
 Producing theater is not quick in the age of COVID, but giving up isn’t an choice for the Bronze Collective Theatre Festival. Now in its eighth yr, the competition was designed to get on problems.
“Artists are like superheroes,” claims Reuben Tapp, 1 of the founders and curators. “They really don’t succumb to issues, they renovate them. They obtain the natural beauty in them.”
The Bronze Collective Theatre Competition, scheduled to carry out at the Multi-use Cultural Community Center on Atlantic Ave., from Feb. 16 to 19, began as a handful of Black theater artists meeting up above snacks. As co-founder David Shakes places it, they were being searching to “promote and solidify the id of Black theater.”
Extensive just before Shakes connected with Rapp and neighborhood playwright Robert Djed Snead about a new venture, Shakes had labored with famous Black writers and artists, like Amiri Baraka, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, and Samuel L. Jackson.
When he and Rapp met at Mood Makers bookstore in Village Gate with the bookstore’s operator and Sankofa Pageant producer, Curtis Rivers, their original target was to share sources and knowledge among Black theater artists in Rochester.
At initially, not a lot came of it. But as Tapp claims, “When you really don’t know what to do, believe about it and put some action to it.”
In this circumstance, motion meant mounting a theater competition by seeking out Black producers, directors, and writers keen for an audience. The competition would give guidance, such as rehearsal areas, creative feedback, and publicity.
But very first it needed a name.
Tapp was motivated by Antonio Maceo, the Cuban basic regarded as “the Bronze Titan” who led independence fighters in their wrestle against Spain. He was also drawn to the word “bronze” since it addresses a spectrum of Black people, from truthful skinned to darkish.
As the title suggests, the Bronze Collective doesn’t shy absent from the political electric power of art.
“Art is not just for art’s sake,” Shakes states. “It’s to inspire, to teach, to uplift, to symbolize perspectives. There is certainly significantly to be mentioned about utilizing art as a protect and as a weapon to protect oneself, guard oneself, and hopefully inspire and teach other folks.”
Guided by this philosophy, the festival has showcased an extraordinary selection of artists and functions, such as cross-disciplinary theater parts involving movie, visible arts, dance, spoken phrase, and gospel.

 Having A Possibility
Just one artist who has grown with the enable of the festival is Karen Culley. A sixth-grade science trainer at Rochester Academy Charter Faculty, she is also a frequently manufactured playwright and publicity photographer.
Culley honed her performs for yrs, but struggled to find a venue eager to take a opportunity on an rising Black playwright. “I was trying to determine out: How do you do this?” she suggests. “How do you get your work out?”
None of her submissions led to possibilities right until director Gary DeWitt Marshall read an excerpt from her regionally-inspired enjoy “Monologues on Clarissa Street” at an open up mic and approached her about carrying out a staged reading with the Bronze Collective.
“When I uncovered out my perform was acknowledged, I could have pushed my automobile property,” she says. “I was just that satisfied.”
Since then, the piece has been offered many situations, which has encouraged her to carry on creating. The Bronze Collective has released her to many neighborhood Black actors and playwrights, whom she now follows and supports. “It’s a very near-knit group,” she states.
Culley has used her background as a mental wellness counselor to create about Black psychological well being, showcasing characters with depression and personality issues. She has also written about youngsters in 1960s Birmingham, Alabama, and is at present composing about the school-to-jail pipeline.
“Nobody can explain to our tale like we can,” she states of Black artists. “There are factors that need to have to be said and mentioned.”
For this year’s competition she’s presenting anything a bit different. “The Legend of Double Ax Max” is a horror tale done as a 1940s-design and style radio perform, with sound consequences built by Foley artists .
The engage in tells the tale of an enslaved woodcutter who gets separated from his sweetheart, who is also enslaved, when she is bought. He exacts revenge by likely on a killing spree with his ax. After he is hung for his crimes, he arrives back to existence.
“My daughter stated, ‘I just cannot think you wrote this. Mom, you really don’t even like horror,’” Culley states with a snicker. “I like a obstacle.”
The engage in has already been offered virtually 2 times — the moment at the 2020 Rochester Fringe Pageant and as soon as on Halloween. The Bronze Collective Theatre Competition performance on Feb. 19 will be the first time it will have been carried out in individual.
The other parts this 12 months are “Mr. Soul!” a staged reading by Laura Thomas on Feb. 17, a youth theater piece making use of puppets and masks known as “Anansi Tales REDUX” on Feb. 18, and “Spotlight on Jonah” by Almeta Whitis on Feb. 19.
For far more facts on the 2022 Bronze Collective Theatre Pageant at the MuCCC, such as overall performance moments and ticket data, go to muccc.org. Evidence of vaccination and masks are necessary to go to.
Katherine Varga is a freelance author for Metropolis. Suggestions on this short article can be directed to Daniel J. Kushner, CITY’s arts editor, at [email protected].
