Not only is Jasmine Guy not a tragic mulatto, for a long time she refused to play one on television, film or stage. And yet, the dancer turned actor turned director (who is bi-racial) now finds herself at the helm of a genre-defining play which features just the kind of stereotypes she has sought to avoid.
When it debuted off-Broadway in 1986, "The Colored Museum," by George C. Wolfe was hailed as a brutal but sophisticated satire of African-American culture from slavery to present. The 11 "exhibits" reveal how a painful past can impact the present. A businessman literally attempts to trash his past, but ends up fighting with his younger self. Talking wigs debate ideology as the owner stands stunned into silence by her hair-do's harangue. The middle passage is re-imagined as trans-Atlantic flight. And in the most biting satire, Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun," is broken into a series of monologues that morph into one big musical finale.
Guy first heard of the "The Colored Museum" when she was a New York newbie just getting into the acting scene.
"I didn't see the production, but I kept hearing the buzz... and how it pushed the envelope. We are fast-forwarding 30 years later where it is still provocative," Guy said. As producing director of True Colors Theatre Company, a title she accepted last fall, Guy is putting her own stamp on the groundbreaking production.
One of her first tasks was to make sure the cast, all under 40, truly understood the historical significance of the characters.
"I made them do homework," she said. She drew heavily on her own experience as a young actor working with directors like Debbie Allen who would make sure her young charges researched their material.
As a cast member on "A Different World" – the television sitcom about life at a historically black college – Guy portrayed a Southern belle named Whitley Gilbert. One episode, she recalled, was about reclaiming mammy. Before they started shooting, Allen sat them down for a lesson.
"She taught us the value of not only reclaiming mammy but understanding that mammy was the heart and soul of the family, whether black or white, and the value of that was taken away," Guy said.
In turn, Guy instructed her actors to look at the flip-side of each stereotype in order to bring dimension to the roles.
"I didn't want us to do it in ignorance," she said. Though the character she embodied for so many years was something of a stereotype, Guy believed that taken as a whole, the show was representative of reality. "I always felt that at least this show has different characters, that we balance each other out and I don't have to save the world with Whitley," she said.
But that isn't always the case in the Hollywood machine, Guy said, when often there is only one slot for one black actor and the role relies on a standard set of stereotypes. Actors like Guy, hoping to avoid such trite casting, often find themselves in the theater. "Actors from Harry Belafonte to Ruby Dee were not getting movie roles," Guy said. "So what do you do? You go to the theater and you get used."
Guy's own path to theater is unexpected. She was on track to become a dancer before shifting to acting, and only recently, with this production, is she ready to fully claim the title of director. Leon, she said, has served as a mentor. After casting her in Miss Evers' Boys, an experience which she says made her excited to go to work everyday, Leon asked her to direct "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf." In two years, Guy has had five turns as director.
"The Colored Museum" she said, is a goldmine for actors. "You are able to play three different characters in one evening and it has nothing to do with costumes. I think it is exciting to watch actors do that before your very eyes," she said.
But getting there wasn't easy. There were moments of profound sadness and pain for both the actors and director. "I cried often in rehearsal at the emotional place they were willing to go. I tried to create a safe environment for them. When they would plug into their magic, it was amazing to witness," Guy said.
A common theme throughout the 11 segments of "The Colored Museum" is the split between what it means to be African-American and what it means to be American. "Some of the characters go mad, some disown their past. There is a cultural madness that we share because we are all divided and trying to fit both in. We don't want to leave some part of us, to be part of [America]," Guy said.
The true American is a lot of different things, Guy said. "The denial of that is continuing to hurt us. All Americans," she said. "White America cannot heal and Black America cannot grow."
And that, unlike Guy, is tragic.
Theater Preview
George C. Wolfe's "The Colored Museum" directed by Jasmine Guy for Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company
8 p.m. Wed. -- Fri.; 2:30 p.m. & 8 p.m. Sat.; 2:30 p.m. Sun. through April 17. $15 -- $20. Porter Sanford III Performing Arts Center, 3181 Rainbow Dr., Decatur. www.truecolorstheatre.org. 877-725-8849.
About the Author
