Assistant Director for Your Negro Tour Guide 2022 + Surprise Performance

From March to May, I worked as an Assistant Director with Torie Wiggins, Jeff Griffin and Kathy Y. Wilson for their revival of Your Negro Tour Guide at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati. This is a one-woman show that draws heavily from columns and National Public Radio commentaries collected in Kathy Y. Wilson’s book, Your Negro Tour Guide: Truths in Black & White based on her former CityBeat column. Throwing a glaring light on misguided notions of natural Black beauty, Black homophobia, intra-racial bigotry, and other cultural stereotypes, this play allows us, once and for all, to laugh at every secret we’ve held against and sideways glance we’ve cast at “The Other,” whoever they happen to be.

Torie has been performing this show since the early 2000s, and it was last seen in 2010. Part of my job as the Assistant Director was offer suggestions for updated references or jokes that might make sense in 2022, though Torie, being a genius, pretty much covered that on her own. I mostly just observed greatness, helped her run lines, and took both acting and directing notes. Torie encouraged me to work on a solo performance of mine one day, and this show has inspired me to do that.

An added bonus was Torie and Kathy inviting me to perform section of the show for the fun of it. After one of our evening shows, I got to come onstage and perform the Black History Month section, with a few twists, characters and jokes of my own. Her spoken word poet became some kind of Fraternity Hazing, Step Team Leader. Her Freedom Hostess of the African American Museum of the Natural Black History of the Underground Railroad simply became a Freedom Host, with some jokes about slaves being 3/5 of a person, Harriet Tubman being a $20 bill and a token, and her potential affair with the guy from Quaker Oats. Lastly, her pizza guy moved from Atlanta to NYC… and also de-aged to high school. Some things landed… others could’ve used more time in the oven. Nonetheless, I’m happy I got to see a glimpse of my solo performance potential and saw that some of my ideas do work. Someday, I’ll write a show worthy of Fringe Festival and win something.