by Angela Carroll

This article was first published in DC Theatre Scene. 

“Just what kind of man would abandon his son?” This is the central question writer/performer W. Allen Taylor has been asking in his twenty-year running play In Search of My Father … Walkin’ Talkin’ Bill Hawkins now at Atlas Performing Arts Center.  

In Search of My Father is a reflective and meandering musical drama about Taylor’s journey to learn more about his father Bill Hawkins, the first black disc jockey in Cleveland, Ohio. We learn about Hawkins through Taylor’s brief encounters with the people who knew him; friends, relatives, and intimates. Through their earnestly portrayed recollections, and Taylor’s wounded personal ruminations about his fathers’ absence, audiences explore mythologized and real narratives about Hawkins’ life.

Watching Taylor transform himself in Atlas’ intimate theater was a powerful experience. The actor stands alone on the stage in a simple shirt and slacks. Each time he addresses the audience we are introduced to a new character speaking from a distinct era within the 1950s into the mid-1970s. At times, Taylor is a small boy on a rocking horse, or a preteen who begs for his mother to tell him stories about his father. In other moments he is a young adult, an ambitious DJ for a college radio station, the aging matriarch of a Baptist church, or a cool jazzman.

Relying on very few props; a scarf and pearl earrings, a gray fedora, a cigarette and pool cue stick, Taylor personifies a host of memorable characters. An impressive dancer, in one scene he leaps from popular dances like the Hustle to the Jerk and in another he lovingly sings the ballad “Body and Soul”. Taylor’s skill as a performer is catching and helps to create the feeling that our journey through his memories is an adventure.

His father, we learn, broke through a longstanding color line. Until his hiring by Cleveland radio stations in 1948, media outlets and industries at large in Cleveland and across the nation fervently enforced segregationist and exclusionary hiring policies.

Taylor tells us that Hawkins’ decision to showcase emerging and established black musicians expanded their mainstream appeal, and radically shifted the landscape of broadcast radio. The wit and charm of Hawkins quick-talkin’ broadcasts sealed his fame. In Search of My Father honors Hawkins’ legacy and celebrates the music that catapulted his career. Taylor uses music to underscore the tensions and triumphs of the play, from Al Green to Aretha Franklin, Thelonious Monk to Billie Holiday, Big Mama Thornton and Mahalia Jackson, among others.

Taylor’s obsessive quest to learn about his father through the people who knew and loved him is illuminated by a series of intimate conversations. The dialogs he has with his mother are particularly resonant. Their talks evolve gradually from the curt banter of an elusive mother and a curious child to emotional admissions that propel the story forward. It is only after Taylor becomes an adult that his mother feels comfortable enough to tell him the truth, a revelation that is years too late to be of any use to her son. I was moved by Taylor’s quiet portrayal of his mother, always in the throes of a mundane task, the washing and drying of dishes, the mending of worn garments. His mother speaks from familiar domestic interiors, at the sink of her kitchen or sitting in the rocking chair of her living room. It is in those subtle moments, that Taylors’ performance becomes transcendent.

The play oscillates between Taylor’s exuberant desire to uncover more clues, and the crippling anger he harbors about having an absentee father. The anxieties Tayler feels but rarely expresses about his father are evidenced in his portrayal of himself as a stylized version of Hawkins’ unique broadcast persona. Both comical and cutting, the DJ directly confronts the resentments Taylor maintains about their nonexistent relationship. Taylor holds a vintage chrome mic in his hand, and leans in deeply over the booth towards the audience as he speaks, “You want to know why I cut radio loose,” he retorts to the unseen Hawkins, “because I didn’t want to be anything like you, Daddy-o!”

In Search of My Father offers a unique perspective on the power of reconciliation and forgiveness.

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In Search of My Father: Walkin’ Talkin’ Bill Hawkins Written and Performed by W. Allen Taylor. Original Direction: Ellen Sebastian Chang. Set Design: David White. Production Manager: Klyph Stanford. Asst. Production Manager: Kristina Jackson. Lighting Design: Walter Holden andElliot Lanes. Sound Design: W.A.T. & Dustin Toshiyuki. Master Electrician: Aaron Waxman . Stage Manager: Elliot Lanes. Assistant State Manager: Norbert Thompson. Reviewed by Angela N. Carroll.

This article was first published by TAGG and can be found on their site here.

The afterglow of the Supreme Court’s 2015 rule on marriage equality finally felt like something tangible had progressed into our lives and homes. The decision felt like a finally released sigh that marked an elevation of rights for LGBTQ people of the nation.

Although many collectively celebrated the long-awaited, landmark decision, the decades long campaign for the freedom to marry winded down to an end, a behind the scenes effort that takes center stage in Eddie Rosenstein’s exceptional documentary “The Freedom to Marry.”

The film follows Evan Wolfson, founder of the organization Freedom to Marry, his team, and those in the LGBTQ community the entire year leading up to the Supreme Court ruling. The film emphasizes that the fight for marriage equality’s increased visibility has been propelled by people like Wolfson, whose everyday work was dominated by finding new angles and approaches to outline the argument for marriage equality.

Interspersed between historical context of the fight for the rights for the LGBTQ community are countdown clips featuring Wolfson and his team. Wolfson has often been seen as the proprietor behind the movement to legalize same-sex marriage and started his fight for equal rights nearly thirty years ago.

After growing up in Pittsburgh (alongside director Rosenstein), Wolfson went to Harvard Law in 1983, where he wrote a thesis entitled “Same-sex Marriage and Morality: The Human Rights Vision of the Constitution” that outlined the argument for marriage equality for the community LGBTQ.

This was the thesis that led him to founding Freedom to Marry. Alongside National Campaign director Marc Solomon, the documentary shows the pair travelling to rallies across the entire nation before the Supreme Court decision came down. The film reveals the often-difficult terrain that comes with promoting equality for the LGBTQ community, including clips of homophobic protests and outright protests against the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Juxtaposing the opposing side of the argument are real stories of couples and families who want the same rights as anybody else. Part of promoting the legalization of marriage equality was introducing the universal notion of parental love; that LGBTQ families wanted the best for the children and their families, above all else, just like heterosexual couples. It was a touching collective truth that became exemplified through the stories of regular families and their stories.

By spotlighting ordinary people who were denied the legality of their families, the campaign for marriage equality became even more necessary and nuanced. April and Jane, a lesbian couple from Michigan, agreed to be the plaintiffs, a decision that required time and energy dedicated to a cause that was bigger than just their family.

“By denying marriage to same sex couples, we’re denying not only the protection to the adults, which is not only independently important,” said Mary Bonauto, a GLAAD lawyer who made one of the arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges. “We’re denying those protections and that security that would come from having married parents.”

Producer Jenni Olson highlighted the usage of these stories as one of the biggest successes of the documentary. “Regular people found a way to stand up,” said Olson. “It’s incredible that they had the courage and willingness to say that we want to make a difference, we want to make things better for our family, but also better for everyone. Now more than ever we need those stories.”

Marriage equality felt like the obvious, mandatory choice for some, and the ruling came with a feeling of “finally.” We forget that this decision, as overdue as it may have seemed, took decades to fight for. We forget the sacrifices and efforts made so that not only would no future generations have to fight for marriage equality, but that this decision does not end the fight for equality on every front for the LGBTQ community.

Olson talked about how almost everyday we wake up and feel overwhelmed and discouraged by the state of the world. It is films like these that remind you that there will always be regular people together and stepping up to make change. “I would like to think there’s another chapter coming,” Wolfson wistfully said at the end of film, signifying another generation will continue the fight for equality.