Episode 3- Booker Vance, Casey Wortham, Keri Garrett, and Shelby Woolridge of Hands Up!

The Best Interview Show Ever

Since 1993, Valdez, Alaska has had a world-class, week-long theatre conference in the summer, produced by its Prince William Sound College. Besides being a venue for performers, writers, and other theatre kin, there are full-length shows the public can attend each evening, put on by visiting troupes, casts, ensembles and companies.

There's a variety of topics and tones handled in these plays. Some are, admittedly, more for those more knowledgeable about theatre. Others are cute and lighthearted, something that could be adapted by your local high school and receive roaring applause from all but the hardest of hearts.

And then there are the topical plays about Important Issues. These are probably the hardest to do well. There's the risk of being overly preachy, of lacking bite and nuance, of misrepresenting the subject and the people affected, dealing in simplistic dichotomies, or just being cheesy. Sometimes you can do all of them at once.
But sometimes there is art that is passionate, current, topical and also good. On June 11th I had the opportunity to watch such a play. It’s called Hands Up, directed by Keith Arthur Bolden. It’s about being black in modern America, and confronts, among other things, police shootings, profiling, and institutionalized racism. Neither pontifical or bubblegum, Hands Up was a powerful series of vignettes, told in style and aplomb. The use of lighting, staging and performance made these monologues burn in a way you don’t often get to see from such things. It was nuanced and took on the hard questions with wisdom, experience, anger and humor.
I got to interview four of the stage performers: Booker Vance, Casey Wortham, Keri Garrett, and Shelby Woolridge. It was a pleasure.