“Don’t expect a bright future if you can’t expect a dark past.”
Just one of many profound quotes that stuck in my mind after I left South & Saints at Maryland Ensemble Theatre the night I attended their final main-stage production of the 22/23 season. It’s a devised work, featuring a performing cast of six— Gifty Amponsem, Evan Carrington, Victoria Causey, Alonzo Cook, Marcus Kersey Jr., and MET company member Rona Mensah— with four devising leads— Gené Fouché, Shea-Mikal Green, Julie Herber, and Tad Janes— all directed by Ray Hatch. This particular devised work is the rich history of Frederick, seen through the eyes and lens of people of color, specifically black individuals and their real memories, real living-narrative of how the city once was. It’s a remarkable living-history journey that is both educational and inclusive, packed with heartfelt moments and full of surprises.
The work itself is loosely framed around this concept of neighbors or friends, gathered outside on a city stoop reminiscing and swapping memories and anecdotes. This covers a myriad of topics all about how Frederick was some 50 to 70 years prior (and sometimes before and a little bit after); everything from education to recreation, religion and just existing in a neighborhood as a community. At times there are seamless segues and flawless transitions from one anecdote to the next, connecting these living memories together in a cohesive fashion. At other times a ‘change of subject’ seems to fly in from left field and shatter the flow of what’s happening, but ultimately the stories are fascinating and the historical figures of the past that these six performers create are both intriguing to learn about and an integral part of Frederick’s intrinsic character. (There’s an entire page in the program dedicated to the various story-circle participants & facilitators, show collaborators and other contributions made to the devised work at large, which goes to show how invested in the living truth of live history this production truly is.) Each performance also invites the audience to stay after the show for a ‘Community Conversation’ (which is a structured type of talkback.)
It’s really difficult to accurately describe the performative elements of this production because it is a beautiful jumble of storytelling, occasional singing, recollective memory, and just a feel-good reflection on the way life was for black individuals living through segregation and the integration in the city of Frederick. Gifty Amponsem, Evan Carrington, Victoria Causey, Alonzo Cook, Marcus Kersey Jr., and Rona Mensah each share equally the narrative responsibilities— acting as themselves (think Godspell where everyone is themselves but they still take turns engaging with Jesus and telling the parables? Only there isn’t one leading-Jesus here, they’re each their own scenic leads when it comes to guiding the path forward.) The stories are quite specific at times, yet there’s a vague universality to them. Everyone can relate in some fashion or another. Even if you aren’t black, or aren’t of the era from which they are sharing these stories, everyone has memories of growing up in their own neighborhood, wherever and whenever that may be.
Amponsem, Carrington, Causey, Cook, Kersey Jr., and Mensah share this unifying thread of existing in the moment. Even when one of them is in deep recollection about some story as its unfolding, the others are right there with them, listening, reacting, responding, drinking in the moment and sharing the memory even if it isn’t their own personal memory. This happens a lot when making reference to ‘The Hall’, a popular teenage hangout, or during the ‘church fellowship segment’ when they start going through the old cookbook recipes (complete with a projection of the actual cookbook— title, call-number and all, so you can go to the Frederick library and check it out for yourself.) The whole pre-fellowship church segment is filled with wild and rowdy spirit; Carrington takes up the role of the local church preacher, delivering tent-revival-enthusiastic-realness in this moment, which is a great driving force that pushes the performance forward into this fellowship-of-food moment, though not before you get a gorgeous, angelic sound out of Alonzo Cook. (There is some singing in this production and it’s filled with glory, wonder, and beautiful soul.)
As mentioned, the concept of South & Saints finds this ensemble of six on a split front stoop. Scenic Designer Wendell Poindexter has crafted a wide-stretched brick façade, two-toned in color to show the split between one house and the next. The windows (projected into and backlit by Lighting Designer Tabetha White) serve as little peeks into each narrative story shift— when they talk about the school, you get a projected photo of the school building, same when the reference the cookbook or certain individuals or Mullinix Park— an all-black park created because Baker Park was whites only during the times of segregation. Shout out to Properties Designer Lori Boyd for getting all of that delicious looking church-fellowship food on the table, looking perfectly ready to eat.
The amount of historical research, community conversation, and curated care that has gone into constructing this devised work that is South & Saints is impressive. They’re dropping real names of actual people and places from Frederick’s not-too-distant past into the narrative and absorbing these people and places as if the six performers on stage are of an age and locale to actually be recalling them in real-time. One of the really fascinating ‘full-circle’ moments about this performance, that you don’t realize until about midway through the experience is that at the top of the show each of the six performers is delivering some snippet of a phrase or a line. That snippet turns out to be a lead-in to one of the anecdotes that unfolds during the course of the performance. And the way Director Ray Hatch, the Lead Devising Team, and half-dozen performers find the balance of truth and history in this performance is glorious. There’s always a discomforting edge of ‘darkness’ that the performance feels as if its about to tip over, but Amponsem, Carrington, Causey, Cook, Kersey Jr., and Mensah temper that with hope, resilience, laughter, humor, and an appreciation for what the people in their stories had. The perfect example of this is when the actors start discussing how the county fair, despite integrating, refused to paint over the toilets that said “Whites Only” and just at the precipice where the show could take a dark and harrowing turn, Alonzo Cook says something to the effect of “he didn’t care what the bathrooms said, he was going to the County Fair because he wanted to see the Hoochie Coochie show!” Which sends everyone into laughter and the moment moves on.
Of course it wouldn’t be a true MET-devised work without some of Julie Herber’s signature movement-based-choreographic-style thrown in there, and while the six performers are perpetually moving around the stage (and occasionally through the house…which feels like an oddly superfluous choice, but not enough to make you less appreciative of the experience), there is an ‘interpretive-dance’ type experience near the end of the performance that somehow makes it feel complete. Almost like, without that expressive moment of movement that looks like dance but also like body-freedom, the show couldn’t end.
It’s ultimately a fascinating experience; it’s a far-more relatable experience than I think theatergoers might be expecting and it is certainly doing the history of black people in history in Frederick a tremendous justice. This is a remarkably devised work that should be shared and experienced by all.
Running Time: Approximately 70 minutes with no intermission
South & Saints plays through June 4th 2023 on the Main Stage of the Maryland Ensemble Theatre in the Historic FSK Hotel building— 31 W. Patrick street in downtown historic Frederick, MD. For tickets call the box office at (301) 694-4744 or purchase them online.
