The Colored Museum: What Blackness Means to Students

“The Colored Museum” is a play originally written by George C. Wolfe in 1987. An Acting Lab Class is putting on a performance of the play Friday, May 23, and it will be the first all-black production put on at SCAD. Intrigued, photo editor Jordan Yates sat down with director Camryn Johnson and actors Peace Bakwega and Jahi Gooding to learn more about the play.

Reserve your tickets now! The link can also be found at the bottom of the article. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-colored-museum-tickets-1354003834919?aff=oddtdtcreator

Playbill designed by Stacy Serna and Photos taken by Jordan Yates

“I don’t know how it’s done at all, I’ve never seen anything about it. So, can someone, Camryn maybe, give me a run-down of what the show is about?”

Essentially, it takes place in a Museum. There are 11 different exhibits, and they are all satirical plays, exhibits, and scenes on the African American experience and identities. Some deal with the identity attached to our hair, skin, family dynamics, and how the world views black culture and identity. It’s a satirical view of all things.

The group breaks into laughter.

How did it come to be? Did you pitch it, or was it predetermined? When I took this to the Connector, I said, “Oh, there’s an all black production team? That’s different for SCAD, I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Johnson leads with saying,

Fristoe pitched it to me, asking if I’d be willing to direct it. We were kind of surprised, but also not because SCAD Atlanta, at least the acting program, is heavily African American. It’s been nice to highlight our experience. He was very adamant about us doing it. He’s given us free control, free rein. We did auditions last quarter, and it’s been going up from there.

“How does it feel to be part of an all black production like this?”

Gooding starts, “It’s really fun.” And the entire group laughed in agreement.

Bakwega adds, It’s a lot sometimes because…Y’know,

and Johnson finishes their conjoined thought,

We can be loud!

Another unanimous laugh, and they let Gooding continue,

We can be loud! And I always come here and leave with a headache. But, at the end of the day, especially after seeing a… SCAD show in Savannah… it’s like ‘Wow. This is like a very big difference.’ That cast was just majority white, I think there was two black actors

Peace lets out a quick “damn” that you can tell came from the soul.

And to be able to be in… a team with all black people and I make references to things and people get it. Or, people make references to things I didn’t know. ‘Cause like, we’re all black but we’re all a part of the diaspora, and we all have such different identities. So it’s like we’re all just… holding each other, it sort of feels like.

Bakwega, a Ugandan student, elaborates on the idea

And it’s so interesting how like, even if it’s part of the diaspora, there’s little things that connect us, kind of like how this play goes, there’s little things from each exhibit that connect to the next, and it’s so interesting to see that in an ensemble like this.  And we have fun a lot.

“What spoke to the group and or whoever’s decision it was to put on this production?”

Director Johnson speaks,

I can say that in today’s climate, it’s sad that a lot of these things are still so prominent… slavery… has just morphed itself into jail. It’s all still here, it just looks different. I think that was a big part of why he (Fristoe) wanted to do it. 

“It’s relevant, yeah.”

“Would you guys say this production stems from frustrations as black people, or the joys of blackness?”

A unanimous

Both.

Bakwega continues,

There’s so much frustration in it but then there’s so much joy. To the point that certain exhibits, you just have to laugh because it’s so relatable. But in the moment when you experience that relatability, you do feel that frustration. You’re like ‘f—.’ Oh. Sorry.

The entire room laughs.

You’re like ‘s—.’ When you step away from it and when you look at it, it’s like ‘damn this is lowkey some funny s—.’ But like when I was in the eye of the hurricane… it was hitting. 

Johnson proceeds,

It definitely is a mixture of both, it ties back to that… laughing through the pain. Even moments where the laughter turns into tears.

“Was there any specific black media the team studied as inspiration, other than the original?”

Bakwega admits,

I did not watch the original.

I did. Gooding responds

YOU DID?

They laugh and Johnson takes up,

It depends. Sometimes actors don’t want to watch the original because they don’t want to copy. Which makes sense. I definitely looked at a lot of stuff. A big part of our research was really diving into the script and diving into things that aligned with our own experiences and things that aligned with the continuity of it all… It’s a lot of text analysis… There’s a lot of research into the certain products they have to use, there’s a lot of references… It’s just getting specific and knowing what you’re talking about.

“How did you guys decide on this script, is it just the original, are you taking all the different parts of the original script or did you pick and choose parts?”

Ok. So. Technically it’s the original script but we had two versions. One is the original original, and the other one is the Broadway script. We’ve pulled from both in certain instances just to get more specific. There’s certain things that were left out of the original script and I guess added later on in the Broadway script. Especially with the music… which we definitely wanted to have a lot of the music in it because it’s a huge part of our culture. For sure. I would say mainly the broadway script.

“So there’s singing as well in it?”

Yes.

“A lot?”

Yes.

Oh my god, oh my god. Peace exasperatedly repeats this in response to the question.

“What have been the biggest difficulties, hiccups, or differences in the production?”

Bakwega states,

I have but that’s really for me: dialect. I think there is a certain audio that I have in my head that I can easily elaborate to sound like an African American, and because my characters have got so much time in between them, they each sound different… I realize that, even in my code switch, I don’t sound like either of them. And there are certain words where like – Camryn’s constantly like ‘that’s not how you pronounce that babes…’ Maybe time (too)… Sometimes the time that we have in class is not enough. So then it takes to doing it outside of class.

Gooding expresses that,

I think mainly for Miss Roj, because obviously we’re both gay men and stuff like that. But Miss Roj’s character, she’s a drag queen, from 1965-1972 or something like that. There’s… a certain mindset I have to get into to play her correctly. I can’t just do the thing I usually do… There’s a raunchiness to Miss Roj, and there’s a reality and raunchiness to black characters. I didn’t realize this, but Miss Roj has been the first character I play that is explicitly black. Every other character I think I’ve ever played in my life is black because I’m playing them. But Miss Roj is already black. So there’s that unique difficulty of ‘ok what is Miss Roj’s experience of being black and gay?’

Snaps and “mms” erupt from the black cast.

“It feels like it feeds more into that, exploring the diaspora of black culture.”

Yeah.

“I’ve been here since 2021 and there have not been any all black productions from what I know of, And that’s why I pitched this one because it’s the first. I just want to ask, are there any external pressures?”

Director Johnson answers,

Honestly, no. Maybe a little bit? Just because, y’know with SCAD and…we want to make sure that upcoming people can be able to do it. Because if WE don’t do it right then it’s gonna be a pushback, of course. So I think there’s a little bit, just to make sure that we set a standard for those coming after us. I haven’t put much thought into that. I don’t think I’ve allowed myself to. Just because I think you can’t when you’re sticking true to your “why.”

Bakwega very bluntly says the quiet idea out loud,

Who cares? I feel like because we are an all black cast, yes I can understand where the question comes from, but why is it that we only face the pressure when we’re doing something that is all black? Anything that’s surrounding black people has always got to be under a microscope by a white person, and because this is a white institution it’s like ‘you’ve got to do things right.’ With how many black people there are especially in Atlanta and at this institution, you can’t miss us. We are too loud. Not in the sense of volume, but in the sense of numbers. Sure this can be the first one, but for a fact there’s going to be others.

“Do you think SCAD could do more to encourage and cultivate minority driven/led productions, especially in Atlanta?”

Johnson answers before Yates even finishes the question,

Ab-so-f—lutely. Absolutely.

“How so?”

Oftentimes we get a lot of pushback. There’s a lot of holes we have to jump through. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like we have the same freedom as other campuses. I think this is definitely a start, and I think it also starts with the people who have some type of power. Which, closest to us, is our faculty, and based off of, specifically, our acting professors, I think they definitely push for us… It’s nice just to have people in your corner who want to hear what you have to put out there, and it’s been nice to see that shift kind of happen here.

A brief intermission laughing about pipes that are too loud and other cast members updating their director on their current process brings us back to Jahi,

There’s opportunities everywhere and I don’t like the idea that if it’s not spearheaded by students, or if it’s outside productions… from other people that you might not know. These things are kind of unsafe to some degree, ‘cause you never know what you’re gonna get when you’re booking something in Atlanta. So it would be lovely if we could have more situations like that when our faculty, and our president.

“Administrators.”

Gooding chuckles,

Our administrators! See how much, see their demographic, do their research, and show that they genuinely care. Because, the fact that we’re even able to put on this production, I could never say, and I’ve never said this before, but I could never say that Fristoe has never done anything for us. ‘Cause if any professor has been trying their f— hardest for us it’s been Adam Fristoe.

 “Is there anything you guys would like to say to the general audience?”

Bakwega opens,

If you’re black you should just come see the show because you’re black.

Johnson adds,

And if you want to be bl- Nah, I’m playing.

The cast who clearly has grown to love each other shares but another laugh.

Gooding implored listeners,

If there’s a black person you love or like you should come see it. If there’s a black person you know you should come see it.

Johnson adds,

If there’s a black person you watch on TV. 

They all join,

You should come see it.

And if you don’t know any black people?

THAT’S EVEN WORSE Gooding exclaims.

YOU SHOULD COME SEE IT!

For the black student population, for the non-black students, and for any and everyone with an open mind willing to learn and appreciate the black experience, please attend the show. An open dress rehearsal will be held in the SCAD Film Studios on Wednesday, May 20 however, if you are unable to attend, the cast will be putting on this production May 22nd until the 25th, also at SCAD Film Studios. Tickets can be acquired in a link attached to this article!

An immense and special thank you to Camryn Johnson, Peace Bakwega, and Jahi Gooding for sitting down and providing so much personal and artistic insight. Break a leg!

Reserve your tickets now for the upcoming shows by clicking here!