Ovation Fellows are current students or recent alumni from Los Angeles area universities. Fellows are paired with a Mentor, currently serving as an Ovation Award voter, and see productions and meet artists around Greater Los Angeles throughout the year. Their articles, posted on LAStageBlog, are intended to be their personal responses to their experiences, and not as critical reviews or representing the views of LA Stage Alliance.
Ashley Walden is an Ovation Fellow from the California Institute of the Arts.
The Black Dahlia Theatre and
Chalk Repertory Theatre Company
present the World Premiere of Stray
Written by Ruth McKee
Directed by Larissa Kokernot
Friday, October 23, 2009
Curtain 8:00pm
Stray, written by Ruth McKee and directed by Larissa Kobernot, explores the issues of a white couple adopting a child from war-torn Uganda and bringing him back to the United States to live the American dream. In the production, Daniel, the African child, is never seen but the story of his life is told through the adults who surround him including his parents Rachel and James, Tanya the principal, Ms. Kennedy his young teacher, and Lucia his therapist.
I thought the play was very interesting but as I began to watch I was reminded of work I had recently seen. In the past six months, I have seen three productions that included the issue of African child soldiers: Eclipsed by Danai Gurira which ran at the Kirk Douglas Theatre about women and how they were affected in the Liberian Civil war; Forgotten World by Ugandan playwright Asiimwe Deborah GKashugi, presented at California Institute of the Arts specifically about the effect of wars in developing countries on the children who are forced to become child soldiers; finally, the issue was illuminated in popular culture with a Law and Order: Special Victims episode that dealt with two children who were from an African war-torn country and how that had affected their childhood and life in America.
What stands out the most is how art can illuminate world issues and gives us very different perspectives around the issue. Also, it raises the question of ownership to the story? Who has the right to present certain issues in a very intimate way? Are Americans exploitative when we only present one segment of a certain population? Why have I not seen plays about strong educated wealthy Africans? They do exist.
Stray made me open up to a large conversation that should be happening about how artists are responsible for the work that is presented. And are we only putting out the images that American audiences want to see? Do American audiences not want to see wealthy educated Africans living in their countries without colonization? Does what is missing in our popular art market make its own statement about us, the artists?
Obviously, this work moved me in a way that is much larger than the play itself. The piece challenged me to explore. The world where Stray exists has invaded my world.
For more information on Stray presented by the Black Dahlia Theatre and Chalk Repertory Theatre Company, click here!
