Empty nest Profiles & Shadows doesn’t take flight BY JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ

Over its more than 30 years of productions, Rites & Reasons Theatre, the arts component of the Africana Studies Department at Brown University, has developed many plays and musical revues that incorporate elements of African-American history, culture, and heritage. A research-to-performance method has evolved and it has been successfully employed by playwright and artistic director Elmo Terry-Morgan to encourage students and others in the Brown and Providence communities to take part in theatrical explorations of socio-ethno-cultural questions.

The current production, Profiles & Shadows, certainly follows through on that commitment of reaching across ethnic boundaries to achieve a better understanding of difficult issues — in this case, racial profiling. This allegorical play may inspire school-aged children to have good discussions about profiling, especially in light of increased surveillance programs under the Homeland Security Act or with regard to the shooting of Providence police officer Cornel Young, which was the original impetus for this project.

Yet, despite a few good moments from the actors and despite the earnest intentions of Terry-Morgan and directors Judith Swift and Marsha Z. West, Profiles & Shadows does not work onstage. Although it’s obvious that a lot of dedicated effort went into it, P&S comes across as a college-class skit. Let me try to explain why.

At times, plot strands and motivations are obscure, at other times far too obvious. In the latter instances, it’s as if the creators of this show wanted to hit us over the head with the parallels they are drawing between the world of the songbirds and their predators, the hornets and the birds of prey. Comparisons between the bird world and the human world become repetitious, almost dumbing-down our sensibilities. To make this kind of thing work, the unfoldings must remain subtle and understated. In the other direction, there are arbitrary symbolic gestures and actions in the piece, known and understood only by the play’s creators and performers, who have simply forgotten that those of us in the audience may have no way of making sense of these.

Here are some aspects that are more skillfully interwoven. The framing for the play comes from the Echo (Sylvia Soares), whose intonements of "if they come for you in the morning, they’ll come for me at night" recall James Baldwin’s words, in 1970, in a letter to jailed revolutionary Angela Davis. The device of using animals to tell a story is prevalent among several African and African-American storytelling traditions. And the "veil," also mentioned by Echo, reminds us of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.

The plot of Profile & Shadows involves four songbird families, the Blue-Backs, the Snow-Birds, the Crescent-Breasts, and the Pink-Wings. The first two are mom-and-kid families, the next dad-and-kid and the Pink-Wings are two-dads-and-kid, to work in the sexual orientation motif. There are also two cave-dwellers, Bop and B.W.A. (Shanna Bowie and Albert Omijie, respectively). There is something completely captivating about these two — they seem more confident and thereby credible than many of the others, not only in B.W.A.’s echoed responses to Bop’s explanations but in their actual song together.

Jose A. Lora is also engaging in his portrayal of the young blue-back, Blue-B, who sets out to find the truth behind the oppression of the songbirds, threatened as they are by stings and "flashes" (lots of strobe effects) from Lieutenant Hornet (Alex Pudlin) and ultimately by the Cabal that gives Hornet his orders, which is made up of Hawk, Falcon, and Vulture. Blue-B’s quest for the "truth behind the veil" begins after a session of "flashing" by the Hornet and an encounter with Bop and B.W.A.

Police Officer Captain Blue-Back (Darren Walker) comes in for his share of jibing about being an Uncle Tom, and he tries to get Hornet to back off of his brutal and illegal methods of questioning the young people he picks up on the street. A more urgent threat arises when the Hornet’s large golden "stinger" goes missing and Blue-B is suspected. That particular mystery is never sufficiently explained before the short play (55 minutes) comes to an abrupt end.

Although I understand that the students in this production may be more intent on learning the material that forms the basis for the play than they are on achieving any significant theatrical skills, it still seems a disservice to them to not make this a more professional production. The quote in the program that defines Rites & Reasons is: "Our research creates new art." But my problem, with all due respect to the hard work expended, is that Profiles & Shadows doesn’t yet seem like art.