(techno music) - So, exciting things coming up at the end of the month and we've got a of things to talk about.

But just talk about the impact and you know, what the obsidian the whole theater event is.

- Yeah, so you know, 2020 was a hard year for everybody, right?

It was a hard year because of a pandemic and it was also a hard year because we all had to wrestle with social justice upheavals.

And for some folks, that was shining a new light on things.

And for others, it was a reminder of what we deal with on a regular basis.

And for me as an artist and an activist, I wanted to figure out how to put both of those things into the same energy, right?

And into the same effort.

And so that's where the Obsidian Theater Festival came from.

We have been going into our fourth season, a consistent annual platform for merging Black voices in theater and film.

A place where writers know they don't have to be censored, where directors can get a shot at directing a new piece, where actors can work.

And we pay an employee every year over 100 folks to be able to produce this work.

We film the work, we stream the work online.

And this year, as we go into our fourth season, I'm really thrilled to say that we're also growing the full year long programming and launching and impact arts conference here in Detroit.

So we got a lot of stuff going on in June.

- Magnificent.

And I know in terms of the plays this year, you've got a broad range.

Kind of just touch on the themes and what the plays are that are going to be presented.

- Yeah, we do.

You know, it's difficult, right?

Because we do a blind submission process.

And so we have no idea where these pieces are coming from.

We remove any identifying information from the playwrights when they do their applications just to make sure there's no bias, right?

In how we're choosing and selecting these pieces.

And we really have some amazing work this year.

We've got a piece called "The Sisters Gray," which touches on kind of topically, the interesting intense relationships between Black and Jewish communities.

And we've got a piece called "The Crooked Parts," which is a wonderful exploration of a relationship with the Black trans man and his mother.

And then we have just a couple hilarious pieces in "Black Santa," which is this wonderful exploration of what happens when a little Black girl decides to tell her class that Santa is a Black man from Detroit.

And the upheaval (laughs) that happens in this like white privileged charter school, right?

And then we've got a number, really amazing family centered piece called "The Golden Lock."

Which is this beautiful fantasy tale about a young girl who goes through her mirror into this world of fairies and discovers beauty in herself, in her hair, in her skin.

And so we've got pieces that span the entire spectrum.

We're producing a musical over at the Opera House, we've got a opening night cabaret at the gym.

So we've got options for everybody.

- So tell me about the playwrights, have you seen that change over time, age range, number of people who applied?

You know, once the word gets out, I'm sure, like you said, this is a platform that's not judgmental, not subject to censorship.

So I would think that there'd be a lot of people that wanna jump at this.

- There are.

We get over 125 submissions every year for this type of a festival.

That's a good amount based upon our size.

Remember, we're only four years old, right?

We're toddlers.

And so as we're growing, we're seeing more and more folks come.

And the one thing I do wanna impress upon everybody is this is a Detroit-centered project.

And so 80% of the people that are from this, that are from our work that that we center in our company are Detroiters, are our Black Detroiters.

And that's really, really important to us.

We're also seeing the types of stories shift, right?

And being a writer's an interesting prospect, you start writing a piece in 2020 and it takes you a year or two to get it up and now it's 2022, 2023 and the world has changed around you.

And so we're seeing these pieces that are reflective of that.

We're seeing these pieces that speak to the current politics that are happening around us, whether that is overseas, whether that's right here, whether that's the politic of next door neighbors that might be from different backgrounds and how they relate to each other and how they communicate.

And you know, we're seeing all of our artists really being involved.

Something that I'm really, really proud of is the fact that our playwrights get to have conversation with the directors, with the actors.

And for a lot of these writers, this is one of the first times they've seen their pieces up on a stage.

And that's a huge value.

- Exactly.

And what does that say to young people in the community when they start to see that and understand that there are opportunities for them out there?

- You know, when I was younger, I was blessed to have two parents that are educators and a mother and an auntie that are music teachers.

And so I had access right to a whole lot of work, a whole lot of cultural experiences that I assumed were standard.

I figured everybody has access to this, right?

And unfortunately, not necessarily, yeah.

And DPSCD does what they can.

Organizations like Mosaic Youth Theater or Matrix, they do what we can.

We are also doing our best to provide that platform.

And so one of the things that we really wanna do is make sure that young people, young artists, and also emerging artists of any age, there are some 35, 45, 55-year-olds that wanted shift careers that's and start something new and always wanted to get into this, right?

So we wanna make sure that they have an understanding of what that career path can look like.