You Have to Get the Stories
OUT
A CONVERSATION BETWEEN
LEAH C. GARDINER + ROBERT O’HARA
Paul Alexander Nolan + Antoinette Crowe-Legacy in Slave Play on Broadway, directed by Robert O’Hara PHOTO Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade
Late last September, Leah C. Gardiner and Robert O’Hara logged onto their respective Zoom screens for a conversation about the theme of this issue: “How have we changed?” That conversation took place two days after the long-delayed 74th annual Tony Award ceremony was finally held to celebrate the COVID-19-abbreviated season. And during that ceremony, Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play, which Robert directed, and which had received 12 nominations—the most nominations ever for a single play—was shut out in all categories. Not surprisingly, the awards were the first thing Leah and Robert discussed—but hardly the last. In a powerful and expansive conversation, the two longtime friends and collaborators shared their thoughts about changing the narrative, creating a pipeline, and navigating the new.
LEAH C. GARDINER is an Obie Award-winning director known for the “incisive clarity” (New York Times) of her work with physicality and text. Her work has been seen across the US, in Europe, and Japan. She recently returned from stints on two TV shows, and is in development on two new musicals. ROBERT O’HARA is the Tony-nominated director of Slave Play and is currently working on several film, television, and theatre projects. He’s a two-time Obie Award and two-time NAACP Award winner whose work has been seen around the country.
LEAH C. GARDINER | After the 12 Tony snubs, I thought to myself, “How have we changed?” Well, after those snubs it’s clear we are right back where we were before all this talk about “change”—where we have to write our narrative, make space for ourselves, and not expect the old guard to do more than invite us in, as guests in their house. They invite us to sit at the table, but if the other guests who come don’t like our food, they dismiss us and tell us we’re not good enough. Unless we can figure out how to change the narrative, we are going to be right here…right here…again. I do want to recognize that we have more allies now, which is of course an important change. But it’s going to take more than a few allies to get things past this toxic environment
where Slave Play is nominated for 12 Tonys and doesn’t get one award. ROBERT O’HARA | We got no Obies, no Drama Desks, no Lortels, no Outer or Inner Critics Circle. We got Nuthing. And this is the same pool of voters that vote on the Tonys. So while I was happy for the recognition, I never expected us to get a bunch of awards. LEAH | That’s what’s so sad. The truth of the matter is that the narrative is not changing, as much as we would all like to believe it is—or, let’s say, not changing fast enough. And it won’t change until those at the heads of the tables become educated and more open to change. But change is hard when you have the power. Our generation does not think about hierarchy in the same way the older generation does. There are so SPRING 2022 | SDC JOURNAL
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