Lydia R. Diamond Refocuses US on Poverty & Racism by Patricia L. Morin & Barry David Horwitz In Lydia R. Diamond’s audio-drama of Toni Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970), disembodied voices tell the tragic story of an outcast little Black girl. That girl, rejected and despised, lives in backwoods Lorain, Ohio, Morrison’s…
Jan Probst Reveals Marital Truths in Lock-Down by Patricia L. Morin Phoenix Theatre’s “Bird on a Tree Branch” magnifies the psychological fallout from holding long-hidden secrets in a patriarchal marriage. It’s 1964, and a white middle-class couple is driving home in a terrible storm. They stop to pick up Hannah Jackson (Desiree Rogers), a…
Erika Dickerson-Despenza Chronicles A Black Girl’s Trauma by Patricia L. Morin SF Playhouse and Lorraine Hansberry Theatre unfold disquieting truths in Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s intense play “[hieroglyph],” born from real events at the Louisiana Superdome. The playwright highlights one Black girl who represents many girls harboring the psychological pain of rape. “[hieroglyph]” tells the horrific…
Harrison David Rivers Depicts a Writer’s Return Home by Patricia L. Morin Forty-year-old writer Jesse Howard (H. Adam Harris) wants to unpack all the important experiences that led him to where he is today. Taking refuge in his childhood home, Jesse hears his mother saying again: “You want to have a happy plate, don’t…