Flyin West at Proctors tells of neglected Black history – The Saratogian

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. Jean-Remy Monnay, the founder and artistic director of The Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York insists the mission of the company is to tell good stories.

The best stories, he says, are those with a good dramatic core and informs and introduces an audience to unknown events and experiences. He insists they are not only stories for Black audiences.

Even with the title Black Theater in the companys title and producing many plays center about racism, Monnay insists the stories they tell are about injustice. Everyone will enjoy and learn something from attending one of our productions, he says. Its sad to realize the stories we tell are buried and almost forgotten.

As a case in point, he points to the play, Flyin West that the company is offering tonight through Sunday at the G.E. Theater at Proctors. I spend as much time coaching the characters about the history of the time the play is set, the social conditions and the political culture as much as I do working on character development. I am always reminding the actors people in the audience are learning this part of United States history for the first time.

He is right.

Probably most people know of the Homestead Act of 1862. Likely, fewer know little more than it granted 160 acres of land, mostly in the middle-west and western parts of the country, to anyone who would live on and improve the land for six years. Hardly anyone realizes the bill was altered over the years and changed the face of the country.

Sadly, no one associates the Act with forcing the relocation of Native American tribes to provide space for the beneficiaries of the Homestead Act.

On a positive note it provided former slaves an opportunity for starting a new life. Indeed, Nicodemus, Kansas, in which the plays is set, had a population of 26,000 African-Americans, many of which were single women.

Between 1865-through 1877 Nicodemus was one the largest and most prosperous Black communities in the country.

With Post-Reconstruction politics creating Jim Crow laws, the plight of the former slaves and women became worse and made migrating a viable option for the poor and harassed. The success also opened doors for white speculators to exploit people out of the land they developed.

Monnay feels the play is important on many levels. One is to show that the west was not settled only by white males. Flyin West takes place in 1898 and centers about four totally divergent women who formed a family to settle the land.

Sophie and Minnie, who are as close as sisters, shares their homestead with an elderly neighbor. Miss Leah, who was born into slavery, lives with them and is cared for by other women. Fannie and a neighbor Wil (correct) Parish are in love, but are too shy to admit it.

He also points out the freedom the women sought was not only political. They craved independence to raise a family who could work together to cultivate the land. The dream was to live in a Black utopia.

That dream changes when Sophies younger sister, Minnie, returns from London where she married Frank, an older man who is of mixed race. They come to visit, but Frank begins to lust after the womens success.

Frank introduces into the play the issue of mixed-race marriages in the 19th and 20th centuries. He is self-loathing as he considers himself white and is so light-skinned he often passes as white.

However, after his father died he is rejected by his white relatives and is cut off from the family fortune.

He takes his anger out by beating his wife and trying to swindle the women so he can sell and ingratiate himself with wealthy white land speculators.

One theme within the play that Monnay especially admires is the strength and sisterhood amongst the women. He seems particularly fond of Miss Leah. Who verbalizes the plays belief that the future of the women is dependent that they remember their pasts and the injustices they overcame.

He promises that the audience will care about each woman, admire their tenacity and strength of character. He also believes a lot of people will be googling the Homestead Act.

The play will be a staged reading with actors performing in costumes. They will have script in hand.

Flyin West plays at the G.E. Theatre at Proctors in Schenectady. It is offered at 7:30 p.m. Thursday Saturday, and 4 p.m. Sunday. For tickets go to capitalrep.org

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Flyin West at Proctors tells of neglected Black history - The Saratogian