff. Definitely, Sunset Baby borrows some things that specifically happened to the Black Pan-thers and the Black Liberation Army. But, also, there are things that happened with none of those groups, but it’s my own imagination.

Detroit is your hometown. Why does Sunset Baby take Place in New York and not Detroit?

It’s not a Detroit play. I didn’t want to make it about De-troit. I’ve also lived in New York. I live in Bed-Stuy, Brook-lyn. I’ve taught in East New York. I’ve taught all over New York City in the public school system. It’s in my bones. It’s also what I know. This time, for me, the fight and the activism – there’s a lot of activist spirit in New York that I connect to, that I see every day and it’s definitely in Brooklyn, and in Harlem as well. But I felt as though the piece had to take place in Brooklyn to capture Nina.

In the prologue, Kenyatta says, “Freedom. Freedom lost. Freedom never acquired.” Does the idea of Free-dom lost and Freedom never acquired pertain to all of the characters in the play?

I think so on some level. I think they are all grappling with a freedom that they’ve been seeking but have never found. Nina definitely. But by the end of the play Nina begins to find freedom. And what allows her to be free is letting go on some level of a grudge; being able to do something for someone else even through her anger and her disappointment, her hatred and her rage, she’s able to shift something within herself emotionally to forgive on some level. And that is a big step for Nina. I think that is what allows her to find freedom. Kenyatta has to go through this play seeking forgiveness from Nina and seeking forgiveness from himself and also confronting whatever it is that has blocked him. Because it was not just a movement. A movement alone is not going to make somebody emotionally unavailable to their family. There is something else that happens and we hide behind our work, we hide behind a movement, we hide behind any-thing we can to give us purpose if it helps us not deal with ourselves. So I think there’s a lot of freedom they require

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The Playbecause where they’ve been searching for freedom may be a little off from the source, from the real source of freedom. You know what I mean? Or maybe they’ve been seeking freedom. Who are you asking for your freedom? The government? Or the nation? Or someone else? A lover? Where are you going to get it? From yourself.

This freedom could then be interpreted as something internal. Finding Freedom internally.

Yeah, Exactly.

Many playwrights – once the play is over – they say it is up to the audience to go somewhere and imagine what happens next. But I am going to pose this ques-tion anyway: What happens to Kenyatta and Nina’s relationship when the play closes?

Oh, yeah! Right, I’m going to be like all of the other play-wrights. (Laughter).

Which I respect.

I would say: I don’t know. It stops for me because I am out of answers. I’m out of investigation. Once I am done with the investigation, I’ve investigated all that I feel that I can. It’s up to the audience or it’s up to any of us. We have to make our own decisions and I have to make my own decisions and I don’t want to put my decisions on the audience. I think that – for me – from what I want, I don’t know that they’ll ever be able to have a relationship. I don’t know if they can. They are not going to just turn around and be happy because Nina is just too set in her ways. But I do think that there will be peace between them, somehow. I don’t know what else happens. I be-lieve that this is the beginning… this act of giving Kenyat-ta the letters is a liberating act. And even if they never speak again, they both will have some peace behind them for just getting that far. I don’t measure steps as though everyone has to come back to the other side. I measure steps like this: if you take a huge step for yourself in your own lifetime, you take the biggest step that you can, then bravo to you.

Where is Dominique Morisseau now? Are you working on any new plays?

Absolutely. A lot, actually. I’ve finished my Detroit cycle. So those plays are coming up. The second play in my Detroit series is happening this summer at Williamstown. The third play Skeleton Crew is going up the beginning of next year in New York. What I am working on are a few different project. I’m working on a couple of musi-cals. I have a play that was commissioned by Steppenwolf theatre. They wanted me to write a piece on anything. I am really interested in the school to prison pipeline. So, I wrote a piece for them called Pipeline. That’s what next on my list. That’s what I am working on. It’s just at the beginning of being developed. I am working on a play with People’s Light and Theatre. It’s called Mudrow, it’s about Black section of West Chester, Pennsylvania, Bayard’s Rustin community. I am working with a West Chester community center, the Milton center. I’ve been going and talking to them and learning a lot about their communities. I’m writing a piece that’s inspired by the time that I spent in that community learning about it. I am not really looking at the history of the Underground Railroad. I am looking at the history of the community itself. Honestly, I think the play is becoming about Black ownership, Black family legacy and ownership in that neighborhood and what happens when you pit different tiers of socioeconomic status in the black community against each other.

So you have a lot going on?

I do. I have a lot going on. I have something that I do want to share, something that I’d like to be known about the work, with what I’m attempting with Sunset Baby. And with all of my plays. There’s a lot of doubt or skepticism, maybe, when Black woman are writing Black male charac-ters. I know that there is some from some people. We’re looked at a lot of times, there’s an assumption that Black women [writers] look to, for lack of a better phrase, to dump on Black men or sometimes that we’re not writing them with three dimensions. As August Wilson has been accused of not writing Black women with three dimen-sions. My interest in my work… I’m not really actively trying to be like: “oh, let me make sure I write this with dimension.” But, I am interested in black male charac-ters within my work and how they’re represented, even though my work as a Black woman is always going to, so

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About the Playwright

6 . Sunset Baby STUDY GUIDE

far, and I like it that way, it will always have a black woman as a protagonist or at the helm of the story. That’s because I am also a Black female actress and I know there’s not enough work out there for Black actresses. So, I’m interested in add-ing more to serve [Black woman actresses]. But, regardless of that, when Black men are also a part of my narrative it is im-portant for me that they have full humanity. And that they not be imperfect but that they feel like full human beings. So, even the men in Sunset Baby . . . all of these characters are [harsh-er] and really deal with some of the issues that don’t like to have displayed about our communities. We don’t like you writing absent fathers, because our community is more than that. But even as I write those things that we don’t like so-cially, I feel committed to writing them as full people. So, we might not like to see ourselves as drug dealers and robbers, but I think one of the things that’s important for me in Sunset Baby is… I grew up, I knew drug dealers and they’re not the savages that we think about. A lot of these men are brilliant thinkers who on a different day could be something else. So, I didn’t want to associate the trade with the level of intelligence that Black men have. And the level of human-ity. While Damon might be walking his line of aggression and walking his line of not really respecting his child’s mother because of whatever the drama is, I think he does learn something about himself as a father by the end of that play. Just as I think that Kenyatta learns something about himself and Nina learns something about herself. None of these people, none of us is without something to learn and gain and it’s not just the women that need to learn, or not just the men that need to learn, and not just the Black people that need to learn, or not just whoever else is in the story. It’s really about a balance of everybody having complexity and that’s an important part of me as a writer.

There’ a journey that every single character embarks upon. When the curtain closes they are in a new place that allows them to, perhaps, see differently or think differently. Or, challenge them in a different way. I see that.

Yeah. That’s awesome. Thank you for that.

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Black America’s Struggle for Freedom and Equality: The Black Liberation and Black Freedom Movements BLACK LIBERATION AND BLACK FREEDOM: A BRIEF OVERVIEWStruggling for equal rights and equal opportunities since the creation of the American nation, Black Americans created various Black Nationalist and/or separatist organizations with the aim of promoting “self-determination, self-respect, and self-defense for black America by calling for broad political and social experimentation with black liberation and polit-ical autonomy.” Typically, 20th century iterations of these movements are encapsulated under the following umbrella terms: the Black Liberation Movement and the Black Freedom Movement. Regardless of their individual ideologies and practices, embedded within each of these movements were philosophies of Black consciousness that advocated Black collective pride, uplift, and social change. Recognizing Black global oppression, several of the movements crossed inter-national borders, such as the Republic of New Afrika (founded in 1968) and the Congress of African People (founded in 1970). Nonetheless the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement were, perhaps, the two most formidable movements.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENTIt can be argued that the following events were catalyzing moments for the Civil Rights Movement: Brown vs. Board of Education (1954), the slaying of Emmet Till (1955), the arrest of Rosa Parks and the commencing of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955), the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957), the Little Rock Nine (1957), the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing (1963), and the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March (1965). Led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Civil Rights Movement ushered in a series of important legislative victories through non-violent protests judicial challenges. These include the Civil Rights of 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and the Civil Rights of 1965, also known as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting. However, the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s and 1960s was not a monolithic movement. By 1968 Black populations throughout the United States, particularly in the urban US North and West, were disillusioned by the slow-pace of social change and economic opportunities. Thus, the manifestations of urban rebellion gave rise to a variety of sub-Black Liberation Movements, such as the Black Panther Party, the Black Lib-eration Army, and the Black Arts Movement. As a result, young Black Americans shifted the methodologies of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement from nonviolent boycott into direct action civil obedience.

THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENTAlthough the term “Black Power” had entered the Black conscious lexicon during the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement, the mantra, which carried connotations of self-defense and Black nationalist separatism, did not appear until the mid- to late 1960s. The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) eventually rejected the non-violent tactics of the Civil Rights Movement, therefore adopting the ideologies of Black militancy. Extending the fight for civil and human rights, the Black Power Movement promoted a radical, cultural nationalist creed that attempted to eradicate outmoded laws and policies that affected Black social uplift. According to historian Peniel Joseph, “Black Power activists fought for community control of schools, Black Studies programs at colleges and universities, welfare rights, prison reform, and jobs and racial justice for the poor.” Considered a cul-tural and political revolutionary movement for the Black underclass, some of the visual imagery most associated with the Black Power Movement includes: clenched fists, dashikis, and afros. Moreover, Black popular artists, such as sing-ers James Brown and Aretha Franklin, coined anthems and phrases such as “Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud” and “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.,” respectively, promoting self-reliance and spreading the message that “Black is Beautiful.” In sum, the historical record demonstrates throughout the mid-20th century that Black Americans executed a myriad of approaches and philosophies – all equally integral – toward the common goal of Black liberation.

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8 . Sunset Baby STUDY GUIDE

GROUPS OF THE BLACK LIBERATION AND BLACK FREEDOM MOVEMENT

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Founded in 1909

The National Urban League (NUL), Founded in 1909

Universal Negro Improvement Association – African Communities League, Founded in 1914

The Nation of Islam, Founded in 1930

National Council of Negro Women, Founded in 1935

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Founded in 1942

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Founded in 1957

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Founded in 1960

Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), Founded in 1963

Deacons for Defense and Justice, Founded in 1964

Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), Founded in 1964

Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP), Founded in 1966

Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM), Founded in 1968

The League of Revolutionary Black Workers, Founded in 1969

The MOVE Organization, Founded in 1972

The African Liberation Support Committee, Founded in 1972

Black Women’s United Front, Founded in 1974

* This is not an exhaustive list of organizations within Black Liberation and Black Freedom Movements

Sources:

Joseph, Peniel E. Waiting ‘til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America. New York: Henry Holt and Co, 2006. Print.

Joseph, Peniel E. The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

Marable, Manning. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America, 1945-1990. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991. Print.

Shawki, Ahmed. Black Liberation and Socialism. Chicago, Ill: Haymarket Books, 2006. Print

Woodard, Komozi. A Nation Within a Nation: Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Black Power Politics. Chapel Hill, N.C: Universi-ty of North Carolina Press, 1999. Print.

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Original six Black Panthers (November, 1966) Top left to right: Elbert “Big Man” Howard; Huey P. Newton (Defense Minister), Sherman Forte, Bobby Seale (Chairman). Bottom: Reg-gie Forte and Little Bobby Hutton (Treasurer)

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10 . Sunset Baby STUDY GUIDE

In November 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridg-es Hall became the first African American child to desegregate an elementary school. Although she only lived a few blocks from the William Frantz Elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana. Marshals had to escort Ruby because of angry segregationist mobs that gathered in front of the school.

Malcolm X, August 6, 1963.

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Bertha Gilbert, 22, is led away by police after she tried to enter a segregated lunch counter in Nashville, Tenn., May 6, 1964.

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Nina Simone - a Musical Genius, a Courageous Activist

12 . Sunset Baby STUDY GUIDE

Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina on February 21st, 1933, Nina Simone was the sixth child of eight born to John Divine Waymon, an entertainer turned barber, and Mary Kate Waymon, a Methodist minister. Fas-cinated with music at an early age, Ms. Simone began playing gospel and hymns on the piano at her mother’s church at the tender age of six. Noticing the musical talents of their daughter, Ms. Simone’s parents began raising funds for private piano lessons with Muriel Massinovitch, an English piano instructor. It was her piano instructor, whom Ms. Simone called “Miz Mazzy,” that introduced her to Brahms, Chopin, Bach, Beethoven and Schubert. Nina Simone dreamed of becoming the first African American classical pianist.

Continuing to nurture her talents throughout high school with her new piano teacher, Joyce Carroll, Ms. Simone went on to earn a scholarship to study at The Juilliard School of Music. However, her former piano instructor, Muriel Massi-novitch, and her mother thought it best that she apply to the prominent Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA. After being denied admission, however, Ms. Simone went on to accept Juilliard’s offer. For the remainder of her life, Ms. Simone strongly believed that it was her race for which they deprived her of a chance to study at the institute.

While at Juilliard Ms. Simone gave piano lessons to supplement her income. Upon learning that her students – mostly endeavoring performers – were making a greater living by performing in nightclubs, Ms. Simone decided to try out her musical talents in Atlantic City and Philadelphia. When the manager at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City stipulated that she sing in addition to playing the piano, Ms. Simone became an overnight success, gaining fans in Atlantic City, Philadelphia, and New York. Yet, it wasn’t until 1959, when she recorded George Gershwin’s “I Love You Porgy,” earning a Top Twenty hit single, that Ms. Simone would gain stardom beyond the Eastern seaboard. It was also around this period in which she would adopt the name Nina Simone. Ms. Simone’s only daughter, Simone, explains:

“Mommy took the stage name Nina Simone so her mother, a preacher, would not know she was playing “worldly music”. “Nina” comes from the Spanish word Nina (neen-ya) which means “little one” (I think one her boyfriend’s used to call her that) and “Simone” comes from the French actress Simone Signoret. And, voila!! Nina Simone.”

A lyrical genius that defies musical categorization, Nina Simone was a force to be reckoned with. She has been labeled an artist of jazz, gospel, blues, and folk music. Singing for nearly five decades and honored with a number of prestigious awards, Ms. Simone’s career is, perhaps, unparalleled. Influencing a number of sing-ers, including the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, Ms. Simone paved the way for today’s singers, in particular Black women singers. In addition to being a household name for her music, earning the title “High Priestess of Soul,” Ms. Simone was also a major figure within the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. With songs such as “Mississippi Goddamn” (1964), “I Wish I Knew

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How It Feels to Be Free” (1967), and “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” (1970), Ms. Simone used music as a way to protest the ills of racism. Of her protest songs, “Mississippi Goddamn” was one of her most notable. In fact, Ms. Simone sang the Civil Rights anthem at the conclusion of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March. In her autobiography, I Put a Spell on You, Ms. Simone writes:

“Nightclubs were dirty, making records was dirty, popular music was dirty and to mix all that with politics seemed senseless and demean-ing. And until songs like ‘Mississippi Goddam’ just burst out of me, I had musical problems as well. How can you take the memory of a man like [Civil Rights activist] Medgar Evers and reduce all that he was to three and a half minutes and a simple tune? That was the musical side of it I shied away from; I didn’t like ‘protest music’ because a lot of it was so simple and unimaginative it stripped the dignity away from the people it was trying to celebrate. But the Alabama church bombing and the murder of Medgar Evers stopped that argument and with ‘Mississippi Goddam,’ I realized there was no turning back.”

During the early years of her musical career Ms. Simone did not consider herself an activist, though she did host benefit concerts for various civil rights organizations. After officially joining the Civil Rights Movement, she would go on to earn the mon-iker “Civil Rights Diva.” Herb Boyd of Black Enterprise magazine once wrote “If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the drum major. . . Nina Simone was the movement’s singer, providing its musical inspiration and protest songs . . .” Though many would consider the abovementioned tunes as her staple protest songs, a number of songs within Ms. Simone’s oeuvre, whether self-written or a cover song, attempted to raise listener’s awareness about social ills and inequality. Such exam-ples include “Four Women” (1966), which explicitly details the trials and tribulations of Black womanhood. According to Ms. Simone:

“The women in the song are black, but their skin tones range from light to dark and their ideas of beauty and their own impor-tance are deeply influenced by that. All the song did was to tell what entered the minds of most black women in America when they thought about themselves: their complexions, their hair – straight, kinky, natural, which? – and what other women thought of them. Black women didn’t know what they wanted because they were defined by things they didn’t control, and until they had the confidence to define themselves they’d be stuck in the same mess forever – that was the point the song made.”

When Nina Simone passed on April 21, 2003 at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, France, near Marseille, shortly after her 70th birthday, the world lost a special gift. Her music, nonetheless, remains popular – continuously used on television and film soundtracks. Ms. Simone will also be remembered as the audacious spirit who stated after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I ain’t bound to be non-violent.” An icon revered for her music, an activist respected for her courage, the legacy of Nina Simone forever lives on.

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Sources

Elliott, Richard. Nina Simone. Sheffield, UK: Equinox Publishing, 2013. Print.

Hampton, Sylvia, and David Nathan. Nina Simone: Break Down & Let It All Out. London: Sanctuary, 2004. Print.

Simone, Nina, and Stephen Cleary. I Put a Spell on You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone. Cambridge, Mass: Da Capo Press, 2003. Print.

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Nina Simone - a Musical Genius, a Courageous Activist

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References1980s CRACK EPIDEMIC was an upwelling of crack cocaine use in major metropolitan cities throughout the United States between 1984 and the early 1990s. It was also known as the American Crack Epidemic or 1980s Drug Epidemic.

BONNIE AND CLYDE were lovers and criminals during the early 1930s. Together they committed a series of crimes – from petty theft to bank robbery and murder.

THE BRONX is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. NYCGO.com describes the Bronx as the place “where hip-hop was born, where the Yankees became a dynasty and where you can find New York City’s leading zoo and botanical garden.”

CITY ISLAND is a small community at the edge of New York City located just beyond Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx and surrounded by the waters of the Long Island Sound and Eastchester Bay.

DASHIKI is a loose, often colorfully patterned, pullover garment originat-ing in West Africa and worn chiefly by men.

EUPHRATES RIVER is the longest river in Southwest Asia, it is one of the two main constituents of the Tigris-Euphrates river system. The river rises in Turkey and flows southeast across Syria and through Iraq.

ICE CUBE (1969- ) is an African American rapper and actor who came to the forefront of the hip-hop generation during the late 1980s as a mem-ber of the rap group N.W.A. (Niggaz with Attitudes). Released in 1988, one of the group’s most controversial songs was “Fuck tha Police,” highly regarded as a protest song.

LONDON EYE is a Ferris wheel that takes passengers to a height of 443 feet (135 meters). London’s tallest Ferris wheel and offering the highest viewing point in London, the wheel is located on the South Bank of the River Thames.

MALCOLM X (1925-1965) was an African-American civil rights activist and minister in the Nation of Islam. Born Malcolm Little, X was also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Coining the phrase “by any means necessary,” X verbalized concepts of racial uplift through Black Nationalism during the course of the 1950s and 1960s.

SISTINE CHAPEL is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace; also the official residence of the Pope, in Vatican City.

DASHIKI

ICE CUBE

MALCOM X

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ReferencesSOCIAL DYNAMITE is a “group of people who have either fallen or jumped through the cracks of our social system, but who are rebellious and potentially violent over this perceived failure.” The termed was coined by Steven Spitzer.

STEVEN SPITZER is a Professor of Sociology at Suffolk University in Boston. Earning his doctorate from Indiana University, Dr. Spitzer special-izes in Men in Prison; Initiation and Transformation in Correctional Set-tings; Masculinity and Justice; and Gender Imagery, Role Performance and Mass Media.

STOKELY CARMICHAEL (1941-1998) was a Trinidadian-American civil rights activist, mostly associated with the Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC) during the 1960s. At one time Carmichael was the chairman of SNCC. Carmichael was also one of the main mem-bers of SNCC who opted to break away from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s stance of nonviolence, thus joining with Black militant groups.

TIGRIS-EUPHRATES river system, great river system of Southwest Asia, comprising the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have their sourc-es within 50 miles (80 km) of each other in eastern Turkey and travel southeast through northern Syria and Iraq to the head of the Persian Gulf.Trafalgar Square

TRICK DADDY (1973- ) is an African American rapper, producer, and actor.

TRINA (1978- ) is an African American, award-winning female rapper and model from Miami.

TUPAC SHAKUR (1971-1996) was an African American rapper, song-writer, and actor. Also known as 2Pac Makaveli. Selling more than 75 mil-lion albums across the globe, Shakur is one of the best-selling music artists in the world.

YO YO (1978- ) is an African American, Grammy-nominanted female rapper and actor whose music has advocated female empowerment.

STEVEN SPITZER

TUPAC SHAKUR

YO YO

The Play

HISTORICAL LEGACYA major question that permeates Sunset Baby is: What do you do with legacy? When Nina’s mother died she left Nina a box of letters mostly addressed to Kenyatta. Several universities, historians, writers, and publishing companies are offering Nina “tens of thousands” of dollars in exchange for the letters. Kenyatta believes that the letters belong to him: “She wrote them to me.” Nina clings to the letters as they are the only legacy her mother has left behind: “She left them to me. It’s in her will. ‘So that you will understand what we do for love, Nina.’ That’s her statement. To me. They’re mine.” The letters are valuable as they represent Kenyatta Shakur and Ashanti X’s historical legacy of Black revolution-ary activism. However, for Kenyatta the letters are his last connection to his late wife, Ashanti X. Eventually, Nina gives Kenyatta the letters towards the end of the play. Perhaps Nina realizes that her mother’s legacy is also Kenyatta’s legacy to share. Or, perhaps, Nina realizes that her mother’s legacy is the first step towards self-fulfilled freedom, for both her and Kenyatta.

LOSS Dominique Morisseau asks: “What gets lost in the struggle?” Throughout the play each of the characters experience loss, or is on the brink of losing something or someone while struggling with their daily realities. Nina lost her parents to the Black Liberation movement. Nina recently lost her mother to death. Kenyatta lost his wife to drugs and death. As a result of attempted robbery, Kenyatta was sentenced to a number of years in prison, thus losing his daughter to a life of drugs and crime. Damon is on the verge of losing his son while simultaneously attempting to gain Nina’s love and trust. As the play comes to a close we learn that Nina and Kenyatta have not reconciled. Nina does, however, give Kenyatta her mother’s letters. But at what cost? Has Kenyatta lost Nina forever? As the play closes we also learn that Nina does in fact travel abroad to start a new life, leaving Damon behind to suffer another loss.

FATHERHOODAccording to playwright Dominique Morisseau, fatherhood is the most revolutionary act within the play. At the open-ing of the play, Kenyatta lists a number of synonyms for fatherhood: “Complex. Complicated. An abstract concept. [. . .] Abandonment. Repercussions. [. . .] Not showing up. Never showing up.” Throughout the play we watch Kenyatta struggle as he attempts to reunite with his estranged daughter, Nina. According to Nina, her mother “was the link” between Nina and her father. With her mother recently dying, there no longer remains a link. Feeling as though Kenyat-ta abandoned her for the Black Liberation movement, however, Nina is reluctant to reconcile with her father. Damon also struggles with fatherhood. In scene five we observe an argument between Nina and Damon. Damon explains his attempts at seeing his son though his child’s mother forbids it. Nina retorts, “When a man wants to spend time with his child, shouldn’t be not a goddamn thing that gets in his way.” For Nina, fatherhood is “Reliability. Somebody around to make you feel safe.” As a major theme, Sunset Baby portrays the aftermath of abandonment, particularly when a father abandons his child. Furthermore, through Nina and Kenyatta’s relationship, Sunset Baby explores how even after numer-ous attempts to reconcile, it may be too late.

The PlayTHEMES

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SUNSET BABY

18 . Sunset Baby STUDY GUIDE

The ProductionDesignSET DESIGN, By Daniel Ettinger

DesignCOSTUME DESIGN By Julie Potter

The Production

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SUNSET BABYThe Production

v Denotes Member of Actors’ Equity Association

Valeka J. Holt (Nina)v

Manu H. Kumasi (Damon)v

Jefferson A. Russell (Kenyatta)v

Sunset Baby Cast

20. Sunset Baby STUDY GUIDE

Explorations of History in Dominique Morisseau’s Sunset Baby

“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.” - James Baldwin

A recipient of two NAACP Image Awards, Dominique Morisseau developed her writing at a number of institutions and workshops, including the Women’s Project Playwrights Lab, Lark Playwrights’ Workshop, and the Public Theater Emerging Writer’s Group. Earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Michigan, Morisseau still performs when she is not busy penning her next drama. Nonetheless, with a steady stream of productions produced at regional theatres, it is the plays that has Dominique Morisseau climbing the ladder to a national reputation.

Influenced by several prominent African American playwrights, such as Ron Milner, Cheryl West, August Wilson, Lorraine Hansberry, and Pearl Cleage, Morisseau is cognizant that her plays follow in the tradition of socially active and politically aware theatre. Indeed, her works have the potential to teach especially through its engagement with histo-ry. Morisseau states, however, “My agenda isn’t necessarily to teach history. My agenda is to let history teach itself.”1 Additionally, like the above-mentioned playwrights, Morisseau explores issues of race and gender through her complex characters, family dynamics, and social issues surrounding the African American community.

Traveling between fact and fiction, Morisseau employs what literary scholar Trudier Harris calls “an imaginative point of departure” to reimagine African American history and subjectivity.2 Her “Detroit Cycle” – a 3-play series entitled “The Detroit Projects” – is a great example. For instance, her play Detroit 67 uses the 12th Street Riots of 1967– also known as the Detroit Race Riots or Detroit’s Great Rebellion – to examine interracial love, family history, and the eruption of violence as a result of police brutality and racial conflicts. With Sunset Baby Morisseau engages with history by exploring the generational gap between the Black Liberation Movement and the hip-hop generation. Whereas the hip-hop gener-ation is the offspring of the Black Liberation Movement, Morisseau believes that the hip-hop generation does not have a strong relationship with the Black Liberation Movement. Morisseau asks: “What happened between those two genera-tions and what contributes to that generational divide?” Morisseau posits that the hip-hop generation may have inherited the anger, power, and fight of the Black Liberation Movement, but abandoned the community aspect of the movement.3 Clearly, we observe these forces at work within the relationship between Nina and Kenyatta. Not only is Sunset Baby about the estranged relationship between father and daughter, but it is poignantly about the divide between Black politi-cal beliefs – past and present.

Drawing upon historical events or periods as backdrops for her plays, Morisseau’s aim, however, is not to restage his-tory but rather to probe the significance of African American history across space and time. In other words, Morisseau asks her audience to consider how the past influences the present. Similar to playwright Pearl Cleage – whom she con-siders one of her greatest influences – Morisseau does not explore history through the experiences of famous politicians or activists, but instead opts to depict history through the lens of the ordinary people that has firsthand knowledge of the historical moment.4 In doing so Morisseau reminds us that everyone – from historical leaders to everyday folk – are bound by history. In each of her plays, especially Sunset Baby, Morisseau asks us all to embark on a journey along with the characters – exploring our personal histories of love, loss, political beliefs – with the hope that everyone finds a sense of self-fulfilled freedom.

-Khalid Yaya Long, Production Dramaturg

1 Personal Interview. 6 March 2015. 2 Harris, Trudier. “Cracking the Mirror of History: Or, Shaping Identity in African American Drama.” In Reading Contemporary African American Drama: Fragments of History, Fragments of Self, edited by Trudier Harris and Jennifer Larson, ix-xvii. New York: Peter Lang, 2007.3 Personal Interview. 6 March 2015. 4 Giles, Freda S. “The Motion of Herstory: Three Plays by Pearl Cleage.” African American Review. 31.4 (1997): 709-712.

The Production

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SUNSET BABY

Theater EtiquetteAttending the theater will be a positive experience for everyone if you observe a few simple courtesies:

n Turn off and put away all electronic devices prior to entering the theater.

n Taking photographs and video recording in the theater is prohibited.

n Do not place your feet on the seat in front of you.

n The actors onstage can see and hear the audience just as well as the audience can see and hear them. Please refrain

from talking or moving around during the performance as it can be distracting to the actors, as well as to other

audience members.

n Feel free to respond to the action of the play through appropriate laughter and applause. The actors enjoy this type of

communication from the audience!

n Have fun! Attending theater should be an enjoyable experience.

REP stageREGIONAL THEATRE IN RESIDENCEHoward Community College10901 Little Patuxent Parkway Columbia, MD 21044

The Production

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