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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 2003)
34 J o s t «M t ' february 7.2003 THEATER Money's fancy Flooney’s Theater Company presents The Langston Hughes Project by A nthony D avis PHOTO BY ANTHONY DAVIS “ He was a true intellectual/’ says Benjamin “ Flooney” Hardy of Langston Hughes, “ one who understood complicated things and simplified them, making them available to many others” elcome to the year that marks the 101st anniversary of the birth of Langston Hughes— famed African American writer (and alleged homo sexual) of the 20th century and central figure in the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. A prolific writer, he chronicled the African American experience through both poetry and prose. Fhxmey’s Theater Gtmpany, founded in 1972 by Benjamin “Flooney” Hardy, has dedi cated itself to presenting African American authors and, more specifically, its signature piece, The Langston Hughes Project. The theater groups concept is based on what Hughes called “The Suitcase Theater”— put a pnxluction in a travel hag, take it with you, open it up, and have a show. Flooney and a number of kx:al actors have been doing it for 30 years. Flooney’s love affair with theater and Hughes began in 1970 when he volunteered to play Black Panther Bobby Seal in a street perform ance with Portlands Storefront Theater. He had read Hughes’ work before majoring in African American history at Baltimore’s Morgan State University, but eventually a professor intrixluced him to a different Hughes. “He presented Langston in an academic environment, which required that 1 would do some reading and writ ing and intermingling with the material.” Be like Flooney Reading this stuff will make anyone a Langston Hughes scholar: • The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes edited by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel » The Big Sea: An Auto- The P « * laureate biography by Langston 1920s Harlem Hughes • The Life of Langston Hughes Volume 1: 1902 - 1941:1, Too, Sing America by Arnold Rampersad • The Life of Langston Hughes Volume 2: 1941- 1967:1 Dream a World by Arnold Rampersad • Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem by Faith Berry Fkxmey went on to New York state for a post graduate degree at Gnnell University’s African Studies and Research Center. Returning to Port land, he acted in other local prixluctions until he started his own troupe and began performing African American playwrights. Fkxmey can also channel the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in per formance, but The Langston Hughes Project, which runs Feb. 7 to 9 at the Old Church, is his pride and joy. With a life and work so rich in material, Hugh es gives players plenty to work with. “What we do is not about his life; it’s his work being performed,” Fkxmey explains. “1 try to educate and entertain— that’s my concept of my theater group.” Part of this education is opening up the lives and work of African Americans to the greater public. “1 have a degree in African American history, and I’m Afrcxxmtric,” says Fkxmey. “1 seek out writers and poets...of African origin because that’s where my inter ests lay intellectually. Not just because 1 am black or physical brown, but that’s where my intellectual and cultural curiosities are.” F kxmey opens The Langston Hughes Project with a talk about the writer so people will know who he was. Then p<xits perform dra matic readings, and one of the actors brings alive one of his most popular characters, “Jesse B. Sem ple" (as in “Just Be Simple," Hughes’ preferred writing style). There are variations to each show. This play-of-sorts dtx:s not openly discuss Hughes’ sexuality because, Fkxmey says, they don’t feel the need to. “He never did," he notes. However, actors perform ptx:ms like “The Negro Mother,” in which Hughes wrote from the perspective of a woman in the first person. They leave it to the audience to make any type of conclusions. Fkxmey himself is heterosexual but has both a daughter and nephew who identify as gay. “The fact that [Hughes] was gay is kind of ir relevant,” he asserts, "but if we kx>k at it in the context of the times...people were in the closet and not open about their sexuality. He was a privately gay person, but you could read it in his autobiography— not that he said it openly, but he left room there for you to read it."
