Interview with Regina Taylor

IN THE OWEN

A Conversation with stop. reset.

Playwright/Director Regina Taylor

By Tanya Palmer

This year marks playwright/director/actress Regina Taylor’s 20th season as an Artistic Associate at the Goodman. During her tenure, Taylor has presented an eclectic mix of work including the blues drama Oo-Bla-Dee, the Chekhov-inspired Drowning Crow and two productions of her inspiring musical Crowns. Taylor closes the Owen Season by directing the Chicago premiere of her newest work, stop. reset., an examination of the ever-changing landscape of literature and digital technologies. In a recent conversation with Tanya Palmer, the Goodman’s director of new play development, Taylor discussed her inspirations for the play and reflected on her time at the Goodman.

Tanya Palmer: What inspired you to write stop. reset?

Regina Taylor

Regina Taylor: The idea came when my favorite bookstore closed. The store was right across the street from my home and stopping in was part of my daily ritual. I’d go there to get a cup of coffee, browse the aisles and see what I might discover. I love books. I grew up with books. Now I was starting to think about what the future will hold for books, what it will look like and if I can accept it.

So the play is about how I deal with change, but then also opens up to look at how we are all dealing with the enormous changes happening right now with regards to technology, race, gender, sexuality and economics. I thought about the history of books and of storytelling, going all the way back to the oral tradition. At one point in history people were accustomed to the hierarchy of oral tradition where someone functioned as the holder of history and memory. The hierarchy of who told the story and whose lives were worthy of being discussed was broken down when books were invented.

That was an enormous change and there was resistance to moving from a gathering

of people around a fire to an individual alone with a book. “What’s going to happen to the human mind and our civilization if we hand over this knowledge to individuals?” It feels like we’re now at that same moment in terms of books.

We’ve shifted from oral tradition to books and now books to…what? We have a generation of people growing up on devices. There are all these things that we thought would never change, but now all these changes are happening on all these different levels. That’s where the play started. For the character Alexander Ames, who runs a publishing company, books are vessels of history and memory. They are the container of the voices of ancestors and legacy, of what we pass down palm to palm.

TP: You did a lot of research about new technologies through the course of developing this play. What did you discover? Has your point of view changed about technology?

RT: My perspective has opened up through conversations I’ve had with different people with different eyes on these issues. I’m open to the challenges and ready to take that leap because of these conversations.

TP: The play is also, I think, about the future of African American identity to a certain extent. Alexander Ames owns an African American book publishing company. His identity as an African American, that history and legacy that he carries with him, seems to be in question too, along with the books that he publishes.

RT: The play is about identity, legacy and how we pass those things down in this time of societal upheaval with

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IN THE OWEN

INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT FOR STOP. RESET. Goodman Theatre is proud to acknowledge the following individuals and Institutional Donors for their support of the 2014/2015 90th Anniversary Season and stop. reset.

The Edith-Marie Appleton Foundation/ Albert and Maria Goodman Julie and Roger Baskes Joan and Robert Clifford Patricia Cox Ruth Ann M. Gillis and Michael J. McGuinnis Merle Reskin Kimbra and Mark Walter 90th Anniversary Season Diamond Sponsors Efroymson-Hamid Family Foundation Efroymson Family Fund 90th Anniversary Education and Community Engagement Season Sponsors Michael A. Sachs in Memory of Alice B. Rapoport

technology and all these changes.

It’s told through the lens of an African American. We have a play that is set in Chicago in a not-too-distant future and we take on the speculative fiction of what lies ahead. It is then a science fiction play, an Afrofuturist play.

TP: How would you describe the Afrofuturist genre?

RT: The most noted contemporary author writing in this genre was Octavia E. Butler [1947 – 2006, a novelist and short story writer whose works include Bloodchild and Parable of the Sower.]

But it goes back to books such as George Schuyler’s 1931 novel Black No More or Ishmael Reed’s 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo. Afrofuturism is a way of grappling with who we are as African Americans in the present moment by looking at our past and speculating on how we get to tomorrow.

few moments. With Afrofuturism, the focus is on grappling with where we as African Americans have been, where we are now and dreaming about who we will become.

TP: There is another important character in the play who seems, on the surface at least, to be the polar opposite of Alex: a young man named J who is totally in tune with technology and for whom books hold no meaning. Can you talk a little bit about this character? In many ways he is the most “futuristic” element of the play.

RT: J gives us a window into the next generation and generations to come. In terms of African American history, we think about that line of how to get to freedom. We think about that in terms of our most immediate past, which still affects us at this present time and will through tomorrow. Freedom. But freedom into

90th Anniversary Season Emerald Sponsor Doris and Howard Conant Family Foundation Marcy and Harry Harczak M. Ann O’Brien Carol Prins and John Hart Alice and John J. Sabl Women Artists Season Sponsors Cecilia Conrad and Llewellyn Miller Jeffrey W. Hesse and Julie Conboy Hesse Leslie S. Hindman Shaw Family Supporting Organization Susan and Bob Wislow Neal S. Zucker stop. reset. Director’s Society Sponsors Segun Ishmael M.D. stop. reset. Digital Connection Consortium Sponsor

Contributing Sponsor for stop. reset.

Flat panel televisions generously provided

by Abt Commitments as of April 16, 2015

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TP: Are you a fan of Octavia E. Butler’s work?

RT: Yes. I’m a big sci-fi fan. Afrofuturism is very interesting to me and not just in literature. There are musicians like Sun Ra, who spent a lot of time in Chicago, whose work influences a lot other important musicians, from George Clinton to Frank Ocean to Janelle Monae to Kanye West. The children of this Afrofuturistic music are all fascinating to me, and they’re all speculating what we’ll become as African Americans. In the sci-fi movies I watched growing up, if there was a black character—and a lot of times there weren’t because black people just weren’t thought of as being part of the future—they usually died within the first

what? Will race matter 500 years from now? At what point does the conversation change? I wanted to get different perspectives on change and what that means in terms of identity. Certainly these two characters, Alexander Ames, who’s about 75 years old, and J, who is much younger, can speak to the greatest spectrum of perspectives in this play and provide different viewpoints. There are also a number of other perspectives represented by the office workers at Alexander’s publishing house who are all afraid of losing their jobs. But certainly the greatest distance, I think, comes from Ames and J, two people whose lives have been affected by history in very different ways.

Above: George Schuyler, Octavia E. Butler and Sun Ra.

TP: This is the second production of stop. reset.; you directed the play at the Signature Theatre in New York last season. What did you learn from that process and will anything change with this new incarnation?

RT: I’m in the process of reimagining the play. This is a play about Chicago, and I look at it as a way of celebrating my 20 years here with the Goodman. It’s an ideal way to explore my relationship with the theater and the city where I am based. I’m also very interested in how we present the play. I’m excited about expanding the life of the play beyond the stage. To that end I’m collaborating with a number of artists and institutions to engage in conversations about the play’s ideas and themes and to invite others to create work that responds to the play through various disciplines. I’ve invited composers, photographers, visual artists, filmmakers and writers to create unique, original pieces that will be presented during the run of the play. I’m also working with the Goodman to plan a series of dinners and symposia to engage scholars, business leaders and politicians in conversations about change in Chicago.

We’re presenting a series of one-on-one interviews with real people in Chicago— politicians, doctors, artists—as they talk

about about how they are dealing with changes in their fields. All of these art works and discussions are being documented and will be uploaded onto StopReset.org, a micrositesite created by the Goodman for the play. Audiences can really start engaging with the piece before they come to the theater, and can continue to do so after they see the play.

The dialogue continues. That’s really important to me. I’ve had this unique opportunity in the last 20 years working at the Goodman to find my own voice and part of that is having dialogue with the theater and the communities in Chicago that have helped shape my work. Finding new ways to break down the walls of the theater and have these conversations with audiences is really fascinating.

Below: Regina Taylor in rehearsal for Crowns.

EXPLORE THE WORLD OF STOP. RESET. AT STOPRESET.ORG Dive into the digital world of Regina Taylor’s new work at StopReset.org, a new website dedicated to expanding the play beyond the stage. Watch Taylor in conversation with Chicago influencers, view local student projects inspired by the play and much more!

FEATURED SPONSOR: BMO HARRIS BANK “BMO Harris Bank is a strong supporter of the arts and we value the historic cultural impact Goodman Theatre has on our city. Our longstanding partnership is deeply rooted in a shared commitment to diversity, community engagement and bringing a world-class theater experience to everyone.”

– Carl Jenkins, Managing Director, Community Investments, BMO Harris Bank, Goodman Trustee

UNITED BY AN ARRAY OF ARTISTIC VOICES Comprised of some of the most renowned artists in the American theater, the Artistic Collective is charged with artistically defining Goodman Theatre’s mission. Each member of the Collective brings a distinct aesthetic perspective, giving each Goodman season a wide range of theatrical styles and visions.

Members include Robert Falls, Brian Dennehy, Rebecca Gilman, Henry Godinez, Steve Scott, Chuck Smith, Regina Taylor, Henry Wishcamper and Mary Zimmerman.

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