‘Redeemed’ inspired by uptick in anti-Asian hate crime amid pandemic Shepherdstown hosts Contemporary American Theater Festival

By PATRICK FOLLIARD

For playwright Chisa Hutchinson, the annual Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) at Shepherd University in historic, queer-friendly Shepherdstown, W.Va. (just a 90-minute drive from D.C.), has proved a launching pad for new work.

Currently, her play “Redeemed,” a piece inspired by an uptick in anti-Asian hate crime in the early days of the pandemic (think “kung flu”), is making its world premiere at the festival.

Originally conceived as a radio drama, the compelling two hander is set in the visiting room of a high security prison where Asian American Claire (Elizabeth Sun) meets with allegedly repentant Trevor (Doug Harris), the white man who murdered her gay brother when he heard him speaking Chinese in line at an ATM. Whether the convicted killer is sincere or simply eager to be released is unclear.

she feeling, hopeful, cynical, angry? A singular emotion ultimately prevailed, but telling would reveal too much.

In imagining the prison visits, Hutchison, who identifies as bisexual, had some real-life experience to go on: “When I was a kid, my mom became pen pals with a guy in prison. I’m pretty sure he was looking for a soft place to land when he got out. She took me along on some visits.”

Hutchinson later taught playwriting workshops at juvenile detention facilities, and worked with a women’s prison association as a mentor.

“Redeemed” is her fourth world premiere at CATF, and according to the New Jersey-based playwright, “Shepherdstown is a great place to try new stuff. You’re surrounded by a small army who help at every turn, just like antibodies going to the sight of a wound. Everybody cares that deeply. From the festival’s artistic director Peggy McKowen to the prop person to the attentive audiences.”

This summer’s four other world premieres at CATF are Lynn Rosen’s “The Overview Effect,” José Rivera’s “Your Name Means Dream,” “Dael Orlandersmith’s “Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance,” and “Fever Dreams” by Jeffrey Lieber. Venues are located on Shepherd campus or a few steps away in the charming town that Hutchinson describes as “a blue dot in a sea of red.”

Born in Queens, she attended “a swanky high school on scholarship in New Jersey.” After her drama teacher invited her to a debate between critic Robert Brustein and playwright August Wilson on color blind casting, she began writing in earnest.

“Wilson said actors can play whatever they want, but you can’t fully employ an actor of color if you don’t tell stories about people of color. It’s unfair and lazy. And deems as less than. After that debate, I began writing monologues about black people for me and my black friends.”

At Vassar College in Poughkeepsie where she was the only Black drama major in her year, she crafted her own curriculum of mostly creative writing and English. Later at the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut, she went through a boot camp of design, acting, directing, and playwriting.

Hutchinson won a 2010 GLAAD award for her lesbian-themed “She Likes Girls.” It was also her first published, professionally produced, and New York Times-reviewed work. There hasn’t been pressure to write plays with queer themes, she says. However, when she writes plays about race, she can’t seem to win. Whether she hits race head on, or portrays minorities as simply people with average lives, there are complaints, she says. In response, she writes whatever she wants. If people don’t like it, too bad.

“When I began the play, I wasn’t sure how it would end,” explains Hutchinson, 43. “It was flowing easily to a point and then I had to stop. I try not to think about that as writer’s block. I just have to go live my life and in the course of living my life I will stumble on a solution and that’s exactly what happened.”

The playwright knew the ending would be dependent on her mood at the time. Was

At the heart of “Redeemed” lies — surprise, surprise — redemption. Hutchinson likes to think that everyone is seeking redemption. It could be about something big, or something small like you didn’t tip your waiter enough, she says.

“I’m pretty OCD about it. I lose sleep replaying little things that I could have done better, ways I might have been nicer, or not have prejudged something or someone. Fortunately, with my real life, not plays, it’s never anything too heinous.”