The Black Monologues cast and crew put on three encore performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday in response to requests from patrons who were unable to attend during the original showings on Nov. 13 and 14.
Met with unanticipated demand, the play’s premiere performances completely sold out and brought Helms Theater to maximum capacity.
In an announcement on Facebook about the encore performances, Marketing Chair Christine Magume, a second-year College student, said the cast and crew were moved by the huge community showing and hoped to see continued support.
“Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for caring so much about our production,” Magume said on Facebook. “These encore performances wouldn’t have been possible without [all of your] support. We hope to see many of you this weekend.”
Second-year College student Micah Watson, who served as the show’s producer and director, said the show is a collection of student-written monologues for which the production team held open submissions and writing workshops.
“We wanted to put the stories together into a cohesive play-like structure,” Watson said.
While the piece was originally aimed at exploring blackness within the University community, Watson said the creators soon realized this approach was flawed due to the diversity within blackness itself.
“We wanted to question the community, question the larger U.Va. community and question the black community,” Watson said. “Are we even a community? Why has this group of people been forced together historically?”
Fourth-year College student Ravynn Stringfield, the show’s stage manager, said the final script was edited multiple times as work for the performance progressed.
“We realized maybe we’re writing this show about a community that doesn’t really exist,” Stringfield said. “We all have the common thread of black skin, and we all bring something very different...to the table. We had that realization and everything went in fast-forward from there.”
The Black Monologues Project began at the University of Maryland, where Watson said the production was more akin to spoken word performances. Watson said the decision to have the Monologues in play form was based on a desire to recognize the theatrical talent she has seen within the black community at the University.
“There is so much theatrical talent within black students on Grounds that is unrealized,” Watson said. “We wanted to find a way for the larger U.Va. community to realize that and be a part of that.”
Both Watson and Stringfield said patrons were turned away from the door not only on the nights of the original shows but also on the Friday and Saturday encore productions.
“The lines were overwhelming,” Stringfield said. “I was so unaware that it was this big of a thing — I still don’t think we understand the magnitude of what we did.”
The wave of audience members for the encore showings brought an energy the cast members fed off of, Stringfield said, making for what she believed were better performances than those during the opening weekend.
Watson said other students groups and community members — as well as students from other schools — have reached out stating their interest in having similar productions representing their culture.
“I think having a ton of people there was a sign that the message got across,” Watson said. “We hope to make the Black Monologues an annual thing.”
You can read a review of last weekend’s performance in our Arts & Entertainment section.
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