BIPOC touring theater is born: Najee Brown makes impact on Seacoast with Theater For The People

In surprisingly short order, Seacoast transplant Najee Brown became a valued contributor to his new, unintentional community, after arriving for a visit in 2019. His initial intent was to stay a while, chill, contemplate his next move and likely head back to New York City.

Then life happened.

Auditioning on a lark, Brown landed an acting job at Seacoast Repertory Theatre. Soon after he was named curator of its Sol Series. He moved on to producing, directing and presenting his original plays.

Now, he's staying put, digging in deeper with the launch of his Theater For The People.

"It's a BIPOC-produced touring theater — Black, Indigenous, people of color," said Brown, a resident of Eliot, Maine,. "Our number 1 mission is diversity, not just in talent, but in the production staff."

The new theater company has formed its board of trustees, and is up and running out of Maine. The plan is to produce throughout New England and New York, and to build community "through the pursuit of oneness and diversity," to connect people of all races, ages, cultural backgrounds and socio-economic groups, and to provide artists of color the opportunity to produce and present work to diverse audiences, "uplifting voices of true nobility in the midst of adversity," Brown added.

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"This platform encourages artists to share their narratives of being oppressed and marginalized, as well as the beauty and spirituality of their cultures," he said.

"Through curating thought-provoking plays accompanied by dialogue spaces, audiences can learn more about the topic being presented by the play," Brown said. "I find when you are presenting art, having those additional spaces where people can converse or learn more about the topic, they tend to walk away with a better understanding of the art — of its message."

TFTP has already held an event and has more than a half dozen planned for 2022, including a major fundraiser in February at Kittery's Dance Hall.

It's also begun forging affiliations with other organizations that will work under the TFTP umbrella. The first such alliance is with Roots Uprising, a Boston-based women of color dance group lead by Nailah Randall-Ballinger, who is also the new theater company's inaugural board of trustees president.

Roots Uprising presented Theater For The People's first official performance at the Green Acre Bahai School, in Eliot, Maine.

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A cornerstone of the company will be the production of original works.

"Our goal is to produce the new classics, to stay away from the traditional (plays)," Brown said. "It sounds ambitious, but there's a lot of theater companies presenting only traditional plays right now."

The story of Hazel Scott

The first season original will be Brown's original work "Rhapsody in Black."

"Rhapsody" is a musical based on the life of Hazel Scott, with a book written by Brown, and new adaptations of Scott's music by Stu Dias of Soggy Po' Boys fame. Dias has also performed in the swing band Treason Quartet, the heavy metal group Wizzardess and the modern jazz band Sojoy.

The pair is already deep into development. They hope to present music from "Rhapsody" at special events prior to the musical's premier to familiarize people with Scott, "(who's) been erased out of history, and was basically banned."

Scott, who lived from 1920 to 1981, was a Trinidad-born American jazz and classical pianist, singer and actor. She received a scholarship to Juilliard School at age 8. Her career included live and radio performances, and Hollywood films. She was the first Black American to host her own TV show.

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A staunch civil rights advocate, Scott fought bigotry and segregation within the entertainment industry. Her career was largely derailed in the United States when she was accused of being a communist during the Red Scare McCarthy era, the period "Rhapsody" focuses on.

Brown selected Scott as the subject for his first musical to keep her life and purpose alive.

"It's my job as a storyteller, as a scribe, to tell the story of those who are forgotten. I'm very surprised when I say Hazel Scott and someone knows who she is, ... because she was completely erased from history, though we know all of her contemporaries, such as Billie Holiday and Lena Horne," he says. "So, if I can spread awareness of her and her genius, then she never dies, and what she stood for, which is more important, never dies."

A number of the musical tunes will be presented at "Rhapsody in Black The Concert," the theater company's first major fundraiser on Saturday, Feb. 19 at The Dance Hall in Kittery,

"The event will be a celebration of Hazel, with music and dancing and a good time," Brown said. "It will be a performance, along with some education. We'll be giving a glimpse of the musical - not the entire thing."

Building a community with theater

The company's first year will largely feature Brown's originals, "but next season I have other writers I'm working with and I'll be presenting their stuff."

New plays and musicals are just one of the company's goals. Others include fostering a younger and more diverse audience than that of more traditional theater. To that end, Theater For The People will work to keep ticket prices low, Brown said. It will also foster new and young writers "giving them the tools they need to succeed."

"Another goal is to provide children of color proper theater training at a young age," he said. "We won't be running a school, but definitely offer programs. It's going to be (race) diverse, not excluding anyone, but it's important the environment has a majority of people of color."

The company will also target underserved communities.

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"We want to help build community with theater, to share stories of people from all different backgrounds, so everyone can see the nobility of people who may not look like them," he says. "So those are my goals right there."

For a guy who'd planned on staying here just a short while and moving on, New England is now home. There's a number of reasons for that, he says. Key is his work has found purpose here.

"I was able to give something to the community that maybe they didn't realize they needed, but they did, especially at this special time, with the killing of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter movement."

He also found a community, one that fostered his personal growth.

"I've grown up here, in the past few years. I've made meaningful relationships that taught me a lot about life, and business," Brown said. "I would not trade that experience for the world. If someone were to tell the story of my life, I would tell them the majority of my transformation came from living here."

"(Art) is an ancient tool that all our ancestors used whether they had money or not. Now it's (more) for elite people. I didn't see my first Broadway show at 16 and I lived in New York," he said. "Imagine if other people with similar upbringing to mine have the tools to heal with their art. If art is provided to other people, who look like me, how many other playwrights and directors would there be? ... That's what we're going for."

Go & Do

What: Theater For The People, a new Black, Indigenous and people of color theater company on the Seacoast

When and Where: "Electric Voices Spoken Word Series Honoring Toni Morrison" will take place on Sunday, Jan. 16, at the Community Church in Durham. The theater's first fundraiser will be "Rhapsody in Black The Concert," on Saturday, Feb. 19, at The Dance Hall, Kittery.

Theater For The People will also be sponsoring an Art Health and Healing Conference, Date TBA, at Green Acre A Baha’i Center of Learning, Eliot; and a Creative Geniuses Youth Art Workshop in partnership with Green Acre A Baha’i Center of Learning, February through May.

More info: Visit theaterforthepeople.org

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Najee Brown founds Theater For The People to focus on BIPOC production