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Adam Thurman, Director of Marketing and Communications, recently interviewed The First Breeze of Summer playwright, Leslie Lee.
What was writing The First Breeze of Summer like?
I approached the play with a mixture of dread and love. The dread came from the fact that the play is semi-autobiographical. The character of Lou is loosely based on me. My grandmother had children by different men. It was a family secret that went hidden for years. When I found out about what my grandmother did, I mentally removed her from the pedestal I had placed her on. Over time, I was drawn to learn more about her, so I started to research her background. That research was the start of The First Breeze of Summer.
I loved the process of writing the play but that sense of dread returned when my family came down to see the show. They came down in buses with fellow members of their church. I was so nervous that I was backstage nursing a bottle of Scotch! After the show they told me that they felt like this particular family skeleton should not have been locked in the closet.
Religion plays a huge role in First Breeze. How does the play mirror your own spiritual journey?
When I was younger I was skeptical about religion, which put me in sharp contrast with the rest of my family who went to church 52 Sundays a year. When I wrote the play, I was moving away from the church because I couldn’t connect with the fire and brimstone God that my parents worshipped. As I got older, I found myself reconnecting with my spiritual side and returning to church.
The audience for First Breeze is going to be diverse. What do you think all cultures can take away
from the play?
Walter Kerr (of the New York Times) said that First Breeze was the first African American play that invited him in to share in it. I loved that comment. This play isn’t good because it is a Black play. I work very hard to create characters that can speak for all of society, and the characters in First Breeze do that.
How do you see the state of African American theatre?
I’m a bit apprehensive. There simply aren’t enough venues that consistently produce African American playwrights. The state of the playwriting, however, is very strong. I teach (Tisch School of the Arts at NYU) and I am constantly impressed with the quality of writing of my students. Good plays are being written, there just aren’t enough places for them to be produced.
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Interview with Playwright Leslie Lee
The Negro Ensemble Company
The Role of Ritual/Director's Note
Did You Know?
Lee wrote The First Breeze of Summer when he was a graduate student at Villanova University. He was the only African American student in his class. The first time he produced the play it was with a white cast. In fact, he worked with an Italian American student-director to reframe the play as the story of an Italian American family.
LESLIE LEE is the author of numerous plays that have been produced in New York City and regionally. His plays include, The War Party, Colored People’s Time, and Blues in a Broken Tongue (Negro Ensemble Company), The Rabbit’s Foot (American Place Theater, Los Angeles Theater Center); Black Eagles (Crossroads Theater, Fords Theater, Manhattan Theater Club); Hannah Davis (Crossroads Theater); a new version of the musical, Golden Boy, in collaboration with Charles Strouse and Lee Adams (Billie Holiday Theater, Coconut Grove in Miami, Candlewood Playhouse); Martin, a children’s musical about Martin Luther King, Jr., for Theaterworks/USA, also in collaboration with Charles Strouse; a musical, Phillis, in collaboration with Micki Grant, presented at the Apollo Theater; Elegy To A Down Queen, and Cops and Robbers (La MaMa ETC). The First Breeze of Summer (Negro Ensemble Co), received an OBIE, the Outer Circle Critics Award, and a Tony Nomination. His most recent play, Mina, was performed at La MaMa ETC in 2007. A new play, The Book of Lambert, will open at La MaMa ETC in February, 2009. In May 2001, Mr. Lee received the Arthur Miller playwriting Award from the University of Michigan. He has also been a playwriting fellow at the Sundance Playwriting Conference and the O’Neill Playwriting Conference. In August, 2007, Mr. Lee received the August Wilson Playwriting Award at the National Black Theater Festival. Mr. Lee teaches playwriting and screenwriting in the Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing Program, Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.
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