DOWNTOWN : Workshop Nurtures Black Playwrights

Tired of too many “singing and dancing minstrel shows,” director L. Kenneth Richardson worked with the Mark Taper Forum to create an African American playwrights workshop so he could see truthful depictions of blacks on stage.

Formed in August and called the Blacksmyths, the workshop’s purpose is to nurture, support and develop the works of black writers.

Richardson sees the workshop as an opportunity to tear down the stereotypical images presented by many mainstream playwrights.

“One of the stereotypes that we have come to accept is that black people are there for entertainment. If they are on the stage, they must be singing, dancing, cheesing and grinning,” Richardson said.

The workshop provides a handful of African American playwrights a cultural cocoon where they can spin ideas and bounce them off their peers before introducing their works to a larger audience.

By giving these writers, who range in experience from novice to Broadway-produced, a chance to pursue their own artistic insights in a supportive incubator, Richardson hopes they will develop plays that show the full spectrum of black life and emotion.

Richardson, who has been working at the Mark Taper Forum intermittently since 1988 when he directed “The Colored Museum,” collaborated on the workshop idea with Robert Egan, the Mark Taper Forum’s producing director.

“Blacksmyths will provide these writers with an opportunity to grow in skills and explore issues of common concern,” Egan said.

Workshop member Lynn Manning, 39, of South-Central, who has participated in other multiethnic playwright programs, said this one is unique because it gives him the opportunity to hear feedback from those who are culturally attuned to his characters and themes.

“Non-blacks have certain limitations understanding our culture. The Blacksmyths let me know if my portraits are real,” he said.

Blacksmyth Silas Jones, 43, whose play “Waiting for Mongo” was performed by the Negro Ensemble Theater on Broadway in 1978, said that workshops like this one are essential in helping African American playwrights maintain their “original voice.”

The current development process, where plays are produced for commercial success rather than artistic merit, has led to a tyranny of the mundane and uninspired, Jones said.

He has high hopes that the Blacksmyths will produce meaningful, three-dimensional pieces.

The workshop writers meet twice a month during the 1994-95 Taper season. Each writer brings a finished play into the workshop and takes a turn sitting in the “hot seat,” where they listen silently to comments and criticisms from their fellow Blacksmyths.

After soaking in the feedback, the writers head home to revise their works.

“The playwrights must put their egos aside and listen. I don’t want to perpetuate mediocrity in the theater,” Richardson said.

The Blacksmyths’ efforts will culminate with a symposium on the state of black theater in June, during which three staged readings and one workshop production will be presented.

The participating writers--Manning, Jones, Sharon Beatty, Paul Benjamin, Ron Brown, Don Cheadle, Nat Colley, Eugene Lee and David Lee Lindsey--were handpicked by Richardson.

Richardson co-founded the Crossroads Theater Company, one of the nation’s largest black professional theater companies. Crossroads introduced Tony Award-winning playwright and director George C. Wolfe.