By Patricia Jang
How did Freedom Train Productions come into existence? What that was the impetuous for forming FTP?
Freedom Train came into existence in the fall of 2006 after NYU Wagner School of Public Service
and the OSI Foundation awarded me a 15-month fellowship to start a political theatre-focused company, and even more specifically a political theatre company that puts Black LGBT protagonists center stage.
Leading up to receiving this award, I had been working within an extremely vibrant and dedicated community of theatre artists. Besides the fact that all of our plays focused on Black LGBT protagonist stories, our theatre work was not unlike the work of so many young downtown theatre artists: fresh, exciting, and underfunded! What the NYU Wagner/OSI Foundation Fellowship allowed me to do was for 15 months drop my day job and dedicate 100% of my time to getting our theatre overfunded!
Can you talk about the mission of FTP?
Freedom Train’s mission is to promote new political theatre written by up-and-coming Black playwrights. All of our plays feature Black Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) protagonists. In the United States of America few groups of identity receive the wrath of hegemony like African Americans or members of the LGBT community. So in a sense Black LGBT folks can be seen as our society’s canaries in the mine. If it’s that bad for these groups, then the rest of society should take heed.
It is from this philosophical framework that Freedom Train centers our theatre around Black LGBT protagonist stories.
How do you see Freedom Train Productions battling homophobia and making an impact on society?
Freedom Train’s new play commissions impact society on multiple levels. Our work shows that, yes, Black LGBT characters can carry protagonist stories that are universal in their societal influence. Stories of war, political upheaval, democracy, prison industrial complex, fascism, capitalism, love, family, and patriarchy can and in fact must be told from diverse perspectives.
From last year’s cadre of playwrights, our first, we commissioned five new plays. All of these plays were staged at our Fire! New Play Festival in August. The themes of these plays included themes dealing with religious tolerance and reincarnation, freedom of transgender identity, slavery, and violence directed at the Black LGBT community. For instance, Jesse Cameron Alick’s play, Grace, passionately presented a world where after death once heterosexual humans return as queers. In Grace, Mr. Alick never has the Angels speak of race, gen- der, or sexuality which reemphasizes the point that those identifies (and their intolerant counterparts) are in fact human constructs.
Do you have any upcoming plans or productions for FTP?
We’ve got an exciting 2008 in store for New York City. Of course there’s our Fire! New Play Festival this coming August that will feature several new commissions. Last year over 500 people came out to see our plays – all free and open to the public. We expect even more enthusiasm this year. In the meantime for die-hard FTP fans, we have talkbacks and readings lined up. Beginning in February through the summer we have talks that are a part of our Offstage Series meant to highlight the social justice themes that our playwrights center their work around. Finally our newest program, The Open Workshop, will kick off this March. In this writer’s group, playwrights of any race or sexuality are invited to come workshop a play that’s centered around a protagonist character who the playwright feels is under-represented on stage. The Open Workshop is free and facilitated by FTP resident playwrights.
Can you discuss your residency program and talk a bit about the play development process?
New playwrights are selected into the Play Development Workshop based on the quality of their writing and their commitment to Freedom Train’s artistic and social justice ideals. Leading up to the Fire! New Play Festival, the 7-month workshop entails writer feedback and workshop readings at bi-weekly resident playwright meetings, brown bags with local and national playwrights, and rehearsal time with a creative team of actors and a director. Dramaturgically speaking it provides a space for our playwrights to listen to experts, community activists, and others who are knowledgeable about their play’s political issues.
What initially drew you to theater? Are you working on a play right now?
I don’t try to create a nice and clear personal narrative at all (I promise… haha); I have always been interested in honestly bringing about social change through theater. As early as high school I was writing plays that had themes from disease to the environment (I wrote a short play for Earth Day in 12th grade that was all the rage)! Theatre here in the U.S. and theatre from all over the world has always been a ritual space open to social controversy. That’s what has kept me comfortable in theatre. Right now I’m working on a new play about power and democracy. Timely, eh?
For more information and to sign up for the FTP listserv, go to www.freedomtrainproductions.org
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