“Theater for social change celebrates the world’s differences and the uniting of people for a shared goal.”
So says Robbie McCauley, my guest on today’s show. She’s an actor, writer, director and teacher. Her career spans over three decades. Growing up in the south, “before the revolution, as she calls it, segregation and marginalization was the norm. Moving to NY as a young woman, she found a voice for her rage in the newly developing Black Arts Movement, of the 60’s. One of the early cast members of, Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf, McCauley went on to perform and write across the United states, facilitating dialogues on race between whites and blacks, and working throughout Europe. Her play Sally’s Rape about her great, great grandmother, who had “two chilin by the master” as it was expressed in family oral history, is a courageous piece of experimental theater, where dialoging with the audience and encouraging them to express themselves, is as important as the actress’s lines in the play.
Robbie McCauley won an OBIE and an Audelco award, which recognizes excellence in black theatre and very recently she became a recipient of the United States Artists Fellowship. I talked to Professor McCauley in her office at Emerson where she is a performing arts professor.
THE BRIDGE - Arts for the 99% 