by Shay Youngblood
2000
OOBR Award Winner
May 4th through May 28th,
2000
Directed by: Stephen Sunderlin
Stage Manager: Douglas R. Held
Technical Director: Michael Schloegl
Featuring: Gena Bardwell, Melody Cooper, Vicky Lambert, Johnnie Mae, Geany Masai, Monica J. Palmer, Kimberly "Q" Purnell, Cheryl Simone, Betty Vaughn
Originally produced in 1988
at the Horizon Theatre in Atlanta and subsequently presented at over 30
regional theaters around the country, “SHAKIN’ THE MESS OUTTA MISERY” combines storytelling, music and dance to recount a young black girl’s
coming of age in the South in the 1960’s. Daughter, the 25 year old
narrator whose mother died when she was young, was raised by the women
in the community. At the age of 12, she began her journey to womanhood
guided by these very diverse, non-traditional, older black women.
As she reflects, Daughter becomes a child again reliving her vivid memories
of growing up and recalling the lessons she learned about survival, healing,
faith and mystery.
Playwright SHAY YOUNGBLOOD,
who based “SHAKIN’...” on her first book, The Big Mama Stories,
was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Playwrighting Prize in 1989.
She also recieved a Best Playwright award at the Hollywood NAACP Theatre
Awards. Her subsequent play “Talking Bones” won the Kennedy
Center's LORRAINE HANSBERRY PLAYWRIGHTING AWARD in 1993. "Square Blues" was an EDWARD ALBEE HONOREE at the 21st Century Playwrights Festival and
recieved a NATIONAL THEATRE AWARD by the Paul Green Foundation. Ms.
Youngblood has received recognition for her fiction, garnering a PUSHCART
PRIZE for her short story, Born with Religion. Her first
novel, Soul Kiss which appeared in 1997 was hailed as “intelligent
and erotic...immensely engrossing and satisfying” by The Washington Post
and that her most recent novel, Black Girl in Paris “is full of
poetic moments.” She has taught at the Syracuse Community Writer's
Project, the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institution for Women, Brown
University and the New School for Social Research. She is a member of the
Dramatists' and Authors' Guild, the National Writers' Union, and the Writers'
Guild of America.
Reviews
Back Stage
Shay Youngblood’s play with music gets its New York debut after over 30 productions elsewhere in the United States. This memory play is based on her book, “The Big Mama Stories” Both center on a young woman, referred to only as “daughter,” born to a single mother who abandoned her.
The child’s upbringing is left in the hands of a group of women gifted in storytelling, prayer, and song. They each teach her important lessons in their individual ways as they prepare to take her “to the river.”
The nine-member ensemble underscores the action with a capella spirituals throughout the show. This works best in a funeral scene, when all of Daughter’s Big Mamas comfort her while she grieves for a dead mother she never knew well.
Cheryl E. Simone, as daughter, is best as a 25 year-old returning to the place where she was raised. When the script calls for her to regress to her childhood years, she becomes a wide-eyed innocent coming of age and coming to grips with a world that is as intriguing as it is intimidating.
The sentimentality of “Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery” is both its greatest asset and its biggest flaw. The play is touching, which is what makes it a success, the type of show all mothers should see with their daughters. It is the playwright’s tendency to mine situations for their feeling rather than their meaning on a more daring level. Had Youngblood chosen to investigate the larger social issues behind the situations her characters get caught in, the show would be both moving and enlightening.
© 2000 Back Stage and BPI Communications Inc. All rights reserved.
nytheatre.com review
by Martin Denton
May 17, 2000
Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery is a joyous, exuberant play about a young woman's coming of age, masterfully directed by Stephen Sunderlin and beautifully performed by nine of the most talented and energetic ladies on any stage in town. Written by Shay Youngblood about a dozen years ago, Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery has only now found its way to New York, courtesy of Sunderlin's Vital Theatre Company. It's a real find, and it wouldn't surprise me if some savvy producer snapped up this exceptional production and installed it for a long run in one of those newly empty off-Broadway houses scattered around the city.
Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery tells the story of an African-American girl and the amazing wise women who raised her. It's structured as a series of reminiscences by Daughter (as she is called), now herself grown up into a smart, self-sufficient young woman; returning from the funeral of the last of her surrogate "mamas," she recalls moments from her childhood, especially the sage advice passed down to her by this remarkable circle of ladies who helped shape her. First and foremost is Big Mama, tough, pious, and pragmatic, guided by faith and common sense to lead a good and proper life. Daughter lives with Big Mama and with her sister Mae Frances, a spirited purveyor of homemade liquor who dallies with local gentlemen at her "factory" every Sunday afternoon.
The other, equally colorful characters remembered with affection by Daughter include Miss Lamama, a loving mountain of a woman with a gift for storytelling; Miss Corrine, a hard-working, lusty lady who runs a beauty shop in her kitchen; Miss Mary, an exotic woman of Caribbean origin who sees the future in her dreams; Miss Tom, a carpenter who lives with another woman named Miss Lily and teaches Daughter about different kinds of love; and Miss Rosa, the dour local undertaker. All provide Daughter with a family unit of love, encouragement, comfort, and advice: whatever their own differences (and they have these aplenty), they are united in their commitment to bring Daughter up right.
The anecdotes that comprise the play are alternately funny, sad, magical, and touching, revealing the hearts and souls of a generation of women whose lives, though difficult, were led with dignity, pride, and courage. Happily, the characters from Daughter's memory are brought to vivid life by the company assembled here. Everyone in the cast has at least one moment to shine: I won't soon forget Geany Masai (Miss Lamama) thundering onto the stage in pursuit of Johnnie Mae (Aunt Mae), caught more or less flagrante delicto with Miss Lamama's husband Otis; or Melody Cooper, as the maverick Miss Tom, teaching Daughter to fish in a nearby creek; or Betty Vaughn as the redoubtable Big Mama, chiding her sister for her liquor business or slowly and elegantly regaling her young charge with yet another wonderful story from her remarkable past.
And then there's Kimberly "Q" Purnell, in a magnificently layered performance as Miss Corrine. For my money, the comic highlight of the show belongs to her, when, following Aunt Mae's assertion that a person can go without sex for a long time, she ponders the notion in a perfectly-timed take that brings the house down: truly thoughtful consideration followed by a knowing rejection of the idea: exquisitely funny and deliciously revelatory of character.
Cheryl Simone is the winningly appealing Daughter at the center of this play: she's onstage for virtually the entire play, convincingly aging from twelve to twenty-five without changing costume or makeup. When her "mamas" reveal the secret of her own real mother's disappearance, or when they take her "to the river" to explain the mysteries of womanhood, we feel what she feels--the warm, loving embrace of people who honestly and deeply care. It's a really nice feeling: the best reason of all for wanting to spend time with the extraordinary women who, nightly, are Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery.
newyork.citysearch.com
Shay Youngblood's "Shakin' the Mess Out of Misery" finally opens this week in New York City after over 30 productions at regional theaters nationwide. Based on the playwright's first book, "The Big Mama Stories," this play is a collection of tales told by a posse of strong women who have collectively raised one Daughter (played by Cheryl E. Simone with sweet, big-eyed wonder). This clan of maternal figures are equally at home swearing on their Bibles, drinking liquor or speaking in tongues, and while the illogic of injustice prevails outside in the real world, "Shakin' the Mess" provides a respite where injustice is always punished "'cuz God don't like ugly."
"Shakin'" begins with a scene in which Daughter remembers her dead grandmother, Big Mama. As she touches the worn surfaces of the rocker and the kitchen table, the ghosts of six women appear to form a circle of song. One by one they introduce themselves: Big Mama (Betty Vaughn) was mother to all; Aunt Mae (Johnnie Mae) was the local liquor brewer who served it uncut from her own kitchen; Lamama (Geany Masai) married an African man to get in touch with her roots; Miss Mary (Gena Bardwell) was the town seer; and Miss Corrine (Kimberly "Q" Purnell) was the beauty shop owner who knew everyone's secrets.
Each of these woman has a story to tell that will serve as her legacy to the next generation. Their illustrative tales are supported by Stephen Sunderlin's simple staging and a minimal amount of props. In one particularly effective scene, a group of housekeepers sits on chairs paired off like bus seats while an unseen white man spits on each and every one of them. (His action is a retributive punishment for the snuff accidentally spit into the blonde hair of his companion in his convertible.) The actual "villains" of most of the stories are never seen: neither the men these ladies love nor the whites for whom they work. "Shakin'" is first and foremost about a world of women.
With a cast nine-strong, and an extremely small 50-seat house, "Shakin'" feels like an intimate ritual played out among friends. That feeling is enhanced by the actors' easy naturalism and the supportive affirmations called out from the audience. These women work as an ensemble. Although some may have more hot-shot credits than others (i.e., principal dancer with Alvin Ailey), all are outstanding performers. So while Aunt Mae's gleeful jitterbug dancing inspires particularly pronounced hollers from the assembled, the exuberance is not an exception. This young girl's homage to the women who raised her is a feel-good play that actually makes you feel good continually ... and without any guilt. —Jen Mitas
off off broadway review
Shakin' That Groove!
Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery
By Shay Youngblood
Directed by Stephen Sunderlin
Review by Andrès J. Wrath
Vital Theatre Company just celebrated its first birthday, and its production of Shay Youngblood's stunning play "Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery" was a worthy cause for a celebration. Although Youngblood's play completely defies conventional theatrical dramaturgy like plot and character development, it does, however, offer a completely engaging, satisfying, and tremendously moving evening of theatre. Not to mention that it also received a superb, stellar production by Vital Theatre Company. At the opening of Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery, Daughter (Cheryl E. Simone) enters the home where she grew up. She explains to the audience that this home represents to her the many voices of the women who raised her and taught her the lessons she needed to learn. Through a series of fragmented, episodic vignettes we learn these moments. Youngblood weaves a tapestry of themes such as love, camaraderie, and survival with expert craftsmanship.
The completed fabric was as complex as it was compelling. The stories ranged from an ordinary bus ride turned into a racial horror show, to Maggie teaching Daughter how to wink at men, to Miss Tom talking about celebrating her 10-year marriage to another woman, to Aunt Mae's affair with Miss Lamama's husband, and finally to Daughter's own search for the tale of her mother Fannie Mae's demise.
Director Stephen Sunderlin showed a fluid and steady hand that allowed his actors to create a deep and rich world of story-telling. The acting in this production was outstanding, with no weak link. Monica J. Palmer's Maggie was a hilarious combination of prostitute and wounded survivor; Johnnie Mae's Aunt Mae and Geany Masai's Miss Lamama gave big, full performances with no false notes; Melody Cooper's Miss Tom was simple and yet very complex (she also gave a very different performance as the feminine Miss Shine); Gena Bardwell's Miss May was captivating; Vicky Lambert was very graceful as Fannie Mae; Kimberly "Q" Purnell was outstanding in the scene in the bus ride in which she turned from a woman full of self-righteousness into one full of intense fear after accidentally spitting out a bug into a white woman's face; Betty Vaughn's Big Mama was Mother Earth personified in a lovely performance; and finally, the play wouldn't have worked without Cheryl E. Simone's performance as Daughter, which by turns was funny, sad, and devastating.
The set was basically a rocking chair and a bare stage, and the lights were minimal but set the right tone for the proceedings. Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery does not offer anything expected; it does, however, offer something else: an evening that leaves its viewer doing most of the searching. As Big Mama says in the play, "A story's like a map, you follow the lines and they'll take you somewhere."
Box Score:
Writing: 2
Directing: 2
Acting: 2
Set: 1
Costumes: 2
Lighting/Sound: 1
Copyright 2000 Andrès J. Wrath
Theatre Mania
Vital Statistics
May 9, 2000
by Josh Godfrey
The Vital Theatre Company symbolizes a rare breed of small theaters left in New York City. It offers no political statements nor does it follow a lofty social agenda. Instead, its goals are quite simple: tell a great story, pay the bills, and provide community. Anyone who knows what life is like for a theater artist in New York knows how complicated these goals can be. But for the Vital Theatre, the answers lie in the words.
The company was founded in March 1999 by Laura Stevens, Scott Embler, Michael Schloegl, and their common denominator, Stephen Sunderlin. After many regional and big-city gigs with little-to-no pay, the quartet realized that these experiences left them cold. Their answer was to start their own company where, if they were not going to get paid, they could at least do work that would feed their souls. The right time revealed the right place, as a space on 42nd Street previously inhabited by The New Group became available. This intimate theater allowed the group to do riskier pieces and establish a strong connection between the actors and their audiences.
The Vital Theatre Company’s latest production is Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery by Shay Youngblood. It is a memory play, which combines storytelling, music, and dance to recount a young black girl’s coming of age in the South in the 1960s. Originally produced in 1988 at the Horizon Theatre in Atlanta, Shakin’ has been mounted at over 30 regional theaters around the country but is only now making its New York debut. Youngblood is thrilled to see the play being produced here, as Manhattan “feels like the center of the universe,”
Shakin’ is based on Youngblood’s book The Big Mama Stories, a collection of short stories in which she created a whole community of characters based on the men and women who raised her in south Georgia. After finishing the book and while living in an artists' colony in the south of France, Youngblood decided that she wanted to bring these characters to life in a theater piece. She cut and pasted pieces of the stories into a more theatrical format and brought it to the Horizon, where she was paired with director Glenda Dickerson. Realizing the material's potential, Dickerson helped Youngblood shape it into a theatrical experience. After the production was very well received, Youngblood suddenly found herself classified as a playwright.
Her main reason for writing Shakin’ was to give voice to her “Big Mamas,” most of whom could not read or write. Music played an integral part in bringing their spirits to life, Youngblood recalls. Music was influential “in their language, in the way they walked, in the air around them.” It was their primary resource to “heal, uplift, soothe, help them to remember and to forget.”
Sunderlin, Vital’s artistic director as well as the production’s director, and Embler, the company’s producing director, are ecstatic about this play. They rave that “works like this are why we’re in the theater.” Simple sets and costumes allow the poetry and dynamic sense of storytelling to come through, giving the production a real sense of intimacy and truth. The ensemble is made up of phenomenally talented African-American actors including Audelco winners Betty Vaughn, Kimberly “Q” Purnell, and Johnnie Mae. Rounding out the cast are Audelco nominee Melody Cooper, Vicky Lambert, Gena Bardwell, Geany Masal, Monica J. Palmer, and Cheryl Simone.
Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery has generated considerable buzz for the Vital Theatre Company, which has extended the play’s run. The company’s operations are funded entirely by ticket sales, which is uncommon in small theater these days. Vital has already attracted over 2,500 patrons—not bad for a theater that turned one in March. It will be exciting to see where the company is 10 years from now.
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