At Southern Rep's weeklong showcase of new theatre works, NoDef Theatre Critic Jim Fitzmorris interviews Ruby Prize Winner Lenelle Moïse, and recounts a panel on the state of New Orleans theatre.

Lenelle Moïse
Playwright Lenelle Moïse describes Mona, the central character in her new play Merit, as a “bright beaming other,” the sort of exceptional figure allowed access to a better world on the force of their promise. A minority scholarship student studying creative writing at a prestigious Northeastern college, Mona has come from The Deep South to apprentice with a celebrated author, Richard. Many believe her professor to be a writer on “the level of James Baldwin,” but the heroine is skeptical of her potential to learn from him. Mona’s time with Richard, the power dynamic between them and their growing relationship comprise the majority of the conflict in Moïse’s new work. The winner of Southern Rep’s Ruby Prize, Merit, according to its author, is a play about Mona’s “loneliness inherent in being a singular talent” while dealing with an awkward roommate, her mentor’s ex-wife, and the discovery that exceptional ability is not always enough. Featuring Anthony Bean, Troi Bechet and Lance Nichols, Merit receives a stage reading at the theatre tonight at 6.

READ Fitzmorris' Overview of New Play Bacchanal

Moïse takes delight in characters “who reveal themselves” rather than forcing them into predetermined roles. The Poet Laureate of Northhampton, Mass., and celebrated solo performance artist, Moïse asserts that the greatest challenge, yet most generous aspect, of writing is embracing ideas from characters with whom she does not agree. If you do not do this, you cannot write antagonists convincingly. The playwright and I hit upon that notion during a diverse interview that found time to touch on the surprising finish of Rick Santorum, President Obama’s now famous “Reverend Wright Speech”, and the inescapability of political writing as a feminist and woman of color.

As for the event itself, The Bacchanal’s developmental process gave the author the opportunity to discover the revelatory characters near to her heart as she and her actors were allowed to play beyond the text. She described to me an exercise where she was allowed to see her two central characters “first date” despite the scene never appearing in the play. Actors Lance Nichols and Kesha Bullard improvised the initial encounter and in doing so gave the playwright the opportunity to see her world expanded outside of the pages’ boundaries. Without approaches like these, events like The Bacchanal would merely be a chance to hear the words and nothing more. With them, Moïse feels she is afforded the opportunity for “telling the best possible stories.”

Mash-up: A Panel

After interviewing Moïse, I joined Bacchanal’s Mash Up panel to discuss the rapid changes that have occurred in New Orleans theatre since Katrina. Moderated by The Rep’s artistic director Aimee Hayes, the panel included The NOLA Project’s AJ Allegra, Mondo Bizarro’s Nick Slie, Artspot’s Kathy Randels, local actress/theatrical pioneer Adella Gautier, The Elm Theatre’s Garret Prejean, and NOCCA’S musical theatre chair Blake Cohely. The conversation was, in fact, precisely what its title promised: a mash-up of ideas and theories about the past of and future of local theatre. Allegra called for an end to bashing the theatre scene, Randels and Gautier focused on the past events that brought us to our current situation, and Cohely spoke of the need to create not only talent for the front of the house but also the back as well.

On the overall state of the scene, the conversation felt eerily like Groundhog Day, with no snooze button in sight. The theatrical community is continually asking itself how to increase its relevance in a city where it has to compete with a world-renowned music scene, a spectacular three-week carnival, and a host of internationally preconceived notions. At one point, Randels reminded me of a similar conversation we had over a decade ago, albeit with us being the youngsters in the room. Fifteen years later, the theatre scene is still without major benefactors, genuine producers, and a consistent ongoing critical apparatus. If someone had played “I Got You Babe” on the sound system, the feeling would have been complete.

However, there was also a murmuring of a new consensus that something productive was happening in New Orleans theatre. The emergence of not only new theatre companies but hosts of individuals moving down here to check out the action seems to spring from a strong word of mouth nationally about the health of the scene. And Tulane University’s arts recruiter Andrew Farrier sounded a hopeful note. He remarked that every potential student he spoke with either had heard promising things about theatre in the city or simply assumed that its theatre was strong by the very nature of its association with New Orleans.

New Play Bacchanal continues through Saturday, Jan. 7. Jim Fitzmorris is following Bacchanal all week. Follow his tweets at @shcktheatre, and read his blog at NOPPP.