“I can see myself in all of the characters because we are going through so many of the same things,” said actor Ron Conner.
He will breathe life into more than forty life experiences at once when he stars in Daniel Beaty’s EMERGENCY on the Black Rep stage starting this week at Washington University’s A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.
“I want them to get all of the subtle nuances because we really took a lot of time,” Conner said. “Ron Himes is directing and he’s really making sure that we give each character depth and not just snapshots and caricatures.”
EMERGENCY begins when a slave ship rises out of the Hudson River near the Statue of Liberty in present day America while “America’s Next Top Poet” – a fictional competition where the nation’s best spoken word artists – simultaneously converge to compete in Harlem.
Slaves, current day New York citizens and poets have their perspectives shared throughout the production.
“It’s empowering, it’s uplifting. It covers all points of view about black history,” Conner said. “It’s well-rounded and beautifully written. Even the non-poems – the monologues –are poetic, so it’s great.”
He connects with the affirming and inspirational aspects of EMERGENCY.
“It’s about not letting whatever is happening stand in front of your liberty – your choice to be free,” Conner said. “I mean it’s about saying ‘well, it is what it is…but it’s not going to stop me from doing what I want to do’.”
But the play also serves as a cautionary tale of what can happen when society doesn’t tune in to the present and neglects its history.
“This play shows how you can be alive, but not really aware,” Conner said. “We see how we have become disconnected – from each other and our past. This play forces you to re-engage and re-connect. It’s asking you to wake up. EMERGENCY is a wake-up call.”
A solo stage debut
“Doing a one man show is like waking up one day and deciding that you are going to run a marathon,” Conner said. “You truly find out what you are getting into – and putting yourself through – as you go through the process of preparing for it.”
Although he’s been on countless stages over his nearly 15 year career as a professional actor, Conner had never performed a one-person show before EMERGENCY.
“When you see a one-person show is that it looks as hard as it is,” Conner said. “It’s not one of those things where if you do it well, it looks easy. If they do it well, it looks even harder. And the better it is, the harder it looks – it’s like ‘dang, how did you do this?’”
Even as he heads for the home stretch of training before the production begins, he’s still working to wrap his head around the unfamiliar dynamic of performing alone on stage.
“There’s nobody to pass the ball to – there’s just you – and that’s one of the things that I had to learn was how to pace myself,” Conner said. “I have a tendency to move so fast – and I had to learn to slow down and breathe life into these characters. You also have to pick the spots in the play where you are going to catch your breath and refocus. it takes a lot of focus.”
He said seeing himself so clearly within the poems and monologues of EMERGENCY made the process much easier.
“There’s this poem called “Knock Knock” about a man who grew up with his father until he was three and then his father went to jail,” Conner said. “He was never able to come home and teach him all of the things that men teach their sons, so he had to father himself.”
Conner’s personal experience drives that particular piece home when he’s on stage.
“That’s my story. And now I have a son and I see the importance of having a father – of being a father – even more. I mean, I grew up with a lot of positive male role models – but not a father in the home. And so that poem just takes me there every time,” Conner said.
“But everybody will relate to the characters in this show. That’s what brings us to the theatre, to the movies to music – that ability to relate – so having that is always nice.”
The Black Rep’s presentation of EMERGENCY will take place from September 5 – September 15 at Washington University’s A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre (6445 Forsyth). For more information, call (314) 534-3807 or visit www.theblackrep.org
