WWW.BLACKCURRANTPRESS.COM

PP OO OO RR -- DD UU CC II NN GGTT HH EE AA TT RR EE && FF II LL MM

AA TT BB LL AA CC KK SS PP EE CC TT RR UU MM

WRITTEN BY CARL CLAY

ISBN�#�978-0-9817111-4-0

PUBLISHED�BY�BLACKCURRANT�PRESS�COMPANY.��

ALL�RIGHTS�RESERVED.

COPYRIGHT�(C)�2009�BY�CARL�CLAY.

ALL�RIGHTS�RESERVED.

EDITED�BY�CARL�CLAY,�BEVERLY�A.�BURCHETT,�AND�JUDY�L.�WHITE��

ALL�RIGHTS�RESERVED.��NO�PART�OF�THIS�PUBLICATION�MAY

BE�REPRODUCED,�STORED�IN�A�RETRIEVAL�SYSTEM,�OR�TRANSMITTED,�

IN�ANY�FORM�

OR�BY�ANY�MEANS,�ELECTRONIC,�MECHANICAL,�PHOTOCOPYING,�

RECORDING,�OR�OTHERWISE,�WITHOUT�THE�PRIOR�

WRITTEN�PERMISSION�OF�BLACKCURRANT�PRESS�COMPANY.

PRINTED�IN�THE�U.S.A.

As a child I always wanted to be a pilot but quickly dropped that ideawhen I learned pilots have to have 20/20 vision and can’t wear glasses. I knewI would never be a pilot with my eye sight. Yet the idea that in the theatre youcan move at top speeds and roll in and out of the clouds of your mind and travelto places and meet people from every culture in the world without leaving theground intrigued me. So in a funny kind of way I became a pilot of the theatre.The theatre has given me more frequent flyer miles across the landscapes ofhuman understanding in my community than Delta or American Airlines couldhave ever done. Experimenting with theater became my aircraft. From myvisionary seat I could search the sky and bear witness to what is possible. Myexperience in helping to build a community theatre has been simply sublime!Our first production went off very well, I remember everybody was dressed inblack, but we were doing something different in 1970. We were talking about“Black Love” instead of “hate Whitey.”

Carl Clay got his reputation in theatre and film the oldfashion way. He earned it! Carl Clay today has emergedas a long distance runner in the African Americantheatre community. His book Poor-ducing Theatre &Film at Black Spectrum is a must read! I’m glad I'vehelped play a part in Carl's dream to create a truecommunity based theatre institution.

Melvin Van Peebles

A3er 40 years Black Spectrum 1eatre Co. is still goingstrong and still Poor-ducing. It’s living proof that goodBlack don't crack. Congratulations!

Comedian Paul Mooney

Carl Clay’s work at Black Spectrum 1eatre isunparallel. It has been an absolute pleasure to know andwork with him for the last 30 years. I also applaud Poor-ducing theatre as a chronicle of his hard work in buildingBlack Spectrum 1eatre 2om the ground up.

Jazz/Fusion Artist Roy Ayers

Carl Clay has my utmost respect as a 2iend andcolleague in the Performing Arts. As the Founder ofBlack Spectrum 1eatre, of which I am a proud alumna,Carl is one of the few A2ican American 1eatre Ownerswho has not only held on to his own space for the past40 years, but whose business intellect and artistic visioncontinues to expand. 1ank God for Carl Clay, whogave me a place to work my own one-woman play, “ARose Among 1orns, a Tribute to Rosa Parks,” withprofessional support, respect, and love, when I returnedmany years later. Carl Clay is vital to our Black ArtsCommunity and a model for our youth.

Actress Ella Joyce

FOREWORD

On Poor-ducing Theatre & Film at Black Spectrum by Carl Clay An Overview by Woodie King, Jr.

A theater grows in Queens. No, this will not be similar to Betty Smith'sfiction, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. This is the 40-year journey of BlackSpectrum Theatre in Southeast Queens and, by its history and definition, itmust grow out of the journey from childhood into adulthood of its FoundingDirector and Executive Producer, Carl Clay. And, yes, it is similar to thejourney of so many of us who work in Black theatre; similar in that all aredefined by the unique personalities and experiences of their Leaders.

Informed by the second great migration relocating many blacks fromThe South to the urban north (in Clay's family from Alabama to Harlem andfinally into Queens) and influenced by the Black aesthetics of Baldwin, Fanon,Cleaver, Huey P. Newton and Lerone Bennett, the music of Oscar Brown, Jr.and Miles Davis, and later German Expressionist theatre, Clay became a poet,playwright and Nationalist while still in his teens. He and his brothers, thoughfrom the relative safety of Queens, witnessed the assassinations of MalcolmX and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as the riots in Harlem, Detroit, andNewark.

Carl Clay experienced censorship for the first time with his first originalplay, despite its successful endorsement from his fellow high school students.This, of course, infuriated Clay, who came of age during the Black

Consciousness movement of the `60's. Therefore, if Newtown High Schoolwould not present his play he would produce it himself. Evolving from theeducational institution's banning of his work, a producer was born. In 1969Carl Clay was instrumental in founding the theater that he has led for the past40 years, Black Spectrum Theatre & Film Company.

Poor-ducing Theatre is as much about Black Spectrum Theatre as it isabout Carl Clay. In this memoir/autobiography Clay takes us from NewtownH.S. to Pace University; writing and recording for music genius, Roy Ayers;and a pivotal "apprenticeship" with the genius of black cinema, Melvin VanPeebles. It is this relationship that gave rise to the screenwriter and filmmakerClay was to become - making quality films on the smallest of budgets. Later,at Black Spectrum, Carl Clay included film production as in integral part ofthe theatre company. Poor-ducing Theatre gives us a behind the scenes lookat over a dozen of Black Spectrum's hit plays and films.

Of particular interest are the politics of funding for the arts, especiallyfunding for Black Theatre. Clay explores the method used by some fundersto divide artists and institutions, using Tom Lloyd's museum as an example.

As the memoir begins Clay is being honored with the prestigiousproducer's Award at the 2003 National Black Theatre Festival in WinstonSalem, North Carolina. As he is introduced by the late Larry Leon Hamlin,founder of the festival, to thunderous applause from the 2000 attendees, his lifeflashes before him. Poor-ducing Theatre allows us to see and understand thejourney which delivered him to that auspicious occasion.

AA NN II GG HH TT TT OO RR EE MM EE MM BB EE RR

Nothing I imagined could have prepared me for the steps Iwas now taking into the convention center of WinstonSalem, N.C. that warm evening in August 2003. With

camera’s flashing and the sound of what seemed like over 100 Africandrummers, I cautiously entered. The sound was deafening, numbingand soul shaking all at once. There before me was a room filled withthousands of people cheering, and applauding as our line of theatreartists, directors, and producers entered. Among us were seasonedactors, old timers, and TV stars of the present and of days gone by. Itwas the gathering of a familiar clan of theater elders and icons from allover the country that walked in front of me and behind me.

A chill ran down my spine. I wasn’t reading a book or watchinga TV show about history, I was living it. It was surreal. Among thecrowd were many of my heroes of the Black theatre movement and TVstars I had admired and looked up to for longer than I can remember.Yet, what gave me more of a rush and an unsettled nervousness wasthat tonight I would be honored as Producer of the Year for BlackSpectrum Theatre’s award winning production of August Wilson’s ThePiano Lesson.

Just steps from me walked one of my biggest idols, Bette Howard,who had helmed the production as Black Spectrum’s resident Director.

Tonight, she would also receive an award for her dedicatedcommitment to the African American Theatre as a Director. I waswalking on what I was to learn was sacred ground in Winston Salem,N.C. and I was beginning to understand why. There was this feeling,as I walked through the convention center that night, that the spirits ofthe ancestors were also gathering. I continued through the room withpeople reaching out to shake my hand as others flashed picture afterpicture. Indeed there was something primal going on here, and it wasaffecting me in ways I can’t exactly explain. Suddenly, flashes of mylife in the theatre rushed into my conscious mind, my own beginnings,my parents, my struggles, my failures, my victories. Moments later Iam at the honorees’ dais. As I sit I am in awe of those sitting next tome, around me, in front and in back of me. And, more than ever, I feelthe presence of ancestors, who I am now convinced are sitting next tome too.

There was Sherman Hemsley of The Jeffersons TV show. Overto my right, down in front, was Richard Roundtree of Shaft moviefame. As I looked up to my right, there sat my friend and mentortheatre icon, Woodie King. There’s famed stage and screen actressessDiahann Carroll and Barbara Montgomery a few seats away. TedLange of TV’s Love Boat, wasn’t far away and Rockmond Dunbar ofthe TV show Soul Food shook my hand as he took his seat and said,

“Congratulations.” Down to my left sat Philip Rose. He waved congratulations. Yet,

it was he who deserved the congratulations. He originally produced ARaisin in the Sun on Broadway and introduced to the world whatHarlem already knew, that Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Lloyd Richardsand the other members of that play were destined for greatness. Mr.Rose broke down barriers that continue to reverberate to this day. Yet,there he was. As I scanned the table just a few chairs from me satJoseph Marcell, and a smile came across my face, I had always enjoyedhis work as the butler on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

That night I must have shaken hands with hundreds of actors bothnew and familiar who joined in this ritualized celebration of Blacktheatre from all over America. There’s Novella Nelson, and TonyAward winning Diva Tonya Pinkins. They’re both congratulating me!I had years earlier gone to see both Novella and Tonya in Broadwayshows. Novella gave us Having Our Say, and Tonya had given usJelly’s Last Jam. Then I traded smiles across the room with my friendand number one queen of keeping it real, Ms. Ella Joyce. She wouldcongratulate me several times that night and put the evening inperspective for me. After all, this was my first time here. I alwaysrespected Ella because she started in the theatre like I did and withexcellent acting chops and a little good fortune landed on one of the toprated black TV shows of the 90’s, Roc. She’s one of those folks youalways hoped would make-good because not only is she extremelytalented but also a real and genuine person. Yet it was her down toearth assessment and history about the evening’s guests that now hadme bursting with laughter.

“Brother Carl”, she said, “You are to be congratulated big timefor what has brought you to this convention center tonight as Producerof the Year for the festival. Nobody understands like I understand whatit must be to keep a theatre running for more than 35 years.”

Ella’s funny, because before I could go into my humble bag, shetold me as one of unofficial founding divas of the festival to just sitback and enjoy this.

“Larry Leon has chosen you to receive this award this yearbecause both you and Bette Howard really deserve it.”

Ella’s kind words sat with me as I thought about what I would sayonce I got up onto the podium that night. Many times I had watchedWoodie King and many others, like the Negro Ensemble Company’sDouglas Turner Ward, and the National Black Theater’s Barbara AnnTeer, and the other elders of the Black theatre movement come forwardand accept accolades for their work. But to me, my journey had alwaysbeen so very different. I always considered myself simply ajourneyman in search of the next theatre experience, never quitestopping to realize it had been 35 years that I had been doing this.

As they began to make the announcements welcoming everyone,my mind drifted off a bit as sounds of more than 2,000 people whofilled the auditorium became silent. I thought about how this all came

to be, this night. How did I get here? What was it that has allowed meto sustain my theatre for so long? Over 35 years? I knew the answerin my heart. I had never planned any of this. I had no idea that mythirst for creative expression would lead me to this place where theancestors were now gathering, and the heros and she-ros, and artisticwarriors and creative forces of our time would meet to renewthemselves. After all, I didn’t have a big name or a big career. All Iever had was a vision, a pen, a belief system and a lot of love to pursuewhat I thought things should be like in my community. I had no ideait would lead here.

There were other honorees that night, and Diahann Carroll andMalcolm Jamal Warner brought them up to share what each of theirjourneys had been about. I listened to each one of them as they spokefrom the dais. They each talked about their lives and how they hadgotten to this point. Another rush of consciousness grabbed me and Ibegan asking questions of myself. Going back…deep questions withechoing answers from a time that I thought I had forgotten…goingback.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carl Clay (Founder / Executive Producer) is just finishing his successful runof the hit play “Single Black Female,” and “Kingfish Amos & Andy” whichreceived rave reviews from NY Times, Daily News, Amsterdam News,Queens Chronicle and host of other publications. As the Founder and CEO ofBlack Spectrum Theatre, Mr. Clay has produced over 150 plays, trained wellover 1000 actors and written and directed 15 plays, 25 films aimed at African-American youth, including a feature length film now being released on DVDon Netflix and Blockbusters. He’s a lyricist who’s written songs for RoyAyers, Norman Conners, Black Rob, and others. He has produced over 40major jazz concerts with such artists as Roberta Flack Freddie Hubert, RoyAyers, and Najee. And to his credit, Mr. Clay helped launched the careers ofsuch notable actors as Lisa Nicole Carson (The Ally McBeal TV Show) in herfirst feature film, Desiree Coleman (Mamma, I Want to Sing), and film &television actress, Ella Joyce, Broadway actress Deborah Burrell-Cleveland,Debra Blackwell Cook, and Carlease Burke.

Education: P. S. 15, J.H.S. 59, Newtown High School, Pace University B.A.Education/Theatre, Brooklyn College Graduate School Theatre & TVDirecting, Third World Cinema, Columbia University Institute for Non-profitManagement, and Rockport International School of Film & Television

Poor- \�pu�r, �po�r\ adjective-Middle English poure, from Anglo-French povre, pore,from Latin pauper; akin to Latin paucus little lacking material possessions b : of,relating to, or characterized by poverty�2 a : less than adequate : meager b lean,emaciated�6 : barren.

ducing- ducere to lead — tow transitive verb.1 : to offer to view or notice�2 : to give birth or rise to : yield�3 : to extend in length,area, or volume 4 : to make available for public exhibition or dissemination: as a : toprovide funding for b : to oversee the making of �5 a : to cause to have existence orto happen : bring about b : to give being, form, or shape to : make; especially :manufacture�6 :to compose, create, or bring out by intellectual or physical effort�

Poor-ducing: ….. Poor-ducing: to dream & imagine with near deillusionary belief:To lead and function with inadequate resources: To adapt: to overcome impossibleobstacles: to bring to market and/or create plays, films, concerts, poetry, whilestretching pennies and materials to their absolute outer limits: to effectively bring intobeing something with nothing, day in and day out: Poor-ducer ….to do with lessknowing your artistic counterparts have the luxury of doing it with triple the resourcesthat you have: Poor-duce to squeeze water from a rock, while borrowing from peterto pay Paul.

1 pro•ducePronunciation: \prə-�düs, prō-, -�dyüs\Function: verb

Main Entry: poorPronunciation: \�pu�r, �po�r\Function: adjectiveEtymology: Middle English poure, from Anglo-French povre, pore, from Latinpauper; akin to Latin paucus little and to Latin parere to give birth to, produce —more at few, pareDate: 13th century1 a : lacking material possessions b : of, relating to, or characterized by poverty�2 a: less than adequate : meager b : small in worth�3 : exciting pity <you poorthing>�4 a : inferior in quality or value b : humble, unpretentious c : mean, petty�5: lean, emaciated�6 : barren, unproductive —used of land�7 : indifferent,unfavorable�8 : lacking a normal or adequate supply of something specified —often used in combination <oil-poor countries>— poor•ish \-ish\ adjective— poor•ness noun

PP OO OO RR -- DD UU CC II NN GG

TTHHEEAATTRREE && FFIILLMMAATT BBLLAACCKK SSPPEECCTTRRUUMM

WRITTEN BY

CARL CLAY