Maryat Lee N By David T. Miller
ew York City. 1951. Beside a busy Harlem street on a small portable stage, non-actors—residents of the neighborhood—put on a play drawn from their everyday lives. In the beginning they have to shout to be heard over catcalls and dodge water balloons from fire escapes above. But as the play goes on the audience quiets, mesmerized by something they’ve never seen before: their own lives, their own words reflected back to them. Their own stories of heroin abuse, bad schools, gay teenagers, bad cops, and racial conflict. The tall young woman behind the plays watches from the side, in the company of Jackie Robinson and other luminaries.
Photos courtesy of David T. Miller
Above: Lee’s “street theater” in Harlem was an instant success. Middle: Kentucky native Maryat Lee sought to tell the stories of the everyday people she met on the stage. 30
Kentucky humanities
Above: After moving from New York to West Virginia, Lee established the EcoTheater, recruiting local teenagers to make costumes, build a stage, and seek out stories to be told on a stage.
