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Learn more about actor
and playwright Theroun Patterson, winner of the 2011 Essential Theatre
Playwriting Award and author of this Wednesday night’s Bare Essential play, That
Uganda Play
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About
That Uganda Play:
I originally wrote the play in late 2011-early 2012 with a staged reading of
the original draft with Working
Title Playwrights and Academy
Theatre in January 2012. The play started as a sort of knee jerk
reaction to reading an NPR interview with David
Bahati, a Ugandan Member of Parliament that introduced his Anti-Gay
Legislation, causing an uproar with Gay Rights groups because the Bill
essentially criminalized homosexuality and would have allowed for unprecedented
governmental persecution of gays. The article simply made me angry.
I started writing to try and understand that type of hatred, to know
where it came from, and perhaps to feel better about a my own frustrations
about a prejudice that I can't control; that I can't stamp out on my own. With
the virulent anti-homosexual sentiments and violence in Africa and recently
with the legislation signed into law in Russia, this play is timely and a sheds
light on a very American involvement with such a controversial figure like
Bahati. Not only that, but I wanted to ground the play within two
families and show how a global problem works its way down into our most
personal relationships. Honestly I hope a theatre with an interest in
starting a community dialogue about social issues will produce this play. My
hope is that it provokes debate and conversations late into the night long
after its over.
About
Theroun: I started as an actor, working for
eleven years on Atlanta stages. I started seriously writing plays in
2005, producing and directing my own readings with the help of generous peers
that donated their time and talents. In 2009, I joined Working Title
Playwrights and wrote the first of four plays that year. I've written a
dozen full lengths since 2006. I'm pleased to be working with Essential
again after the production of my play A
Thousand Circlets.
On
the Bare Essentials Series: The reading series
allows me the opportunity to refine the play and find new audiences for it to
continue a dialogue generated by art.
What
is it like to transition from acting to writing?
As an actor, there was always an underlying anxiety about performing, but as a
writer I have absolutely no fear. I'm willing to learn in front of
others, to continue to grow and experiment with story and structure.
Playwriting is the form of expression that fits me best as an artist.
Acting is secondary to that.
Where
can you look for Theroun’s next work? Next for me, is a
production of fugitive:EROS and The Chemicals Between Us with Out of Box Theatre next season, as
well as the production of Origin Story
with Academy Theatre in their new home. I'm also about to start on a new commission
with Pinch N Ouch Theatre as well
as Mad Hope Theatre Project.
The
Bare Essentials series is free and open to the public. Donations graciously
accepted. Complimentary wine before and after the show. For more information on
all the readings as well as the other plays in the festival, visit
www.essentialtheatre.com
