Harold Ellis Clark’s
Back in the Day
October 12-22, 2023
THE CAST
Playwright Spotlight
LTH: Harold, how long have you been a playwright?
HEC: I have been a playwright for 13 years.
LTH: And how did you know, like really know, you were a playwright?
HEC: Between 2000 and 2010, three different literary agents tried selling my unpublished novels to several major book publishers in New York City to no avail. Actor Lance E. Nichols had been reading some of my unproduced screenplays and in 2010 he said he thought I’d could possibly be a good playwright given some of the dialogue that impressed him. He gave me a copy of the play Broke-oloy by Nathan Louis Jackson, who recently passed, to read, and then I began reading the entire 10 play cycle of plays by August Wilson and I was hooked. Subsequently, I wrote my first play, Marrero Action.
Anthony Bean directed and produced it a year later. He and the cast were spectacular, but in hindsight there were some aspects of my writing that weren’t totally authentic. I think that I was attempting to copy August Wilson.
I expanded my reading to include plays by Charles Fuller (A Soldier’s Play), Keith Huff (A Steady Rain), Dominique Morrisseau (Sunset Baby), and David Ives (Venus in Fur). As a result, I believe that I truly found my footing with my next play, Fishers of Men, which I self-produced at Dillard University in 2012. I truly listened to the characters and the play exhibited lots of honesty and conflict. That’s when I found my original voice as a playwright.
LTH: How many plays have you written?
HEC: I have written 13 full-length plays and two 15-minute plays.
LTH: So, in your voice, how do you explain what BACK IN THE DAY is about?
HEC: Aside from the promotional description of the play, I really don’t know what the play is about because I get something different from it each time I read it or experience it during rehearsals. However, the question I believe the play consistently raises surrounds whose lives do we really believe are important. Do we believe that everyone, regardless of their perceived socioeconomic background, truly serves a purpose?
LTH: What New Orleans era does the play reference?
HEC: BACK IN THE DAY is set in 2019, the year I began writing it. Many of the incidents referenced in the play occurred 16 years prior to that time.
LTH: So what would you say really inspired you to ask those questions and to write this play?
HEC: Prior to writing Back in the Day, most of the plays I wrote featured only one woman, and I was attempting to write my first play featuring an all-woman cast as a challenge to myself. Initially, the story was going to focus on four women who had lost their sons to violence, but then I became captivated with reading about women who served time in prison and the challenges they face upon being released. That, coupled with wanting to tell a story about women whose voices I believed were missing from the Me Too Movement, inspired me to write this play. I always wanted to write another play set in Algiers, where I spent some of my early childhood, and present a story just before Thanksgiving and early December. Plus, Martin BATS Bradford, who starred in my play, Fishers of Men, always comes to mind whenever I write a play. He’s a generational talent and a dedicated artist, and I am glad that he’s part of the Back in the Day cast.
LTH: So, does this play fall into the styling of your previous works?
HEC: Indeed. I enjoy artistic works that refrain from preaching, that present lots of conflict, unintentional humor, possess a great rhythm, and naturally lay a foundation for characters to strive for and attain some semblance of redemption.
LTH: Why this play…now?
HEC: I believe Back in the Day is the one the universe calls for at this time.
LTH: What does being a 2023 Sherri Marina Memorial Grant recipient mean to you?
HEC: First of all, winning a grant in honor of a wonderful performer and teacher like the late Sherri Marina is wonderful. Secondly, I am happy that my play reflects the intent of the award to recognize plays that feature significant roles for Black women, which is what I was attempting to do.
LTH: I always like to ask playwrights this question about their work, even though I feel as though you probably receive it all the time. What do you hope audiences walk away with after experiencing BACK IN THE DAY?
HEC: My hope for all of my plays is that people are entertained. When God created the arts, I believe he only had one commandment: Thou Shall Not Be Boring! I don’t want audiences to be bored, but I do want them to raise questions about the story and reflect on how it resonates with things they’ve thought about or experienced.
LTH: If you could give the younger version of yourself any advice, what would it be?
HEC: Rejection is protection. Oftentimes, we desire to be associated with a certain person or group or to attain a particular career or business opportunity. Then, when rejection occurs, we become disappointed. I’ve learned that rejection happens for reasons we sometimes never understand. And it’s actually a good thing. We never know what crazy ass fools or bad situations God’s protecting us from. Rejection is protection. It affords us with opportunities to garner newer and oftentimes better relationships and associations.