It was 2021. Ricardo Khan, the artistic director of the Crossroads Theatre Company, in New Brunswick, was scheduled to go home but someone asked him to stay in town just one more day to see Divinity Roxxx perform and meet her. He did.
"I was really impressed by her as a singer and had a chance to talk to her for a bit about her life. She had a very interesting life. She told me she was trying to write a play about herself (she was music director for Beyonce for awhile and won a Grammy this year). I told her she had a good story, growing up in Atlanta with lots of music people in her life, and one that I thought people would want to see on the stage. I encouraged her to keep writing. I said we'd take a look at her play when she was finished. She got help from theater professionals and she finished the play. Now, two years later, Crossroads is going to stage the play, Starchild," said Khan, in New Brunswick now, again, to run Crossroads. The story about Starchild is one that illustrates how Crossroads has functioned over the years it has been in existence, successfully so.
"We've done a number of plays like that – a producer or director meets an actor or writer and encourages them and, in the end, a play is born," said Khan.
Starchild, by Roxxx, opens May 24 and stars its creator. It is part of a series of plays that make up the season for Crossroads. The season began last week with the annual Genesis play festival, an event that features a mix of generally new plays that are a collection of debut works and parts of longer plays. It was a grand kick off because it presented a mix of different stories about African Americans, as does the entire season, that runs into the middle of June.
"I think we have a nice assortment of works for theatergoers," said Khan.
‘There is the play about Divinity and how she grew up. We go back in time for the story of historically famous singer Billie Holiday with Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. We finish with a concert show, I Got Life: the Music of Nina Simone, that stars Carrol Riddick and Gerald Yeasley. We have something for everybody…" said Khan.
Starchild opens May 24 and runs through June 3 at the theater's home in New Brunswick (New Brunswick Performing Arts Center). It will be followed by Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, that opens May 31 and continues through June 8. The Nina Simone concert show will be staged June 10 and 11.
Khan is a firm believer that theater is a wonderful tool with which to teach history. "When I was growing up, people would say that things were terrible, Oh My God. Today writers all over America are saying that today things are bad, too, but how can we right them? That's a a big difference. Here at Crossroads, we want to shed some light on troubles in today's America and talk about correcting them," he said.
He pauses. "Young people, especially, need to see how history reconnects itself. We can complain about current events all we want but today we need to talk about how we prevent that history from happening again in the future," said Khan.
"Last year, we staged a play about the early 1960s Freedom Riders. That was about the way, way old past, the ancient 1960s, right? No. It was about today. All the movements for justice in America go through those same problems. Today – Black Lives Matter - I think the troubles of movements get much broader press coverage and social media interest. That helps us to find the solution."
He thinks it is not enough to tell a story about a movement. "You need to explain successful movements not only to get press attention, but understand that they are very organized with thousands of members. One man or woman is a protest. A thousand men and women are a movement. We have movements now. We must learn how to make them succeed because in the near future we will have a lot more movements," he added.
He has no solutions himself. "Oh, I don't know the answers to all these political and historical questions, but if lots of people get together and talk about them, and stages produce plays about them, the answers will pop up."
He thinks Crossroads can be part of the solution. "We get a lot of different people at our plays. If they all keep talking, they'll come up with some answers." He thinks stages in places near colleges (New Jersey and Rutgers) can do a lot of good.
"Go all the way back in U.S. history and you find students in protest movements. Again and again and again," Khan said.
And he is happy that Crossroads is a part of the process. ‘Hey, Divinity Roxxx performed here and we helped her to write a play. Now we're producing it. Someone will see it and write another play. Then someone else will write a play.
"Someday soon, social walls will fall because of theater, movies, television…"
"It'll be a better America," said Khan.
