Ten years ago, local theater practitioners LaNeshe Miller-White, Walter DeShields and Carlo Campbell surveyed their West Philadelphia neighborhood, and found something sorely lacking—community engagement and a representative Black voice.
Respectively, the executive director and two co-artistic directors formed Theatre in the X to speak to that need with art that is impactful, literary, immersive and interactive with newly commissioned, self-generated plays and musicals, as well as looking at the classics of modern Black theater.
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Theatre in the X and director Ozzie Jones will tackle legendary playwright, Southwest Philly’s Charles Fuller, and his ‘Zooman and the Sign’, Aug. 17 – 20 in Malcolm X Park.
“At that time, in 2013, Black theater artists and audiences only really got set up with Black theater during Black History Month, and usually it was heavy stuff,” said Miller-White of working on weighty dramas rather than theater pieces that, in her words, shared joy. “There wasn’t a lot of diverse opportunities for Black theater artists, so myself, Carlo and Walter – who people knew from his street team distribution – came up with doing a show in the park, and started with Amiri Baraka’s ‘A Black Mass’. We didn’t have a plan for a company then, beyond giving the community some great theater and giving Black artists work for the summer. Yet, as soon as the two-show season ended, everyone around the park wanted to know what was next.”
Following those 2013 shows, Theatre in the X continued to grow—both in audience investment and size—with each production. “When we first started, the crowds and the play could all fit under the gazebo,” laughed Miller-White. “Now that gazebo is our dressing room.”
DeShields talks the list of Black plays at Theatre in the X, a high bar of curation that made the company unique.
“Surprising as it was, companies then weren’t doing it, telling complex stories from Black people in America and across the Diaspora,” he said. “Then allowing Black artists and artists of color to tell those stories. Few companies tell stories with the agency that we do, the lived experience of the folks in that particular community.”
“Most companies, there’s ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ or an August Wilson – which are great, classic Black theater – but that’s all you get,” DeShields added. “Theatre in the X wanted to tell a more robust collection of stories than gets told in mainstream theaters. This summer is further proof of that.”
Miller-White follows that up with, “We’re always looking to give the community what it wants and needs in a specific time.”
That means plays such as ‘Zooman and the Sign’ at a moment when community violence is a hot button topic in Philadelphia, and across the nation. That Fuller is a Philadelphia-born playwright whose earliest iterations hit stages locally, at Freedom Theatre and the Walnut Street Theatre, is not readily known to most who love his most riveting dramas.
The late playwright-novelist Charles Fuller was renowned for ‘A Soldier’s Play’, for which he received the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2020 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.
“Communities such as ours honor our ancestors, and we have long wanted to give him his flowers,” said DeShields, both of Fuller (who passed away in 2022), and staging a drama such as the Southwest Philly-set ‘Zooman’ with director Ozzie Jones, and this play’s cinema verité-take on the murder of a 12-year-old Black girl in front of neighborhood witnesses who refuse to reveal the killer despite the family’s attempts for justice.
“We honor Fuller because his stories are rich in complexity without giving anyone easy outs,” said DeShields.
“The timing of Theatre in the X’s choices is always key to what’s going on around us,” added Miller-White.
“Here we are in Philadelphia, and cities all across America, dealing with gun violence on a daily basis,” said DeShields. “Theater allows you to sit back and take a look at a problem, big complex problems, and consider the issues in a different light and a more intimate setting.
To tell a blunt and poignant story such as ‘Zooman’ during its 10th anniversary celebration, as opposed to something bright and cheery says a lot about this company.
“We chose to use our anniversary to bring attention to, and open the conversation up to, something in the community that effects the community,” said Miller-White, “and, what our personal responsibility is to it all.”
For more information and tickets, visit theatreinthex.com
