THE#BARS STUDIO – CONVERSATION W/ LEMON ANDERSON
Our first guest is acclaimed playwright, performing artist, and Tony award-winning poet @lemon.andersen. (Livecast Monday 7/25 at 7pm EST)
The #BARS workshop is proud to announce our #BARS STUDIO series, where we invite a different master practitioner to the Public Theater each week to discuss their work in VERSE. Every Monday through August 29th, we will present a different artist in conversation with #BARS co-founder @rafaelcasal via Facebook live stream from the Public Theater, and we would love for you to join us as part of our online audience! Don't have to go any further than your phone, our live stream will put you right in the room.
Ok, not ~strictly~ Daveed, but he cofounded BARS, so I’m rolling with it. Because trust me when I say watching this is 100% worth your time. They talk poetry, acting, writing, race, Hollywood, growing up in adversity, bridging the cultural gap, thriving while doing it, and so much more. You’ll practically want to take notes because a simple conversation between these two will take you to school. It’s an absolute masterclass in artistry. Please watch, please absorb, please learn.
Lemon Andersen: “So, I had a really crazy experience over the last 3 years in Hollywood. And I found myself around superior talents, young talents, people of color, who don’t have writers. And it takes a village; it really does, man. You gotta understand, man; you gotta step back and say, ‘How can I fix the problem?’ And I don’t want anybody crying on me no more because they don’t have a job, you know? And they have the skill to do it but no one’s writing for them because they shouldn’t be writing for them. You know? Because you don’t know how to write for that talent; you don’t know what to do with that. You don’t know how to take that great actor and give them the quality material that’s gonna make their work stand out. Cause you gotta go deep in a soul that you have no idea how to connect to. And that’s the majority of Hollywood right now. And so I quit.”
Rafael Casal: “That was a big moment for me for the last couple of years in LA. I was like, ‘Wow, all my friends are mostly all people of color, they’re all actors, and they can’t get any fucking work.’ And you’ll see these posts that are like, ‘Oh, we’re looking for scripts!’ You’re like, ‘So who’s writing them?’ Who’s writing for this friend of mine to not go out for Third Dude In The Back and get to have anything worth auditioning for.”
Lemon: “Yeah, I’m ready to start lifting these guys off the page; that’s it for me. I’m into the job-creating business…….. Understand that every role you write, somebody smiles. You’ve gotten someone closer to health benefits. You’ve gotten someone closer to, like, a career, a pension. This is real; look, let’s call a spade a spade. We are in show business and if you can step up and soak up information and be vulnerable to these producers, cause they own this business, and say, ‘Ok, how can I help you fix the problem? Since you can’t fix it yourself. And you shouldn’t have to fix it because it’s not your world; it’s my world and they are my world. So teach me how to do this well.’ And they’ll do it. You know, you find the right crop of people, take your baby steps in; this is what it’s been like for the last 6 months. You know, I work in television now as a writer. And there are so many roles that we’re writing and we’re gonna make so many people happy. And it’s just a one scene for this person, this actor, and then, you know, it’s a series for this actor for the next 2 or 3 years, you know? And eventually if you write it well enough, then you launch someone’s career and you can knock on their door and say, “I need you to help me fund these programs for kids.”
Rafa: “It takes a village.”
