Gunshot Dramaturgy: Dionna Michelle Daniel @ Edfringe 2017

New writing on the fight for Black lives comes to the Fringe

CalArts Festival Theater Presents:

GUNSHOT MEDLEY

Young American playwright Dionna Michelle Daniel makes her international debut with her original new work, Gunshot Medley, where past and present meet in a haunted North Carolina graveyard to explore the deep seated racial tensions in the United States.

Set to classic Appalachian folk music and gospel spirituals, this provocative new work stretches across the Antebellum American south through present day to weave a rich history of the Black-American experience, blending poetry and song to respond to the historical expendability of Black bodies and the lives lost to hatred, racism, and police brutality.

Three slaves—Betty, Alvis, and George—are stuck in a state of limbo, perpetually tasked with cleaning up the wreckage of systemic racism purveying contemporary America. Numbed by the continuous loss of Black lives, each character grapples with the meaning of their own death as they witness history repeat itself time and time again. An ever present fourth character, the High Priestess of Souls, an incarnate of the Yoruban goddess Oya, awakens each character to their condition, inciting action and social change. Betty, Alvis, and George must confront the need to answer her call and their fear of what it means to do so.

Gunshot Medley was born out of the Charleston church shootings and the debate surrounding the insensitive usage of the Confederate flag. A combination of spoken word and live music shed new light on the American slave narrative while paying homage to the real Betty, Alvis, and George, three historically documented slaves that died in North Carolina before the emancipation proclamation was signed. Daniel’s haunting new tale is a call to action; it is a story of many generations and the perseverance of the human spirit.

Gunshot Medley, one of three shows presented by CalArts Festival Theater, opens at Venue 13 on Saturday, August 6 at 14:45 and runs through Saturday, August 26. There are no shows Monday August 14th and Monday August 21st.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Every human being has a moment when their soul cries, “Enough is enough!” Gunshot Medley was the product of one of those moments. While staying with my parents in North Carolina during the summer of 2015, I watched racial tensions fester in the South after the Charleston church massacre. 

As the news of these nine deaths played across my

television screen, my body began to overflow with an array of emotions. Each life of another African-American person that has been lost to racism and police brutality reopens the wound of grief Black America has endured for centuries. While their nine faces flashed on CNN, I was shattered. I was angry. I was broken. Enough was enough but I didn’t know what I could do. Where was I supposed to channel my pain in times of intense mourning?
During that time, I vividly recall the fury in my bones when white men road up and down my street with huge Confederate flags hoisted onto the backs of their pick-up trucks. The Confederate flags that some southerners kept tucked away in closets, chests, and attics due to shame were now proudly displayed on porches and flag poles all throughout North Carolina. 

However, this was nothing new. All throughout my life the Confederate flag was made visible in many different ways. It is just that after Charleston, my instances of encountering this symbol of racism and ignorant pride tripled.

One day while visiting one of the oldest cemeteries in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I came across a segregated graveyard that housed the bodies of both African-American slaves and white Confederate soldiers. The section where the Confederate soldiers were buried was well kept while the slaves’ graves were hidden from view. In the slave section, there were three tombstones with the names Betty, Alvis and George. All that was left were their first names and the dates of their deaths. 

All of the deaths preceded the Emancipation Proclamation. The moment I saw those names and dates etched into stone, my soul knew I must tell their stories.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

I believe performance will always remain a good space for public discussion of ideas. Theater has always been that sacred space of ritual and discourse. I believe, especially in the American theater, that we are coming into a new chapter of political and socially engaged theater. Due to our new president and the social unrest in the United States, art is becoming even more weighted. Plays that could promote escapism seem futile at this moment. The work that we want to see breaks open a discussion about the issues that we normally find too hard to address.  

How did you become interested in making performance?

I vividly remember viewing Jackie Sibblies Drury, “We are Proud to Present…” which was directed by the brilliant American director Nataki Garrett. That show changed my perspective of what the theater can be. The play touched on topics such as appropriation, colonization,  and genocide all while making me laugh, cry and become incredibly angry. 

The play was experimental, the actors breaking into an almost Brechtian conversation with the audience, while in other parts reenacting the genocide that took play in Namibia. That production made me realize that theater that tackles politics and social issues can be cathartic as well as utilizing a distancing effect. The two tactics together, creating this strange dissonance in me sparked a need for further dialogue and action.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

The approach to making Gunshot Medley is traditional. However, the heart of the play lies in its mysticism. The actors and I speak about the idea of possession. We talk about it as letting the words speak through them instead of them speaking the words.  It is essential to this piece to tap into the world of the sublime because the play

began as an act of possession. It is a story that found me and needed to be told no matter what.  

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Usually, my role in the theater is that of the actor. This production is my debut as a director. It is also one of my first plays I’ve written. However, my writing and art have always been political. Gunshot Medley combines my fascination of politics, music, and poetry all in one.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I am interested in bringing this show to the Fringe due to Appalachian folk  music’s roots in English ballads, and Irish & Scottish traditional music. The play, interweaved with these classic songs, makes it evident that good music speaks to the soul. I want to offer hope to those who come to view this piece and to the next generation.Gunshot Medley highlights the intersection of these cultures to show that we as humans are more alike than we are different. This piece is not solely a play about what it means to be black in the United States but a story about the perseverance of the human spirit.

 Three slaves—Betty, Alvis, and George—are stuck in a state of limbo, perpetually tasked with cleaning up the wreckage of systemic racism purveying contemporary America. Numbed by the continuous loss of Black lives, each character grapples with the meaning of their own death as they witness history repeat itself time and time again. An ever present fourth character, the High Priestess of Souls, an incarnate of the Yoruban goddess Oya, awakens each character to their condition, inciting action and social change. Betty, Alvis, and George must confront the need to answer her call and their fear of what it means to do so.