Mm-hmm.

So when you walk into the theater, I, I'm not, it's not gonna be a spoiler to, to say, you're gonna walk into this Broadway theater that has this 35-plus year history, and you're gonna see the Ghanaian flag as large...

You won't see it anywhere in your life that large, and you'll be listening to all this music.

And I, I, I feel that my cultural connection and love of Ghanaian culture, I just wanted that to soak in with every choice in the show.

And then I wanted you to really feel like you're in this school.

And the, the entire play takes place in the lunchroom, and I don't know how anyone else feels listening out there, how you feel, Asin.

It's like I remember the lunchroom of my high school.

Mm.

first of his kind obviously yeah and

so i just i mean the theme is an ever present political theme and also colorism affects us it affects our pockets it affects our love lights it comes into our bedrooms it comes into our kitchen the food that we eat the access that we have to the education that we can do the jobs that we can get and so you know jocelyn's i always like to say that jocelyn's play is also not a play about uh racism which is colorism is uh outside of that that's just something we uphold we take it from that we uphold in our community but it's also a play of economics because this girl erica her her her proximity to western standards of beauty has also brought her uh things lotions hair oil dresses right commodities that are brought in from the western space that are like gold to these girls in ghana And so I've been thinking lately, I've been thinking not only about my own experiences, like I remember the person saying, you know, your lips are too dark.

You'd be beautiful if your lips weren't.

So why are the outside of your lips so dark? But it's also making me think about the dollar bills in our pockets and in women's pockets.

So not just like issues of love and sex, but also literal economic opportunity.

And it deeply affects people's lives.

And I do think about family members of mine who've came out light, they're fully black.

And Whitney plays... jill blinton right and she's like you know a philanderer and she's telling her husband to go sit in the corner and you're hearing jasmine guys singing you're watching her dance and you're watching her act and i'm like this is it's just some of the most brilliant television that's ever made and it stirred my soul up so incredibly whitney close us out what's what's one of those moments for you

all on behalf of everyone here at manhattan theater club this is a new season for us it's the launch of our 26 27 season um it's personally um really moving to me to welcome you here it's the first inaugural full season um as artistic director here at manhattan

so i really feel to welcome you

Without further ado, I'm going to invite Whitney White to come talk about the production and Jocelyn.

Nikki, you guys, it's her first year as artistic director and she's letting us do this play.

Like, I can't toot toot beep beep that enough.

I'll be really brief because I'm only here to introduce this woman, Jocelyn Beale.

She's like, really? We're going to get real about it.

One of our greatest, greatest living American playwrights.

Mm.

Um, the themes deal with the same things that we're dealing with today, and so it was less about reimagining for me, and just opening it up.

Oh.

And we have these five women that represent different communities, that look different, and I think these five women will reflect the audience and the world in a beautiful way.

How did you, what was your big break in the business?

I think it was, uh, Alicia Harris' What to Send Up When It Goes Down.

It was back several dress sizes ago, but it was a great time-

Hi.

Hi.

Rosie, in honor, uh, Rosie, in honor of The Rosie O'Donnell Show's 30th anniversary, do you have an all-time favorite guest looking back at, at your time as host?

Um, there's a really lovely quote in the play, "A woman speaking uninterrupted is a radical act." For both of you who work in the live theater space, what does it mean to you for women to be able to share their stories, um, on stage and also just among one another?

Um, I think the greatest sign of love and respect that anyone can show a woman is giving her space and trust to tell, and time, to tell her story without editing it, without, um, trying to manipulate it, without trying to change it, and letting her tell the story that, that she has in the way she wants to.

Um, and so that line, it, it means a lot to me.

I think it's, it's such a sign of Bess' brilliance.

But there's so many times I've experienced in my own life someone telling me how I should tell my own story, how I should be in the world, how I should walk in the world, how I should dress, how I should look, how I should sound, the way my very voice should sound.

Um, and then want- being a director is very funny because, one, there's not many of me, um, uh, out there.

And so I'll be in spaces a lot of times where, like, I'm supposed to be in charge, I'm supposed to have this mandate, and then someone is literally just, literally interru- I can't even get out a sentence.

Um, you know, I wanted to just chat a little bit about the link between consciousness raising, because that's something that's very much talked about and depicted in the play, and the importance of sharing our stories within that, and how that, and how that is the thing that we need to continue to do in order to continue to raise the consciousness.

Um, there's a really lovely quote in the play, "A woman speaking uninterrupted is a radical act." For both of you who work in the live theater space, what does it mean to you for women to be able to share their stories, um, on stage and also just among one another?

another?Um, I think the greatest sign of love and respect that anyone can show a woman is giving her space and trust to tell, and time to tell her story without editing it, without, um, trying to manipulate it, without trying to change it, and letting her tell the story that, that she has in the way she wants to.

Um, and so that line, it, it means a lot to me.

I think it's, it's such a sign of Bess' brilliance.

But there's so many times I've experienced in my own life someone telling me how I should tell my own story, how I should be in the world, how I should walk in the world, how I should dress, how I should look, how I should sound, the way my very voice should sound.

Um, and then one- being a director is very funny because, one, there's not many of me, um, uh, out there.

And so I'll be in spaces a lot of times where, like, I'm supposed to be in charge, I'm supposed to have this mandate, and then someone is literally just, literally interru- I can't even get out a sentence.

Um, you know, I wanted to just chat a little bit about the link between consciousness raising, because that's something that's very much talked about and depicted in the play, and the importance of sharing our stories within that, and how that, and how that is the thing that we need to continue to do in order to continue to raise the consciousness.

What's something that you looked at when you would s- step back and look at the whole thing that you felt very proud of?

I'm so proud of that moment where Suzanna Flood at the end of act two, she's weeping on the floor, and the cast comes out in solidarity with her, men, women, Black, white, queer, straight.

And they're standing in the line, and that is the, the political line of solidarity, all of us together, and that's why I staged it that way.

We need to help each other, and they help her up off the ground.

I'm more proud of that moment than anything I've ever directed.

I wanna end there, but I have one more question for you, which is what about Liberation has made you a better director? What are you taking from Liberation into the next?

I'm much more patient now.

Sometimes when you're directing, and you have all these ideas, and you think they're brilliant, but sometimes you get in dialogue with people, and they have ideas, and you have to have patience to let those two things come together to be one.

[laughs]

But when I first read the play, to be honest, I just felt this sense of relief.

I'm from the Midwest.

I'm from a working-class family.

I was raised by a single momI, now I'm a mother myself, and I have been watching my mother go through some of the biggest obstacles someone could go through in their life.

Being discriminated against in her job, being outcast by the fancy other moms in my private school.

Still holding her head up with dignity, still trying to punch through these walls.

That now features two Tony Award nominees in Susanna Flood and Bre- Betsy Aidem.

Ooh.

And so being in this community in this moment for this award show, it's just a different kind of energy.

Nope.

And every single person nominated here tonight, they put their blood, their sweat, their time into the work in a different level.

So cheers to everyone.

Thank you.

Sure.

I'm Whitney White.

I'm the director of Saturday Church, and we're for Outstanding Musical, Best Musical.

We have our fingers crossed.

What does Off-Broadway mean to you?

I think about Broadway as the heart of theater in New York and kind of a central nerve to theater in the country and beyond.

It is where you can be daring.