Dael Orlandersmith
Dael Orlandersmith is the writer and performer of Until The Flood which opens March 13 at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Following the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Orlandersmith conducted hundreds of interviews with people living in the St. Louis region to learn their reactions. She created eight characters from these interviews, each with a unique perspective on the story. She portrays each of them in this acclaimed one-woman show. She’s interviewed by young Milwaukee playwright Malaina Moore.
Where did you begin your career?
I am from New York City. East Harlem. As an actor, I began as a teenager. There’s a place called the Nuyorican Poets Café and I began to do work there. I also began to study theater as a teenager at the American Academy of Dramatic Art. I went to college to study theater and film.
What motivated you to begin writing your own work?
Growing up in the ’70s and the ’80s, it was the era of the black musical. And that’s not what I did. And at that particular time it was only singing or playing Mammy and prostitutes, and I didn’t like that stuff because I didn’t want to do that.
What are the themes of your plays?
My themes tend to be dark. I tend to write about the darker side of childhood, sins of the father, sins of the mother, combined with poetry.
What is your writing process like and what inspires your ideas?
Well, I create my own work because if I didn’t create it, I wouldn’t be working. My topics come to me primarily through stuff I went through as a kid. Something that always bothers me is when people say, “Oh, you’re a black female playwright.” No, I am a playwright, it’s a given that I am black and female. Within the course of the day, it’s expected that I’m listening to jazz or hip-hop, and maybe I am but I could also be listening to opera which I also listen to because I listen to a lot of different things. So what moves me can come from music, it can come from painting—because I wish I could paint, I’d love to. Even from film because I watch a lot of film, what some people would call “world cinema,” and I hate that because it’s all cinema. It may not be conventional, it may be from Asia or Africa but it’s all a part of the world. So maybe I’m watching an African film or a film from India—it’s all eclectic with me. My thinking is not linear in the conventional sense of the word.
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You not only wrote Until the Flood but you play every character?
The way Flood is written, yes, I am doing it solo now. But it’s written so it can be multi-character, single character, anybody of any race and or gender can do it because if we are going to talk about inclusion and not stereotyping, it has to be consistent.
How did you turn the information that you got from those you interviewed in Ferguson into the characters we’ll see in Until the Flood?
Well, they are composite figures. I had the chance to sit down with Michael Brown Sr. and I said, “What happened to you affects all of us—but having said that, one of the words I’m going to use is ‘boundary.’ I do not have the right to do you. I am not interested in documentary theater. I want to write a play about this event and get a good sense of how people feel about this event and that’s it.” He nodded and he got it. Another thing is that you’ve got the history of Ferguson that’s never had a black or Jew on their police force. It’s the history and the racial divide of their city. And then you have the individual stories of Michael Brown and Darren Wilson. I’m looking at their personal narratives. If you stand up to make a political statement, that’s wrong.
My job as a storyteller and writer is to tell the story. The humanity will come out through telling the different kinds of truths about it. When people ask, “Are you going to tell the truth about this?” I say, “Well, there are so many different kinds.” Not many people realize Michael Brown and Darren Wilson are the flip sides of the same coin so I had to think what makes one person go one way and one another. I don’t think Darren Wilson is happy, I don’t. And then people say I am defending him. I’m not defending him, I’m humanizing. You have to humanize people because to make him into some big redneck—that’s a caricature. It’s not about liking, but understanding. The nicest person in the world is capable of cruelty, the cruelest person experiences moments of kindness.
Performances are March 13-April 22 in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Stiemke Studio, 108 E. Wells St. For tickets, call 414-224-9490 or visit milwaukeerep.com.
