The College of Fine Arts theatre season has been filled with student-led productions; its most recent one is a staged reading of the play “Black Bone” by Tina Fakhrid-Deen. Fakhrid-Deen is a playwright, author and educator who explores topics such as race, feminist theory, hip-hop culture and urban education.
The College of Fine Arts theatre season has been filled with student-led productions; its most recent one is a staged reading of the play “Black Bone” by Tina Fakhrid-Deen. Deen is a playwright, author and educator who explores topics such as race, feminist theory, hip-hop culture and urban education.
The piece follows a group of Black students who attend a predominantly white institution (PWI) as they discover one of them is pretending to be Black.
Jeffery S. Baker, a sophomore acting major from Houston, Texas, is the director for this staged reading, where actors read through the script and stage directions are read out loud. Originally, Baker wanted to direct another play but soon fell in love with “Black Bone.”
He said the play shows despite the many advancements the Black community has made its people “still aren’t free.”
Baker shares that with the state of our country, we may seem so powerless, but “you just have to find it inside these spaces.”
Baker added that the importance of “Black Bone” being a student-led production is that it’s contemporary; much of the work that the Department of Theatre Arts puts on is more classical, he said.
“As much as running our past is important for us to understand our future. It’s also important that we can see our future and where we are now, so that we can keep advancing and keep progressing,” Baker said.
Amanda-Carmen Thompson is a senior TV and film major from Durham, North Carolina. Thompson serves as the executive producer for this production.
Thompson said that “Black Bone” is a play about Blackness and how people define it for themselves when entering predominantly white spaces.
“Although the setting of the play is at a PWI, the dramatic question is that this play answers something that really takes place at the forefront of black people’s minds, what better way to start those conversations at an HBCU,” Thomson said.
She said that student-led productions provide students with freedom, a voice, and a sense of community.
“There’s so much more freedom in learning and growth that you can do when the project is yours, when you have the say, when you’re coming up with ideas, when you’re thinking these things through,” Thompson said.
Noel Desire Best, a junior musical theatre major and dance minor from Houston, Texas, by way of Cape Town, South Africa, has three roles in the production: a reporter and two commercial roles.
She feels that student-led productions are the “heartbeat of the theatre arts program” because students get to be a part of something greater than themselves, she said.
“I’m constantly inspired by the student directors, stage managers, cast and crew. Everyone approaches this with such professionalism, creativity and care,” Best said.
From the show, she wants the audience to understand that there’s no way to define Blackness because it is the thing that connects the Black community.
“From our music to our storytelling, that sense of fellowship is something I hope the audience truly feels and takes with them,” Best said.
Copy edited by Damenica Ellis
