‘Dear Lil’ a college reflection and statement on racism
» Who hasn’t looked back with regret that at some point in their life they didn’t speak up for themselves?
One personwho suffered that regret is Morgan Heyward, a local woman who attended Russell Sage College.
Russell Sage College is producing “Dear Lil’”, an original play by Heyward, that addresses her time at the college. The playwright says her play has a lot to do with “the could haves and should haves of life.”
Heyward says about her four years on the Troy campus of Sage, from which she graduated in 2017, “I always felt a sense of otherhood.” As a woman-of- color, she is certain her sense of isolation was because of racial attitudes.
A theatre major, Heyward is using her art form to express the problems resulting fromracismand encouraging others to immediately address concerns about alienation. It is also an encouraging plea for everyone to deal with their own memories.
The playwright says creating “Dear Lil’’ helped her reconcile with the sense of “otherness” in her life.
The issue of not fully belonging was something she experienced for most of her life. Her mother is white and her father black. She says that attending Albany High School the racial attitudes were reversed.
“I wasn’t ghetto enough,” she says.
“I wasn’t black enough in high school. In college I wasn’twhite enough. I don’t even knowwhat those terms mean. I had to learn how to stop trying to be the person people thought I was. When you’re young it’s difficult to know who you are.
“I had to learn to bemyself and just say to others ‘I am who I am. Accept me for that.’”
“Dear Lil’” first saw life as a senior project at Sage.
“I saw it as my chance to finally say to everyone what I had been feeling all those years. I got to speak my mind about feeling alienated, not being included and suffering racist statements thrown off by someone adding, ‘ only kidding.’’’
After a pause, she continued. “It was satisfying to have people have to hear me and maybe look in the mirror and think, ‘Thatwas me’. Hopefully it changed some behavior.”
She learned a more important lesson - the power of art. “Art is a reflection of life,” she explains. “Art makes it easier for people to hear things and respond and absorb truth. It’s a conversation; an exchange of ideas and perceptions between people who might not initially think alike.”
Heyward found the four year process of developing “Dear Lil’” into a sophisticated theater piece made her realize the play shouldn’t just be about her bitter memories. “My director, Gregory Marsh, made me realize it shouldn’t just be aboutme. It has to speak to everyone.”
Heyward says the play is “a message to my little sister and all those who come after me. Don’t let others define you. Speak up.”
There are other statements in play. One is how institutional insensitivity towards different cultures creates negative experiences for thosewho feel excluded.
“The crux of the issue is Russell Sage has created a system that doesn’t support black and brown people,” she says.
She describes the population of the school as filled with people who all lived in the same type of small town. “They would do things that weren’t racist to them. It seemed like normal behavior because they hadn’t lived outside their bubble.
But their actions and words were hurtful to me and people like me.”
Her hope is that this play helps the school recognize they can do better. She says Sage’s support of “Dear Lil’” is “a start in the right direction.”
However, she feels the school needs to teach white students more about the African-American culture. One way to start is expose the students to more playwrights of color.
Realizing how few black playwrights were produced locally and recognizing the absence of black faces on area stages, she formed her own theater company, Illuminate Theatre. She explained how it started in 2017 as a platform for local black theater artists to tell and act in stories about themselves.
Heyward says she is pleased that this version of “Dear Lil’,” which runs about an hour, is less angry and a much more reflective piece than was the origina
She is now 24 years old and writing about her 20year old self’s experience has given her perspective. “A lot of my time at Sage was consumed by me feeling miserable, but I don’t want to focus just on negative thoughts. There were positive moments as well. The silver lining is it helped me to be who I am today.”
That person is a strong, assertive woman. A playwright and an Artistic Director of her own theater company. Most of all, she is a person who knows the past has created the person she is in the present. She is a person who has come to term with the could haves and should haves of life.
Morgan Heyward intends to shape her own future.
Because of COVID-19 safety restrictions the production originally scheduled to be offered live will only be available on line. It is available on Zoom at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16. From Oct. 17Nov. 17 it will be available for $10 as a 24 hour rental from Vimeo.
For links go to theatre. sage.edu.