The Fire This Time Festival

Reviewed By Daphnie Sicre

Ten min festivals can be a hit or miss. Gathering several different plays for an evening, and trying to unite them under a theme, can sometimes be tricky. Yet, at the core of this year’s The Fire This Time Festival, there was one clear message, “Black Lives Matter”.

In it's seventh season, the festival staged seven 10-minute plays.  Produced by Horse Trade Theater Group, The Fire This Time Festival is worthy of its 2015 Obie Award as yet again, they’ve created a platform for early-career playwrights of African and African American descent to express their voices and work.

Nicole A. Watson returns to the festival, as the sole director uniting the 10-minute plays under one vision. From beginning to end, the theme was clear and the rotating cast of actors did an exceptional job with the multiple roles they portrayed through out.

The festival started with clarity, a beautiful monologue piece by Korde Arrington Tuttle about a young Black man seeking the approval of his grandmother before marrying the love of his life, a white man. In less than 10 mins, Cameron (Reggie D. White, who plays was also performing I & You simultaneously at 59E59) was able to take us on a beautiful journey of self-love and acceptance. The piece was followed by Time at the Penn by Keelay Gipson, which compared and critiqued the media’s portrayal Penn State’s riots after Coach Joe Paterno firing due to his involvement in covering up the sex abuse of eight boys over a period of 15 years to the riots in Baltimore following Freddie Grey’s death in police custody. In it, KG (Tanisha Thompson) catches our attention by playing  with a remote and switching the channels for us to compare the two. God Will Know the Difference by Jiréh Breon Holder paralleled, abstractly, the lives of a mother, her son and reveal of his father’s after years in prison. The first half of the evening then ended with Pr$de by Tanya Everett tackling domestic violence between Nefertiti (Mandi Masden) and just moved-in boyfriend, Joseph (Alex Ubokudom).

In Stacey Rose’s Slavesperience,  a white woman (Erika Grob) is forced into experiencing American Black slavery in 2016.  Hard Palate by Roger Mason gave the audience a much needed love story between HIV positive Clayton (Kareem M. Lucas) and Quentin (Pierre Jean Gonzalez) as the latter fights that little negative voice in our mind called fear, or in Quentin's case Brook Shields. Lastly, the evening ended with a modern day take and flashback to slavery in You Mine by Nia Ostraw Witherspoon. In it, Mrs. Anderson (Lori Elizabeth Parquet) played in white face, terrorizes her nurse Sayida (Kayla Jackmon) as she swirls into a battle with Altzimers and reminisces about the “good old slavery days”. Clearly these plays explore Black lives in the 21^st century and remind us why they matter.

The Fire This Time Festival at The Kraine Theater. 85 E. 4th St. Ran Jan 18-Feb 6, 2016.  Directed by Nicole Watson. Assistant Director: Christopher D. Betts. Lighting Designer: Charlotte Seelig. Production Design: James Masciovecchio. Stage Manager: Luisa Sanchez-Colon

Daphnie Sicre is a full-time instructor at BMCC-CUNY, where she teaches courses in theatre, social justice, and advanced public speaking.  Some of her NYC directing credits include: "Shower Me" at FringeNYC, "Stranger" for Stage Black where she won a Best Director Award. Additionally, the Audelco nominated "Not About Eve."