I’ve always been a lover of the arts for a zillion years. Film, television, radio and theatre are all powerful mediums. But there’s something magical and powerful about live theatre. Joe Morton, Loretta Devine, Lance Reddick began their careers in theatre. Black voices of theatre take you to a whole other realm which brings me to Dinner in America. I have various views of what elements made it brillant and what repulsive elements took away from what could have been a stellar piece. Here’s a snippet:

Bret Gellman: Will you please contribute. Say something?

Joe Morton: You want me to say something. Fine I’ll say something. You, you people your not a race you are a virus. You destroy the world. Everything beautiful you poison. You drag us from our home, you rape our daughters, murder are sons, you crack our spines and do all you can to break our will.

Joe Morton: You stab us and then you put the knife in our hands and tell us it’s our fault. And if you don’t do it yourself you stand by close your eyes and pretend that there’s nothing wrong. And then you pray to your God to silence our screams so that you can enjoy the happiness we built for you with our blood.

Joe Morton: But it’s not your fault. It’s the only way you know how to be and the only thing that will change anything is if another virus comes along and does to you what you do to us and I hope that happens very soon.

Brett Gellman: Wow this evening obviously hasn’t gone as I’d hoped. And I think I’m having a full on panic attack right now so I’m going to go to the bathroom to get myself together and I hope when I come back you don’t see me as the devil.