Dael Orlandersmith says she does not have the right to speak for the people who were affected when a police officer, Darren Wilson, shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown on a street in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 9, 2014.<\/p>\n
But she can speak about them, and she does want people to think about themselves, their own communities, and the issues that were raised by the Ferguson incident and its powerful aftermath. The St. Louis Repertory Theater invited Orlandersmith, a well-known poet, playwright, and performer from New York City, to create a play focused on Ferguson. That led her to interview dozens of people in Ferguson and to write \u201cUntil the Flood,\u201d a play that includes eight characters she sees as composites of people she interviewed.<\/p>\n
Orlandersmith is currently performing \u201cUntil the Flood\u201d as a one-woman show at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. She described her approach to the play \u2013 and more broadly, to her artistic work \u2013 in an \u201cOn the Issues with Mike Gousha\u201d program at Eckstein Hall on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about telling a truth – many truths,\u201d she said of the play. She aims to present each of the eight characters as she understood them, without judging them. Overall, she said, people in Ferguson \u201care all questioning themselves.\u201d She said they wonder, \u201cHow do we live on a day to day basis knowing this kind of stuff is going on, how do we look at the racist within ourselves?\u201d She said they are wrestling with the issues raised by the death of Brown.<\/p>\n
Orlandersmith said that everyone has some racism as part of who they are. She directly told the audience that all of them were racists in some way.<\/p>\n
She said she was struck by how much Wilson, the police officer, and Brown, who was shot, had in common. They both had parents who were troubled and flawed and each had \u201crootless\u201d backgrounds. \u201cI looked at them as two hurting human beings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The way strengths and weaknesses are passed on from parents to their children and then to the children\u2019s children interests Orlandersmith. \u201cWhere a person comes from, how are they raised, how do they feel about themselves, how are they made to feel about themselves?\u201d \u2013 these are all questions that inform her art.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sins of the father, the sins of the mother. . . . We do terrible things to our kids,\u201d she said. \u00a0\u201cEverybody in this room has been cruel, not just vulnerable, you\u2019ve also been cruel. Everyone in this room has hurt people, we have. \u00a0And that\u2019s what I mean by the human condition.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, she said, overall, she is optimistic that race relations are getting better.<\/p>\n
The play has received positive reviews, including in the New York Times.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cUntil the Flood\u201d will run through April 22<\/a> in the Milwaukee Rep\u2019s Stiemke Studio. Each performance is followed by a discussion open to audience members and led by a notable Milwaukee community figure.<\/p>\n