DiMonte Henning
The local art scene is full of amazing young artists, playwrights and musicians who want nothing more than to share their creations with the world. But it can be difficult to do so as an isolated creator. Young talents need guidance.
This is precisely what DiMonte Henning, producing artistic director of local theater-arts organization Lights! Camera! Soul! offers. The organization recently launched “an all-new series of programming geared to unite, engage and entertain the community” called Artist Therapy. The first step is a playwriting competition open to all and aiming to better represent black culture.
What motivated you to launch a playwriting competition, of all things?
The reason why we decided to reach out to playwrights is because Lights! Camera! Soul! is an organization dedicated to the arts. Part of our mission is to help develop new plays, specifically with local, emerging artists. So we put out calls for submissions and we received a number of submissions among which we selected a finalist. That person's name is Tiffany Ike and her play, Ball & Chain, will be presented to the public soon.
What is Ball & Chain about, and why did it win the competition?
There is a little bit of reference to slavery, as the title implies, but I think it's more than that. Tiffany Ike does a beautiful job articulating her points and her story. Ball & Chain mixes poetry, music and movement to express the socialization of blackness, masculinity, tokenism, what it means to be in love and relationships in a society that doesn't want you to exist. She uses Ball & Chain as a metaphor in a very dynamic piece of work.
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The main character, Deandre Washington, is a star basketball player for his high school. There are a number of characters but there are four actors in the show. You have Deandre, Deandre Man and Deandre Black; the playwright says that black men are not allowed to be dynamic, so this one role is played by three male actors. Then the author says that black women are required to be everything for everyone, so one actress must play every black woman in Deandre's life. It is very true to the black experience.
Can you tell us more about what comes next, now that the winner was picked?
Tiffany Ike's play will be presented through a stage reading on October 27, after going through a three-day workshop where the script will be revised and developed. The second part of the night will be a concert with a local R&B artist, B~Free. I'm excited to do that because there are a lot of talented local musicians, talented artists beyond the theater arts. A part of our mission is to reach them and expose them to the community. I am inviting people to come to meet them and enjoy themselves and have a good time listening to the great talents of our community who deserve to be exposed.
Our plan is to continue Artist Therapy after the show on October 27. Artist Therapy 1.2 will be starting in spring 2019 and then we will have another follow-up with Artist Therapy 1.3 in the summer. It is designed to give an opportunity for emerging artists, and to give them professional development.
For more information, visit facebook.com/lcsartmke. Artist Therapy’s stage reading and concert occur on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at School of Rock (4050 N. Oakland Ave, Shorewood). Tickets cost $15 and can be purchased at artisttherapylcs.eventbrite.com.
