More Words, References & Meanings

Hilton Head Howards versus the Vineyard LeVays (p. 6)
After the Civil War, many blacks bought land on Hilton Head Island and, similar to Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, developed their own self-contained community.http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/02/us/tourism-enriches-an-island-resort-but-hilton-head-blacks-feel-left-out.html

sycophantic relationship to the well heeled (p. 6)
A sycophant is "a servile self-seeker who attempts to win favor by flattering influential people"--a "suck up" or "ass kisser," in other words.http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sycophant

Romare Bearden (pp. 11-12)Romare Bearden (1911-1988) was an African-American artist and writer from Charlotte. He also played baseball with the Negro League and once refused an offer to play for the Philadelphia Athletics if he would agree to "pass as white."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romare_Bearden

wharf (p. 21), lift (p. 32)
Both brothers use regional idioms like "wharf" ("town") and "lift" ("elevator") that might be perceived by some as pretentious.

James Bradley Scott's The Bonds of Freedom (pp. 27-28)
Taylor's famous father: fictitous character and book

Harvard Review (p. 33)
Harvard Review publishes poetry, fiction, essays, drama, graphics, and reviews. It is published twice yearly, in spring and fall.
http://hcl.harvard.edu/harvardreview/

twenty-twenty Brayburry (p. 48) & Oak Bluffs (p. 67)
The fictional LeVays live at a fictional address somewhere on Martha's Vineyard. When Taylor refers to her father having a "place over in Oak Bluffs," however, this is a real town on the island.

Weber's theories on social dominance (p.55)
Max Weber (1864-1920) was a "German political economist and sociologist. [...] Weber believed that social hierarchy was inevitable, and that its analysis lay in the relationship to be found between the analytically distinct dimensions of status, property and political or organizational power."
http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/max-weberthe-life-and-work-of-a-social-theorist-18641920-75492.html

bell hooks (p. 58)Gloria Jean Watkins (born 1952), "better known by the pen name bell hooks, is an American author, feminist, and social activist. Her writing has focused on the interconnectivity of race, class, and gender and their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and domination."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks

Exeter and Harvard (p. 60)
(As some might argue, the "best of the best" as go reputations.) Phillips Exeter Academy is a private boarding school for grades 9-12 located 50 miles north of Boston. Historically, Exeter was the primary feeder school for Harvard; today, more Exeter alums attend Harvard than any one other college.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_Exeter_Academy

Desert Storm (p. 75)
An historical glitch in the play. Cheryl notes that her father supposedly died 18 years earlier during Desert Storm. Given that the Persian Gulf War, also known as "Desert Storm," began August 2, 1990, history here coincides with the 2008 publication of the play, but not the setting of play, which, according to the playwright is probably 2003. (See "Questions for Lydia.")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War

Chanel and Ferragamo (p. 77)
High fashion: Chanel for handbags and perfumes, Ferragamo for hand-made shoes. Sold today at stores such as Bloomingdales, Saks, and Neiman-Marcus.

The Black Dog (p. 90)
The first year-round restaurant on Martha's Vineyard. The Tavern, opened in 1969 and now with multiple locations, features local fare with entrees in the $30 range.
http://www.theblackdog.com/pages.php?pageid=5

galleys (p. 94)
"A galley is simply a collection of unbound signature pages. A bound galley is a galley that has been bound into book form. Bound galleys are generally produced after a manuscript has been typeset but before proofreading, and are used by publicists to send to book reviewers, distributors and book clubs that like to see a copy of the book three or four months before its official publication date."
http://publishingcentral.com/articles/20030409-1-0a1c.html

Lilly Pulitzer & Kate Spade (p. 97)
Trendy clothing and handbag stores.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilly_Pulitzer; http://www.lillypulitzer.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Spade; http://www.katespade.com/home/index.jsp

D.H. Lawrence, rainbows, and lesbians (p. 101)
Flip is probably referring to Lawrence's 1915 novel, The Rainbow, which focuses on the sexual relationships of its characters (lesbians included). Controversy resulted in an obscenity trial, and the book was subsequently burned and banned.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._H._Lawrence
Jack and Jill (p. 102)
Jack and Jill of America is an organization of "elite" (as Taylor notes) black families that includes 218 chapters around the world (most in the U.S.) and around 30,000 members.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_Jill_(organization)http://www.jack-and-jill.org/
mojitos (p. 109)Trendy cocktail made with rum, lime juice, sugar, mint, and soda water.
http://www.webtender.com/db/drink/1435

Words, Pronunciations & Meanings

These are words that Eileen and I noted from the first read-through. Note: you must have speakers (turned on) to use the links for pronunciation.

an academic (Taylor, p. 8)
a professor or, more likely in Kent's situation, a scholar or someone with scholarly interests

aesthetic (Kent, p. 12)
Mom collects these butterflies just because they are pretty ("aesthetic").
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=aesthetic

Aspen (Taylor, p. 17)
upscale ski resort for the rich and famous; of the town's residents, only .44% (yes, less than 1/2 of 1 percent) are African Americans

anecdotal
based on casual reports or stories
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=anecdotal

cotillion (Dad, p. 33)
formal dance; often a way to present eligible young women ("coming out" to "proper society")
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=cotillion

Darjeeling
a tea of high quality
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=darjeeling

discourse (Taylor, p. 58)
"canon of hard feminist discourse" refers to the those (white) feminist writers she would have been required to read in college; as a noun, emphasis is on the first syllable
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=discourse

entomology (Taylor, p. 30)
the study of insects
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=entomology

entree (Kent, p. 65)
Kent suggests that Taylor had entrance into/access to (entree) a world of priviledge because of her father's status.
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=entree

Ferragamo (Kimber, p. 77)
very expensive, handmade Italian shoes

histrionic (Kent, p. 43)
melodramatic or over-the-top
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=histrionic

inequities (Taylor, p. 87)
injustice or unfairness
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=inequities

ingratiate
to use deliberate effort to gain favor or acceptance
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=ingratiate

Johns Hopkins (Taylor, p. 30)
The first research university in the U.S. Located in Baltimore, Maryland, the school is extremely selective. Note that the name is Johns (with an "s").

latticework
criss-crossed pattern of (wooden) strips
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=latticework

Kennebunkport (Dad, p. 35)
a small town on the coast of southern Maine that it is summer home of the Bush family

libel
written communication that is false and damaging
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=libel

lox (Cheryl, p. 37)
salmon that is cured and thinly sliced; often served with cream cheese on bagels for breakfast

melanin (Kent, p. 20)
Kimber is light-skinned ("melanin challenged"); the amount of melanin in the skin determines its darkness
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=melanin

Ngo Dinh Diem (Dad, p. 26)
the first president of South Vietnam (1955-1963)
http://www.forvo.com/word/ng%C3%B4_%C4%91%C3%ACnh_di%E1%BB%87m#vi

no hypocrisy in your lamentations (Kimber, p. 56)
"as long as you have a good reason to bitch"

NYU, Columbia, and Princeton (Cheryl, p. 16)
NYU and Columbia are very selective and expensive private universities in Manhattan (New York City); Columbia is an Ivy League school. Princeton also is Ivy League but is located in New Jersey.

octoroons and quadroons (Dad, p. 57)
1/8th and 1/4th black respectively; an octoroon would have 7 white grandparents and 1 black grandparent; the Plessy of Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896 Supreme Court) was an "octoroon"

pageboy-Birkenstock-unshaved ass (Taylor, p. 57)
Taylor is suggesting that her professor is a (steroetypical) radical feminist and/or perhaps lesbian

Pavlov (Cheryl, p. 25)
as in Pavlov's dogs, which automatically react in preconditioned ways to certain stimuli
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=pavlov

pituitary
pea-sized gland at the base of the brain that secretes hormones
http://www.forvo.com/word/pituitary/

postdoc (Taylor, p. 30)
If Taylor is on a postdoctoral fellowship, then she has completed her Ph.D. in entomology. At the end of this fellowship, she probably will teach and/or research at a university.

provincial (Taylor, p. 11)
lacking urban polish or refinement
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=provincial

Pulitzer (Dad, p. 28)
Prestigious annual awards for excellence in writing and musical composition in the U.S. According to the Pulitzer's own website, the correct pronunciation is "PULL it sir."

Reich (Taylor, p. 58)
the Third Reich = Hitler's Nazi Germany (1933-1945)
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=reich

social stratification (Kent, p. 6)
dividing black society into classes based on economics/income, education, ownership
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=stratification

Swahili (Kent, p. 12)
language spoken in Kenya and several other east African nations
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=swahili

sycophantic relationship (Taylor, p. 6)
sucking up to those with money and power (the "well heeled")
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=sycophantic

testosterone
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=testosterone

hypothetical utopian (Taylor, p. 55)
theoretical but impossible to achieve "perfect" society
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=utopian

Whitcomb (Kent, p. 12)
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=whitcomb

Blacks at Harvard: Economic Divisions

"Most Black Students at Harvard Are From High-Income Families," News and Views, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, July 1, 2006
http://www.jbhe.com/news_views/52_harvard-blackstudents.html

In the late 1960s major universities were recruiting low-income or so-called ghetto blacks. Not so today. If Harvard has set the pattern for others, it appears likely that most blacks currently enrolled at our elite institutions of higher education come from middle- or high-income families.

Many, if not most Americans, believe that the 1960s protest movement that produced aggressive college recruitment of “ghetto kids” continues today bringing significant numbers of low-income and often underqualified blacks to America's elite campuses.

But the conventional wisdom is false.

In a 2004 interview Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard, told the London Observer, “The black kids who come to Harvard or Yale are middle class. Nobody else gets through.”  

"Ivy League Generosity Will Lure Affluent and Brightest Blacks Away From State Universities," News and Views, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, January 3, 2008
http://www.jbhe.com/news_views/010308insert.html

Once upon a time back in the 1960s, Harvard aimed to recruit high-potential black students from the so-called urban ghettos. In recent years, it appears that the vast majority of black students at Harvard come from upper-middle-class to affluent families. Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University, has stated his belief that very few of Harvard’s black students are the descendants of American slaves and that most black students at Harvard were from middle-class or affluent black families. A 2006 study by researchers at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania found that more than one quarter of the native-born black students at 28 selective colleges and universities came from families with annual incomes over $100,000. Therefore, the new Harvard financial aid plan is likely to add more relatively affluent black students to a group that is already relatively affluent.

Blacks at Harvard: Immigrants Preferred

"Top Colleges Take More Blacks, but Which Ones?" by Sara Rimer and Karen W. Arenson, New York Times, June 24, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/education/24AFFI.final.html?pagewanted=all

While about 8 percent, or about 530, of Harvard's undergraduates were black, Lani Guinier, a Harvard law professor, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Harvard's African and African-American studies department, pointed out that the majority of them — perhaps as many as two-thirds — were West Indian and African immigrants or their children, or to a lesser extent, children of biracial couples.

They said that only about a third of the students were from families in which all four grandparents were born in this country, descendants of slaves. Many argue that it was students like these, disadvantaged by the legacy of Jim Crow laws, segregation and decades of racism, poverty and inferior schools, who were intended as principal beneficiaries of affirmative action in university admissions.
............
But few black students are surprised. Sheila Adams, a Harvard senior, was born in the South Bronx to a school security officer and a subway token seller, and her family has been in this country for generations. Ms. Adams said there were so few black students like her at Harvard that they had taken to referring to themselves as "the descendants."

"Study: Universities prefer foreign black students" by Kate Carroll, The Daily Princetonian, March 7, 2007
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2007/03/07/17622/

Blacks at Ivy League schools are over three times more likely to be immigrants than blacks in America's general population, a study published in February's American Journal of Education and coauthored by Princeton researchers suggests.

African-Americans on Martha's Vineyard

Note: The following article (presented here in two pieces for linking purposes) caused considerable controversy with its generalizations about life on Martha's Vineyard.

"Black and White on Martha’s Vineyard" by Touré, New York Magazine, June 21, 2009
http://nymag.com/guides/summer/2009/57472/

As liberal as it is, the Vineyard is about as racially integrated as a college dining hall—blacks and whites get along fine, but they generally don’t socialize. “There’s not a lot of overlap between black and white,” says radio executive Skip Finley, who started vacationing in Oak Bluffs in 1954 and has been living there full-time for the past decade. “I don’t think anybody’s insulted by it. I’m certainly not.” It’s an arrangement that springs largely from the self-segregating impulse among black Vineyarders, who have come to the island to connect with each other. “We have people here who are black and upscale and racist,” Finley continues. “They don’t want to be around white folks, and they don’t have to.”
............
Oak Bluffs has become the summer meeting place for scores of what could be called the Only Ones—black professional and social elites who travel in worlds where they’re often the only black person in the room. The Only Ones typically break into fields or companies that admit few blacks, move into neighborhoods where few blacks live, and send their kids to mostly white schools. They are not running from their own—they’re chasing after the best they can get. They aren’t assimilationist; they’re ascensionist.

Read more: Summer Guide 2009 - The Liberal Politics and Self-Imposed Racial Segregation of Martha’s Vineyard -- New York Magazine http://nymag.com/guides/summer/2009/57472/#ixzz0eDCFDrHS

Several Only Ones say there’s nowhere in America that makes them more proud of black people.

This is particularly true among parents, who talk about the importance of introducing their children to other black upper-class families so they can know they’re not as peculiar as they might feel.
............
And while the Only Ones embrace each other, they can be dismissive of other blacks. “If you’re too Southern Baptist, too dark-skinned, too street, you might not be insulted by a white person but you may be insulted by a black person,” says Columbia law professor Patricia Williams. “It resembles the way in Britain race and class are inflected. If you’re a Nigerian prince and you speak the queen’s English, you’re okay, but if you’re an island hoodlum, then there are no bounds to the expression of racism.”

This kind of race-inflected class conflict flared up in the early nineties, when thousands of partying black undergrads moved the traditional Fourth of July party from Virginia Beach (from which they had been ousted) to Martha’s Vineyard’s South Beach. There were wild bacchanals full of public drunkenness, girls strolling around wearing very little, and guys ogling them with camcorders glued to their eyes or snakes wrapped around their necks. ... As another person remembers it: “People had more grills in their mouth than their ride, and it blew up the island.”

A series of community meetings were convened. “No one said ‘Where all these loud niggers coming from?’ But that was the vibe from black and white Vineyarders.”

"African American Community Blasts Magazine Article" by Mike Seccombe, Vineyard Gazette, July 17, 2009
http://www.mvgazette.com/article.php?22035

“My family has lived on the Vineyard for seven generations and I don’t recognize MY Vineyard in the article, Black and White on the Vineyard, written by Mr. Touré,” she began, then went on to condemn its “appalling inaccuracies which misrepresent the Island in a divisive way.”
............
“The gentiles live in Edgartown, the Jewish population is in Chilmark, the Native Americans are in Aquinnah (Gay Head) and the blacks live in Oak Bluffs,” she wrote.
But the beauty of the place was “that most people who are seasonal visitors or year-round residents have friends of all races and socialize across the board in all activities, enclaves, mainstream and fringe groups.”

That was the essence of most responses: that while the black community, like most people here, tended to be relatively well-educated and well-off, this was a tolerant, integrated and generally unaffected place.

"Not So Black and White" by Irene Sege, Boston Globe, August 15, 2009
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2009/08/15/is_marthas_vineyard_one_place_where_race_isnt_an_issue/?page=full

“Martha’s Vineyard has been a place where African-Americans have been able to come and relax and be acknowledged for all their accomplishments. For me, that’s wonderful,’’ says Rice, 46, an orthodontist-turned-stay-at-home-mom from Manhattan who vacationed in Oak Bluffs as a girl. “It’s a very small-knit community. Obama went to Columbia. A lot of people go to Ivy League schools. Travel in the same circles. Why wouldn’t he come here?’’
............
Hunter-Gault, 67, who now lives here half the year, thought she’d discovered what she calls “this paradise for black people’’ when she first visited in 1970. “Even though the civil rights movement opened up opportunities, when you go on vacation you don’t want to fight the civil rights movement,’’ she recalls. “It was a place that was very warm and hospitable. You didn’t think about being black."

McCarter's Audience Guide

This is the "Audience Guide" prepared by the McCarter Theatre for its 2007 production:

http://www.mccarter.org/Education/stick-fly/html/index.html

Oak Bluffs: History

Oak Bluffs was first settled in 1642 and was officially incorporated in 1880 as Cottage City, Massachusetts. Before its incorporation, it was part of Edgartown. The town re-incorporated in 1907 as Oak Bluffs. Oak Bluffs originally began as the center for tourism on the Vineyard. While the other towns were more focused on industry, Oak Bluffs became a Mecca for travelers from around the world as early as the beginning of the 1800s. It also became a center of the thriving 19th Century Methodist movement.

In 1835 this community served as the site for annual summer camp meetings, when Methodist church groups found the groves and pastures of Martha's Vineyard particularly well suited to all-day gospel sessions.

Wesleyan Grove, as the Oak Bluffs Camp Ground was called, rode the crest of the religious revival movement. By the mid-1850s, the Sabbath meetings here were drawing congregations of 12,000 people. They came for the sunshine and sermonizing in hundreds of individual church groups.

Each group had its own communal tent where the contingent bedded down in straw purchased from local farmers. Services were held in a large central tent. The communal tents gave way to "family tents," which reluctant church authorities granted only to "suitable" families. But the vacation urge could not be checked. Family tents turned into wooden cottages designed to look like tents. And the cottages multiplied, trying to out-do each other in brightly painted fantasies of gingerbread. A new, all-steel Tabernacle structure replaced the big central tent in 1879. It stands today as a fine memento of the age of ironwork architecture.

Within 40 years of the first camp meeting here, there were crowds of 30,000 attending Illumination Night, which marked the end of the summer season with stunning displays of Japanese lanterns and fireworks.

Wesleyan Grove struggled to hold its own against such secular attractions as ocean bathing, berry picking, walking in the woods, fishing, and croquet playing. There were efforts to ban peddlers, especially book peddlers. A high picket fence was built around the Camp Ground proper. By the 1870s, Wesleyan Grove had expanded into "Cottage City" and Cottage City had become the town of Oak Bluffs, with over 1,000 cottages.

Steam vessels from New York, Providence, Boston, and Portland continued to bring more enthusiastic devotees of the Oak Bluffs way of life. Horse cars were used to bring vacationers from the dock to the Tabernacle. The horse cars were later replaced by a steam railroad that ran all the way to Katama. One of the first passengers on the railroad was President Grant. The railroad gave way to an electric trolley from Vineyard Haven to the Oak Bluffs wharves, and the trolley eventually gave way to the automobile.
http://www.ci.oak-bluffs.ma.us/about-oakbluffs.shtml

Oak Bluffs: Facts

Note: The fictional LeVays do not live in Oak Bluffs (a real town on Martha's Vineyard), which is home to Taylor's father (also fictional).

Oak Bluffs
settled in 1642 (originally part of Edgartown)
incorporated in 1880 as Cottage City
renamed Oak Bluffs in 1907

According to the 2000 U.S. Census:
3,713 total people
504 people/sq mile
4.3% African-American (160 total)
median age: 39
median household income: $42,044
per captia income: $23,829
8.4% of population living below poverty line
http://www.ci.oak-bluffs.ma.us/about-oakbluffs.shtml

Publications

Stick Fly: A Play (Paperback)

$15.00 Retail

Northwestern University Press, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-8101-2535-3

$11.70 at amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Fly-Lydia-R-Diamond/dp/0810125358/ref=ed_oe_p

$13.50 at barnesandnoble.com

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Stick-Fly/Lydia-R-Diamond/e/9780810125353/?itm=7&usri=1

Stick Fly: Audiobook MP3

L.A. Theatre Works
Pub. Date: April 2008
ISBN-13: 9781580815499
File Size: 51 MB
Duration: 1 hour, 50 minutes

$13.63 at audible.com
http://www.audible.com/adbl/entry/offers/productPromo2.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&productID=PF_LATW_000169

$13.27 at barnesandnoble.com
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Stick-Fly/Lydia-Diamond/e/9781580815499/?itm=1&usri=1

Production Photos

Matrix Theatre (2009)



Contemporary American Theatre Festival (2008)



McCarter Theatre (2007)



Promotional Trailer available at:
http://www.mccarter.org/Trailers/viewtrailer.aspx?page_id=113

Lydia's Bios

from MPAACT (2008)

Lydia Diamond’s plays include: The Gift Horse, The Goodman (Theodore Ward 1st Place, Kesselring Prize 2nd Place); The Bluest Eye, Steppenwolf (World Premiere, Black Arts Alliance Image Award – Best New Play), New Vic, Theatre Alliance, Plowshares, Playmakers Rep, Horizon Theatre Co., Freedom Theatre, Providence Black Rep, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Long Wharf/Hartford Stage, Company One (Elliot Norton – Best Fringe Production ’08 Nomination), and Jubilee Theatre; Voyeurs de Venus, Chicago Dramatists (’06 Joseph Jefferson Award – Best New Work, ‘06 Black Theatre Alliance Award – Best Writing), Company One (Fall, ’08); Stick Fly (’08 Susan Smith Blackburn Finalist), Congo Square (World Premiere, ’06 BTAA – Best Play, ’06 Joseph Jeff Nomination – Best New Work), True Colors, The McCarter, L.A. Theatre Works, and Contemporary American Theatre Festival; Harriet Jacobs, Steppenwolf (World Premiere), Staged Readings at Old Vic, U.K., and The Kennedy Center; Stage Black, Cincinnati Arts Consortium, MPAACT (‘09); and The Inside, MPAACT Theatre Co. and Nat’l Tour. Lydia is currently working on commissions for The McCarter, Victory Gardens/Humana, and Huntington Theatre Companies. The Bluest Eye, The Gift Horse, and Stage Black are published by Dramatic Publishing. The Gift Horse is anthologized in Northwestern University Press’ 7 Black Plays, ed. Chuck Smith. Stick Fly, published 2009, Northwestern University Press. Lydia holds a B.S. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, a 2006-2007 Huntington Playwright Fellow, and an ’07/’08 TCG/NEA playwright in residence at The Steppenwolf, and is a TCG Board Member. Lydia Diamond has taught at Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola, and is currently on faculty at Boston University.
http://www.mpaact.org/blog/2008/12/lydia-diamond-biography.php

from McCarter Theatre (2007)

Lydia R. Diamond is a Huntington Playwriting Fellow and a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists. Her plays include: The Gift Horse (Goodman Theatre, Kesselring Prize-2nd Place), Stick Fly (Black Theatre Alliance Award - Best Play, Congo Square, True Colors Theatre Co.), Voyeurs de Venus (Joseph Jefferson Award - Best New Play, BTAA - Best Writing, World Premiere Chicago Dramatists), and an adaptation of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (Black Arts Alliance Image Award – Best New Play; Steppenwolf Theatre, The New Vic, NY, Playmakers Rep, Theatre Alliance, D.C., New Freedom Theatre, Plowshares, and upcoming at Long Wharf Theatre Co., Hartford Stage, Providence Black Rep, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, and Company One, Boston.). Ms. Diamond’s newest play, Harriet Jacobs, received public readings at The Kennedy Center and London’s Old Vic, and will premiere at Steppenwolf in February, where Ms. Diamond is a TCG/NEA Playwright in Residence. The Gift Horse is published in 7 Black Plays, and The Bluest Eye, The Gift Horse, and Stage Black will all be available through Dramatic Publishing. Ms. Diamond is a graduate of Northwestern University and currently teaches at Boston University.
http://www.mccarter.org/ticketoffice/artistdetail.aspx?artist_id=99975509&event_id=3189

Production History

Congo Square Theatre Company
Duncan YMCA Chernin Center for the Arts
Chicago, Illinois
March 23-April 15, 2006

Director: Chuck Smith
Scenery: Dustin Efird
Costumes: Christine Pascual
Lights: Alex Seiler
Sound: Joe Plummer
Props: Joanna Iwanicka

Taylor: Ann Joseph
Kent: Daniel J. Bryant
Cheryl: Ericka Ratcliff
Flip: Aaron Todd Douglas
Dad: Phillip Edward Van Lear
Kimber: Anne Roche


True Colors Theatre Company
Balzer Theater
Atlanta, Georgia
May 19-June 3, 2007

Director: Derrick Sanders
Scenery: Rochelle Barker
Costumes: Shilla Benning
Lights: Jessica Coale
Sound: Chris Bartelski

Taylor: JeNie Fleming
Kent: Jahi Kearse
Cheryl: Ayesha Ngaujah
Flip: Javon Johnson
Dad: Greg Alan Williams
Kimber: Elizabeth Wells Berkes

McCarter Theatre Company
Berlind Theatre
Princeton, New Jersey
September 7-October 14, 2007

Director: Shirley Jo Finney
Scenery: Felix E. Chochren
Costumes: Karen Perry
Lights: Victor Tan
Sound: Darron L. West

Taylor: Michole Briana White
Kent: Kevin Carroll
Cheryl: Julie Pace Mitchell
Flip: Javon Johnson
Dad: John Wesley
Kimber: Monette Magrath

LA Theatre Works
Skirball Cultural Center
Los Angeles, California
November 14-18, 2007
Director: Shirley Jo Finney
This is the production with Justine Bateman as KIMBER that was audiorecorded and is available on a 2-CD set or by digital download as an Audiobook MP3.

Contemporary American Theatre Festival
Studio Theater at Sara Cree Hall
Shepherdstown, West Virginia
July 9-August 3, 2008

Director: Liesl Tommy
Scenery: Robert Klingelhoefer
Costumes: Reggie Ray

Taylor: Tijuana T. Ricks
Kent: Maduka Steady
Cheryl: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
Flip: Avery Glymph
Dad: David Emerson Toney
Kimber: Anne Marie Nest

Matrix Theatre
Los Angeles, California
April 10-May 31, 2009
Director: Shirley Jo Finney
Scenery: John Iacovelli
Costumes: Dana Woods
Lights: Christian Epps
Sound: Mitch Greenhill

Taylor: Michole Briana White
Kent: Chris Butler
Cheryl: Tinashe Kajese
Flip: Terrell Tilford
Dad: John Wesley
Kimber: Avery Clyde

Arena Stage
Washington, DC
January 1 – February 7, 2010
Director: Kenny Leon

Huntington Theatre Company
Boston, Massachusetts
February 19 – March 21, 2010
Director: Kenny Leon

Questions for Lydia

Ages of Characters
David: In your "Characters" list, you note that DAD is 58-62 and CHERYL is 18-22. While I understand the symbolic significance of the four years regarding Dr. LeVay's awareness of his paternity (of CHERYL), I'm missing the practical meaning of this four-year age range for the two, particularly since CHERYL just graduated from high school. Have I overlooked something in my initial reading?

Lydia: The ages in the character descriptions are simply the range in which the actors could be cast. Not set in stone, not significant, and not a span of age through the show. Just an actor between 58-62 could play the role... which as you know, could mean anything.

Year of the Play
David: Is there a specific year setting for the play? Given that Blackberry was available (as DAD uses it) beginning in 2002, and given that Congo Square produced your play in 2006, may I conclude 2002 or perhaps 2003?

Lydia: I think you're about right, It's probably 2003 or so. Before the possibility of the Obama administration or it would certainly have figured heavily into their conversations.

Cottages on Martha's Vineyard

Reviews

Congo Square Theatre Company
Chicago, March-April 2007

"Stick Fly" doesn’t let us forget that even in the most idyllic settings, and among the most gentle of people, conflict and strife still buzz around us like bees near honey.
Dennis Mahoney, Centerstage
http://www.centerstagechicago.com/theatre/shows/2611.html

Diamond's Martha's Vineyard vacationers serve more as functional mouthpieces to the issues instead of becoming living and breathing people caught up in Stick Fly's drama.
Scott C. Morgan, Windy City Times
http://www.windycitytimes.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=11194

"Stick Fly" not only is an impressively ambitious play, it's also a piece with heart that, with work, would make one heck of a screenplay. Right now, it's at least 15 minutes too long. The piece bogs down in the second act. Its themes need more focus and less verbosity.
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_TJegLiAIxpODg2YTU2YTEtMTVkOS00YjNmLWIwNWQtMTRmYWFhMjYxNjZh&hl=en

Intriguing, but at times you just want to shout: Stop the whining.
Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times
http://www.alwoda.com/files/20060329_Diamondstudded_dialogue_of_Stick_Fly_grows_tiresome.html

True Colors Theatre Company
Atlanta, May-June 2007

Despite Diamond's command of the race and class tensions among wealthy black intellectuals, the playwright proves less confident with dramatic structure. At times director Derrick Sanders [...] has trouble setting a strong sense of momentum and pace given the play's short and sometimes repetitive scenes.
Curt Holman, Creative Loafing
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/stick_fly_secrets_and_flies/Content?oid=249884

McCarter Theatre
Princeton, September-October 2007

Her characters, given nuanced, edgy performances by the excellent cast [...] are generally well drawn and occasionally truly compelling. Yet too often an excess of melodrama and a transparent plot undermine the play's credibility.
Naomi Siegel, New York Times
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_TJegLiAIxpMWRhNTlmYTgtMDliYS00M2U2LTliMDctZTgzMWY4NGRjYzdi&hl=en

Stick Fly is a fascinating and perceptive play which deals with aspects of African-American life which have been underrepresented in the American theatre.
Bob Rendell, TalkinBroadway.com
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/nj/nj242.html

"Stick Fly" leaps with flinty dialogue, crisply tailored performances and a plot laced with hidden secrets and shocking revelations.
Robert L. Daniels, Variety
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934767.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

Despite being overlong, overwrought and overly contentious, Stick Fly is almost giddily entertaining.
Simon Saltzman, CurtainUp
http://www.curtainup.com/stickflynj.html

Diamond’s overly discursive family drama takes some gratuitous segues into coincidence but ultimately takes on the leisureliness and heft of an August Wilson work...
Peter Filichia, Star Ledger
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2007/09/stick_around_for_wit_not_plot.html

But Stick Fly [...] is ultimately a winner. It deals with real-life problems and contains revelations, and never pummels with a message or lectures like a tract. Diamond forces you, instead, to both gasp and laugh at the surprises you face, like a wave that spills over you when you haven't been looking.
Howard Shapiro, Philadelphia Inquirer
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_TJegLiAIxpNmM3ZTJiMWYtMTVlZS00NjgyLTkzN2EtOTQwMjIwMjJkOWQ3&hl=en

Contemporary American Theatre Festival
Shepherdstown, West Virginia, July-August 2008

An absorbing, funny potboiler with a few intellectual points to make [....] But it is the soap opera quotient -- delectably accentuated by the cast and director Liesl Tommy -- that makes the production so diverting.
Celia Wren, Washington Post
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_TJegLiAIxpMzM3Yjc4M2MtZGQzYy00NjBkLThlMWItODIxODk5Y2JkZjJm&hl=en

Playwright Diamond is extraordinarily successful, daring to examine the possibility that perhaps it's not race, but social class and pressures that more strongly influence our personal outcomes. Her characters are interesting, articulate and frustrating, and her comic touches exhibit great wit and perceptiveness.
T.L. Ponick, Washington Times
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_TJegLiAIxpYjM5ZDhjZmUtN2ExYS00NTI1LTk1OTUtNmRmZTg3Mjg3OGJl&hl=en

Matrix Theatre
Los Angeles, April-May 2009

Diamond's play combines complex characters, provocative situations, and literate, funny dialog in this delicious comedy of contemporary manners.
Steven Leigh Morris, LA Weekly Blogs
http://blogs.laweekly.com/style_council/stage-news/stage-raw-stick-fly/

Stick Fly runs over two and a half hours, but it’s so good, so compelling, so involving that time passes by lickety-split. This is not only a play I didn’t want to see end, it’s one I’m hoping to see again. It’s a winner all around.
Steven Stanley, StageSceneLA
http://stagescenela.com/html/stick_fly.html

And, while some moments are clearly uneasy to watch and hear – the audience can’t help but be drawn in. What makes this play work is that you care about each character, even the two who never make it on stage.
Darlene Dunlowe, L.A. Watts Times
http://www.lawattstimes.com/component/content/article/650-family-drama-rules-in-stick-fly.html

Diamond’s overly discursive family drama takes some gratuitous segues into coincidence but ultimately takes on the leisureliness and heft of an August Wilson work...
Kathleen Foley, Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/04/review-stick-fly-at-matrix-theatre.html

The play's pacing does not leave much time for rest on the characters' part or reflection on ours. Nonetheless, the talented Diamond has given us much to chew on and a hugely entertaining evening to boot.
Evan Henerson, CurtainUp
http://www.curtainup.com/stickflyla.html

With so many character issues, so many revelations and so many connections to be made, “Stick Fly” can sometimes feel daunting to the audience keeping up with this, to say the least, dysfunctional family.
Courtney Powell, Daily Bruin
http://dailybruin.ucla.edu/stories/2009/may/21/theater-review-emstick-flyem/

Diamond's strengths here are well-rounded characters, an involving story, and integrity in incisively tackling important topics. The downside comes in patches of dialogue that defy credibility, as some family discussions sound like stilted textbook discourses. This adds to the verbosity of the overplotted, nearly three-hour script.
Les Spindle, Backstage
http://www.backstage.com/bso/content_display/reviews/la-theatre-reviews/e3id3ffb6d5b9e0b911561c3e2ef165bde7