Local Theater Defines Freedom In Fall Cabaret
The Boho Theatre recently launched its virtual cabaret titled The Pursuit of Happiness: A Boho Exploration of Happiness via YouTube.
The cabaret featured 17 BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) artists who expressed their personal definition of freedom through poetry, storytelling and singing cover songs. Sana Selemon, executive director of Boho Theatre and the cabaret’s director, kicked-off the cabaret by noting the live launch of the cabaret fell on August 28, the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.
Natara Easter, one of the artists in the cabaret, performed a spoken word piece titled “How I Want to Be.” During her performance, she described her childhood and adult life as a Black woman. For instance, she used to have one of the biggest smiles until one of her friends asked about her gums.
Throughout her performance, she spoke about the various examples of how she felt forced to fit within the Eurocentric beauty standards. Once she was in a group of friends, all of whom were white, and they all laughed at something. Easter laughed with her entire mouth — showing her gums and tongue - and one of her friends said, “Wait a minute. Lift up your top lip.”
The friend looked at Easter’s gums which were “rich in deep chocolate colors” as Easter described it. Then the teasing began. Easter’s friends began asking, “What’s all that brown stuff in your gums?”
This led Easter to feel so self-conscious of how she smiled and laughed that from that point on she wouldn’t smile as big or she wouldn’t laugh with the entirety of her mouth as she once did before.
She also recalls how she was made fun of for her natural hair because some people called it “clown hair.” She eventually decided to straighten her hair at all times in an effort to avoid any negative comments about it.
She ended her performance by stating, “No one can take freedom from you unless you let them.”
The Boho Theatre, formally known as the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble, began in November 2003. Selemon states that the theatre tries to focus on their own personal mission. Boho’s personal mission would include the four pillars: truth, beauty, freedom, and love.
“We are committed to evaluating what those relationships look like on a human level,” explained Selemon. “And I think that’s something that really can connect to anyone because we are all humans, we all have relationships with other people, we interact with other people.”
The process of putting on the cabaret began about a week and a half before city officials mandated a shelter-in-place order in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Selemon explains that Boho was originally put on a summer cabaret, as it was something they have done before in the past. She wanted to explore freedom and she wanted to see how others explored the subject.
“We had started to reach out to artists in May. And towards the end of...May into June is when the...death of George Floyd had happened,” said Selemon.
After Floyd’s death and the following protests, Boho took a step back to reevaluate their approach to the show. Moving forward, Selemon felt that the show should focus on BIPOC voices. For the cabaret, the artists had creative control over what they wanted to speak about.
“...if they don’t want to talk about...what the state of the world [is in] right now and they want to focus on a happier time of their life or a different context of where freedom might be involved in their life, great,” explained Selemon.
“We would always let them know that it’s really what resonates with them because we didn’t want to...dictate someone’s art.”
According to Selemon, the focus of Boho Theatre is on the intimate details rather than the grand production. Selemon believes that this aspect is what separates Boho Theatre from any other theater in Chicago.
“It’s not necessarily about how grand or how large we can put up production, but how can we, in the simplest way possible, get to the truth of what that story is...in an internal way, we focus a lot on the process of the work,” Selemon said.
The importance of such an event lies in its intimacy. Selemon explains that she loves cabarets because of the authenticity and the connection between the audience and the performer.
“What has been so great about seeing this cabaret on blossom is seeing how some of these artists, how they’ve had these ideas in the back of their mind that they’ve wanted to do something like this before, but they’ve never been given the opportunity, or they never had the time,” explained Selemon.
Stephen Shellhardt, the creative director of the cabaret and the artistic director at Boho, explains that the process of putting the show together was quite different. Both he and Selemon believe that a good process leads to a product that’s just as good.
“Our biggest challenge in this process was that there’s so much stuff online...we wanted to make sure we were intentional with what we were putting out into the world. And we wanted to make sure that what the artists were talking about was authentic,” said Shellshardt.
In the future, Boho strives to tackle social justice issues. As Shellhardt explains, it will have to begin with “listening to our community in our world.” Boho will strive to reach out to new artists and new theaters in order to get more diverse stories.
Shellhardt explains that the action taken has to be intentional and that it’s in line with Boho’s mission. He also explains that diversity shouldn’t just stop at the cast; it should extend to the people who write the stories or those who produce the shows. Having a diverse cast on stage is only the beginning.
Shellhardt hopes the viewers of The Pursuit of Happiness are moved by the stories of the artists, maybe even alarmed by some of them. He hopes that people watching the show will absorb the content and reflect on what they’re watching.
Meanwhile, Selemon said she feels that art and the artists spoke for themselves. She’s more proud of these artists and she’s happy that Boho was able to bring them together for such an event.