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For centuries, art has mirrored reality, and what audiences will see on The Pear Theatre’s stage this month is no different. Titled “The Black Experience Festival,” the program comprises three plays that will take the audience through the multi-hued realities of Black life in the United States.
The shows include “Crawfish: We the Invisible” by Gamal Abdel Chasten, “Pass Over” by Antoinette Nwandu and a free presentation of “The Civil Reparations Mock Trial.”
Of these, “Crawfish: We the Invisible” and “The Civil Reparations Mock Trial” are co-produced by The Breath Project, a theatrical initiative that supports artists of color; it was co-founded by Chasten and Marieke Gaboury in response to racial injustice.
“Crawfish” is the story of a man who migrates from New Orleans to the Bay Area after tragedy befalls him in the form of Hurricane Katrina. Subsequently, his money runs out and he becomes homeless.
“It’s really looking at the fragility of our systems and how many of us could have that same experience because so many of us are living paycheck to paycheck, or if you get sick and all your money goes, then what happens?” said Chasten about the genesis of his play, which is essentially a piece of political theater that he wrote in 2020. “After COVID, there were many more people on the streets … it has kind of been developing since then.” He is also part of the cast.
“The character’s been ‘living with me’ since 2007 — it was a play that I wrote with my company Universes,” Chasten said about his protagonist. “I had written a monologue for this character but over time I realized he, the character, had a lot more to say. Originally it was a solo show and then I added another character — his mother Aretha — and there’s a live drummer involved, so it’s a three-person play in that regard.”
Despite the seriousness of the subject, he has woven some comic relief into the story. “It is a very serious piece but I’m always trying to balance comedy with drama because it’s nice to have some levity as well,” he said.
Chasten hopes the play will help sensitize viewers, especially those who tend to be dismissive of people who are unhoused. “People who blame the homeless for their situation … the ones who blame the victims,” he said.
Unlike a lot of his previous work, this piece is not centered around race. “The actors are African American, and there are moments in the show where he alludes to it, but race is not a prominent part of the piece, and I’m actually glad about that,” he said. “I chose not to focus on that in this story.” That’s because, according to Chasten, while it’s true that people of color experience homelessness more frequently than white people, there are also other populations that face homelessness at similarly higher rates, such as members of the LGBTQ community, single mothers and veterans.
On the other hand, “The Mock Trial” is a story about racial inequity that unfolds through a fictional lawsuit between two families. “Basically the trial is wrapped around two fictional families — the descendants of slave owners and the descendants of slaves,” Chasten said. “When we look at African American reparations, we talk about the idea of how we’re the ones that developed the wealth for other people’s benefit by going through servitude and manual labor, and we get none of it.”
For this play, the team collaborated with a Chicago-based civil litigation attorney, John Ray, who helped out with the legalese. “We created a fictional story based on some factual information around land rights and equity,” he said.
The team also created an abridged version of the play in the hope of increasing its reach. “Originally, we were going to be working with universities,” he said. “People were excited about it, but as we found out over time, it’s hard for teachers and professors to bring new things into curriculum.”
As is evident, Chasten’s art is deeply embedded in his personal brand of activism.
How does he reconcile such serious subjects with a medium like theater? “The activism comes through the truth of the story you’re telling and the art comes in through the entertainment,” he said.
This line of work brings other challenges too. “As a playwright, the biggest challenge is getting your work produced,” he said. On the creative front, he admits it can get lonely. “It’s one of those things you do by yourself in the initial stages of the process and sometimes that can feel daunting.”
According to Sinjin Jones, The Pear Theatre’s executive artistic director, plays like “Crawfish” and “Pass Over” — which is a dramatic, politically provocative riff on “Waiting for Godot” — continue to be timely. He referenced recent headlines such as the tragic shooting of Sonya Massey and news of upcoming sweeps of homeless camps across California to illustrate his point.
“Both themes are tackled by the Black Experience Festival,” Jones said. “When we started to ideate this festival, the questions were clear: how do we create an experience that brings to the forefront the experiences of Black Americans? How do we take a step further in fulfilling the statements that so many of us made after the killing of George Floyd in 2020? We hope that audiences come into the three events of this festival with an open heart and leave with a greater feeling of understanding of what Black people, and people of color more generally, live with.”
All three stories are intense and belong to different genres. “We do that purposely in theater to make the point loud and clear,” Jones said.
He describes “Pass Over” as an unequivocal drama that is all at once modern and timeless. “This is the story of what, for many, it feels like to be Black in the United States,” he said. “For some it will feel amplified, for some it will feel muted. And there is true terror and true pain in this story. On the other hand, it is also a story of brotherhood. It’s the story where we see two Black men who are best friends and who love each other wholeheartedly. At moments it is an incredibly funny piece. At moments it is tragic. I think that if we do our jobs right, both laughter and tears will be plentiful.”
Ultimately, he hopes the festival will help move the needle on goodness and empathy. “There are so many stories on the volume spectrum of Black experience that go unheard,” Jones said. “We just hope that we can help our audience listen more closely so that we can all work together to make this country a better place.”
The Black Experience Festival takes place Aug. 9-25, featuring “Crawfish: We the Invisible” on Aug. 9, 16, 23 at 8 p.m. and Aug. 10, 17, 24 at 2 p.m.; “Pass Over” on Aug. 10, 17, 24 at 8 p.m. and Aug. 11 and 25 at 2 p.m. and “The Civil Reparations Mock Trial” on Aug. 18 at 7 p.m. at The Pear Theatre, 1110 La Avenida St., Suite A, Mountain View. Tickets for “Crawfish” and “Pass Over” are $10-$25 each show/tickets for “The Civil Reparations Mock Trial” are free. thepear.org.
