21st Century
Voices Interview with
Playwright, Crystal V. Rhodes
As 2018 comes to an end
we’re looking forward to kicking off the new year with new plays! Our 21st Century
Voices: New Play Festival will run January 3rd-6th featuring five
staged readings and talkbacks with playwrights from all over the country.
Here’s an interview with Indianapolis based playwright Crystal V. Rhodes whose
play THE DIARY OF ANNIE MAE FRANKLIN will be presented on Saturday
January 5th at 8pm.
Synopsis
of THE DIARY OF ANNIE MAE FRANKLIN
The Franklin family
lives in the small town of Jerome, Arkansas, during World War II where the
United States government has imprisoned Japanese Americans in “Relocation
Camps”. Some of the black residents in Jerome helped build the camp, but the
people imprisoned there are completely foreign to them. Yet, the racial
injustice that has put them there is all too familiar. When fourteen year old
Adam Sato escapes from the “camp” he encounters a twelve year old black girl
named Annie Mae Franklin. Without her family’s knowledge, she hides him. When
Adam is discovered the family faces a dilemma. Should they hide him and face
treason charges or turn him in and be complicit with his immoral imprisonment?
While the debate rages, tragedy strikes and it spells disaster for the Franklin
household. With their backs against the wall, the family’s solution is escape,
as its members—and their unexpected guest—become forced migrants and head
North.
What
are you most looking forward to about 21st Century Voices?
I am looking forward to hearing
the voices of the characters I’ve created come to life under the
interpretations of the various actors and the director’s vision. I’m also
looking forward to interacting with other creative artists who attend the
Festival.
What
inspired you to write this play?
The Diary of Annie Mae Franklin
was created as the result of my having read an article about several of the
“Japanese Relocation Centers” having been built in the south during WWII.
That little known fact prompted me to conduct research regarding the two
camps located in Arkansas. During the course of that research I ran across a
short blurb recounting a brief encounter between a young Japanese American boy
who had escaped from the relocation center and a young girl standing in front of
her house on the side of the road. The conditions under which she lived
were so bad that the boy mistook the girl’s home for an outhouse. The account
motivated me to write The Diary of Annie Mae Franklin, a play that would
examine the parallels between the social injustice endured by African Americans
and by Japanese Americans during World War II.
What
has the life of your play been like thus far?
The play was submitted to the
2017 National Black Theatre Festival Readers Theatre and selected to be read at
that Festival in August, 2017. Comments from the audience resulted in a few
rewrites and the script is now ready for the 21st Century Voices staged reading
and further development.
What
do you hope to gain from having a director and actors work with your piece?
I hope that by having a
director and actors work with The Diary of Annie Mae Franklin that it will help
me assess the strengths and weakness of each character. Staged readings
also assist me with finding what I call the holes and gaps in the script. In
other words, areas that I might have overlooked when creating the piece.
Hearing the dialogue read aloud by actors in character lets me know how
realistic it sounds. I can hear if the dialogue is stilted or preachy and then
make a decision as to what improvements are needed. Play readings are
essential to the development of a good play.
What
would you like to gain from having an audience hear your play?
I like to see audiences react
to the characters and storylines in my plays. How they react lets me know
whether they “get it” or whether I have more work to do. My favorite
thing to do when one of my plays goes up as a production is to sit in the
audience, anonymously. Sitting there I can feel the energy of the people around
me, sense their emotions, evaluate their reactions and hear their
comments. It’s then that I know for sure whether I’ve made them laugh,
cry or go to sleep.
What
do you want people to take away from your play?
I hope that people will leave
The Diary of Annie Mae Franklin with a better understanding of the ravages of
racism and poverty, and how they can leave one feeling powerless and
vulnerable. I also want people to remember the history the play conveys.
People need to understand that unless we remain vigilant, history can repeat
itself, and that’s not always a good thing.
What
are your hopes for the future life of your play?
It‘s my hope that The Diary of
Annie Mae Franklin will enjoy staged productions in theatres throughout this
country and beyond. I hope that the play will not only entertain
audiences, but educate them about a period of time in our history that should
not be forgotten. The Diary of Annie Mae Franklin is the first in a trilogy of
plays that I plan on writing that will follow the characters in this story. My
next two plays will be a One Act that tracks the treacherous journey of the
characters in this play who flee southern oppression and then a final Two Act
play will take place in Harlem where they will face new challenges. That
being the case, I’m ready for an agent who can help carry this work as far as
it can go. So I’m putting that out there!
Do
you have any advice for aspiring playwrights?
The best advice I can give to any writer is the simplest advice–
keep writing. Learn as much as you can about the writing process and
about the business of writing, and be as versatile as possible. I’ve
written well over twenty-one plays that has led to me to writing theatre and
movie reviews, an entertainment column and producing a radio show, writing
voice over scripts for museum exhibits and being the author of fourteen
published novels. Aspiring playwrights might want to keep their options open.
Doing so can enhance their creativity. Plus, it can be a whole lot of
fun!
