When a play about the complexity of Black femininity debuts in San Francisco, few companies make better hosts than Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. For acclaimed San Francisco-born playwright Lisa B. Thompson, the road that guided her “rolling world premiere” to LHT was practically fate.
“My relationship with the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre goes back to my days growing up in San Francisco,” Thompson says. “I used to go with my late mother. She loved the arts and made sure that her children were exposed to theater, music and visual art. In 2019, the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre mounted a production of [my play] ‘Single Black Female,’ which felt like a full-circle moment for me.”
That moment hasn’t ended. LHT is producing the San Francisco iteration of Thompson’s latest play, “The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body,” opening Sept. 19. As with many of Thompson’s works, the show turns a Black feminine gaze toward the world as it was and how it could be.
Focusing on three Black women of various ages (played by Jacinta Kaumbulu, Paige Mayes and Phaedra Tillery-Boughton), the play is described as a celebration of the very bodies that are often the subject of large- and small-scale scrutiny.
The “rolling world premiere” term was coined by the National Performance Network, a nonprofit advancing racial and cultural justice in the arts which is partnering with Thompson and LHT as it did for the play’s Austin, Texas production earlier this year and will do so again for a yet-to-be named theater. Instead of offering a singular premiere, the project allows three different theaters to create unique takes on a previously unproduced script that are presented over an 18-month period.
The San Francisco version is being directed by LHT Artistic Director Margo Hall, who was eager to do it when Thompson first pitched the idea in 2022.
When Lisa contacted LHT about producing ‘The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body,’ I was overjoyed. We had been waiting for an opportunity to work together,” says Hall, who met Thompson in the 1990s through her friend Colman Domingo, when they all were hustling artists in the Bay Area.
Hall adds, “[Lisa and I] forged a deeper bond a few years later when I realized we shared a mutual friendship with my housemates.”
Hall sees the upcoming production as more evidence of a winning season for LHT after laying out her plans to Local News Matters earlier this year. She says now, “I think we have achieved an A+ for establishing a safe environment for Black women!”
She mentions a recent Black Voices mentorship program led by Champagne Hughes, whose play “(No More) Adjustments” debuted at the Magic Theatre, with Lisa Marie Rollins as her mentor.
One of Thompson’s main themes in “Black Feminist Guide” is the idea of Black women must always “rescue” other people.
“I’d like the audience to discover one truth: The main myth I want to dispel is that Black women doing everything for everyone except themselves must continue to sustain the community. As Tricia Hersey of the Nap Ministry says, ‘We will rest.’ She’s right. Rest is a form of political resistance,” Thompson says.
While Kamala Harris’ presidential nomination has in some circles prompted racist and misogynist backlash, Hall says, “Unfortunately, that is often the rhetoric used by short-sighted, fear-mongering individuals. Luckily, we at LHT produce informative plays and events to combat that damaging narrative.”
Thompson adds, “I’m too excited about Vice President Harris’s candidacy at this moment to focus on the ugliness! I’m thrilled to see and experience a feeling of exuberance and hope. I want us to create a world where backlashes like that can’t take root and instead die a pitiful death.”
Regardless of politics, Thompson and Hall are ecstatic about the work done with the play in creating an environment welcoming to all Black women.
“This has been an eye-opening and joyful experience,” Thompson says. “I especially love how this idea foregrounds a collaborative spirit among institutions that is important to foster during this challenging moment in the arts. That kind of community building is essential for playwrights and for theaters to thrive. I’d do it again in a heartbeat!”
Asked who they’d most like to see in the show’s audience, Hall replies, “The play is suitable for everyone, but I encourage men to attend. It allows them to contemplate their relationships with their mothers, sisters, aunts, and so on. It was amazing to hear the reactions from the men in the audience during our reading earlier this year at the Museum of the African Diaspora. They expressed how the play helped them recognize the often-unnoticed challenges faced by Black women in America.”
Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s premiere of “The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body” runs Sept. 19-Oct. 6 at Magic Theatre, Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Blvd., San Francisco. Tickets are $25-$65 at lhtsf.org.
Charles Lewis III is a San Francisco-born journalist and performing artist. He has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED and San Francisco Examiner. Dodgy evidence of this can be found at The Thinking Man’s Idiot.wordpress.com.