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Playbill.com: With his debut as a playwright, the Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning star of Kinky Boots presents a new look at black life in Pittsburgh in the Primary Stages production of While I Yet Live. This inspiration came from playwright August Wilson.
3 comments:
Kat Landry
said...
Billy Porter is one of those people who has so much to offer to the industry and dramatic literature as a whole, simply based on his own background and personality. It is such an awesome thing to see him taking his talents and putting them to use in doing something meaningful to him. It is cooler still to be in a school and a city where so much of his inspiration comes from. Reading things like this, and realizing just how much creative energy has come through here and inspired such incredible art is really, well, inspirational. I hope that Billy's endeavors are successful.
It is so exciting to see an artist exploring multiple disciplines. After finding so much success as a performer it will be really interesting to see where Billy Porter goes with playwriting. Most inspiring I think, is Billy Porter's explanation for why he felt compelled to write a play. He says he has never found a character who "metaphorically" looks like him, why should he wait around for someone else to tell his story? And if Billy Porter felt that plays available to him were missing elements relatable to his own life, there are likely many people who will hear his story and find relatable elements to them that had been missing in theatre so far. I imagine Porter's story will be unique and inspiring to other artists and perhaps encourage them to tell their stories just as August Wilson inspired him.
I hope to be half the artist Billy Porter is. I hope to have that artistic energy. That craving to tell a story. What's beautiful about this is that he is sort of just continuing August Wilson's work. Billy Porter is going to be a writer that shows the audience a part of life that we don't necessarily understand. Wilson provided a window into the african american life and Porter is going to do the same. Except Billy porter is bringing that idea to the present. In a world where sexuality is such a present subject, it is only appropriate that a play be written about it. One that will help audiences understand. That's the purpose of theatre after all, right? Maybe to change the way someone thinks or to help that one kid going through what the characters are going through, Theatre is created to have an effect on people.
3 comments:
Billy Porter is one of those people who has so much to offer to the industry and dramatic literature as a whole, simply based on his own background and personality. It is such an awesome thing to see him taking his talents and putting them to use in doing something meaningful to him. It is cooler still to be in a school and a city where so much of his inspiration comes from. Reading things like this, and realizing just how much creative energy has come through here and inspired such incredible art is really, well, inspirational. I hope that Billy's endeavors are successful.
It is so exciting to see an artist exploring multiple disciplines. After finding so much success as a performer it will be really interesting to see where Billy Porter goes with playwriting. Most inspiring I think, is Billy Porter's explanation for why he felt compelled to write a play. He says he has never found a character who "metaphorically" looks like him, why should he wait around for someone else to tell his story? And if Billy Porter felt that plays available to him were missing elements relatable to his own life, there are likely many people who will hear his story and find relatable elements to them that had been missing in theatre so far. I imagine Porter's story will be unique and inspiring to other artists and perhaps encourage them to tell their stories just as August Wilson inspired him.
I hope to be half the artist Billy Porter is. I hope to have that artistic energy. That craving to tell a story. What's beautiful about this is that he is sort of just continuing August Wilson's work. Billy Porter is going to be a writer that shows the audience a part of life that we don't necessarily understand. Wilson provided a window into the african american life and Porter is going to do the same. Except Billy porter is bringing that idea to the present. In a world where sexuality is such a present subject, it is only appropriate that a play be written about it. One that will help audiences understand. That's the purpose of theatre after all, right? Maybe to change the way someone thinks or to help that one kid going through what the characters are going through, Theatre is created to have an effect on people.
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