It's been 2 yrs since Andre Lancaster passed away. This morning I was still thinking about "The 40 Year Old Version," and particularly the parts that dealt with how Black artists are treated in this culture. And I remember Andre talking about how hurt and damaged he felt by theatre shortly before his death.
In 2011 I saw Radha Blank's play SEED and thought 'well, surely I'm seeing the hip hop Ntozake Shange...surely she is the next one up.' Pernell Walker and Jocelyn Bioh were in the cast. And everything felt electric. Surely POC talent will win out in theatre. Well...yes and no. Some times, in certain conditions with the right timing and a phenomenal agent, and something that appeals to white older people, and the right theatre, and after waiting your turn for years, and doing workshops, and temping and struggling to pay rent, and waiting some more, and smiling and smiling...more smiling until the point of tears...a light shines down.
You have to be hard-soft kind of person to make it through the loopholes, triggers, potholes, roadblocks. You need more than talent. You need guile and shrewdness and marketing aimed at the right gatekeepers...during the right moments. And you need the grace to keep all these things bottled up inside and not be labeled 'angry' or 'difficult' or 'enraged' as the world carves you up.
Andre had all those things...but he didn't make it. Two years ago I was getting out of an Orange Theory class when I got a text from Bryan to call him. It was about Andre. In that moment I knew he was gone. I showered, changed in the bathroom. My clothes felt like they weighed 100 lbs.
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