Black Is Back in The Valley

PRIME – February 2015 Comedian visits Majestic Theater fundraiser on opening night of his play, “One Slight Hitch” Editor’s Note: Lewis Black’s play, “One Slight Hitch” was performed at the Williamstown Theater Festival in the summer of 2010. By Debbie Gardner debbieg@thereminder.com I had some difficulty connecting with Lewis Black for our scheduled interview in early January – the switchboard at the Hyatt Regency in Rochester, New York, took forever to connect me with the comedian’s room, and promptly lost the connection. Black was in The Empire State, packing up from a performance of his latest tour, “The Rant is Due, Part Two,” at the Rochester Auditorium Theatre the evening before. But my call had less to do with the Grammy-winning comedian’s signature brand of anger-tinged political and social commentary, and more about his lifelong passion for the theater. Black will be in Valley this month, making a special appearance at a cast party following the Feb. 26 opening night of his play, “One Slight Hitch,” at the Majestic Theatre in West Springfield. Admittance to that party – a fundraiser for the theater – has been limited to individuals who win tickets through a raffle. The prize also includes tickets to the opening night performance. But the exclusive nature of the after-party doesn’t mean first-nighters won’t be getting up close with the comic. “I’ll be around,” Black said of his stop at The Majestic. “The people who won the raffle [for cast party tickets] get some time with me, and those who didn’t get some time with me, but not the same amount. “I’m not going to hide,” he continued. “I get it.” But don’t expect any impromptu standup before the show. When asked if he would be making any comments at the performance, Black swiftly replied, “I’m the playwright. I don’t have to say anything.” Why West Side Black’s play has been performed on stages across the country, including a well-reviewed recent run in Florida that he, admittedly, “had nothing to do with.” So my question for Black was a simple one: why come to this production at the Majestic? “That came about because the theater wanted to do the play and one of my good friends, Rand Foerster, whom I have known for quite a long time, was the director,” Black said. “I’m just very thrilled to see what Rand does with it.” He and Forester, Black went on to explain, go way, way back. Their friendship began when both were students at the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut, in the 1970s. It continued in New York City in the early 1980s, where Black, then an aspiring playwright and Forester, a budding director, collaborated on a project for nearly 10 years. “We ran a small theater on 42nd Street under a restaurant,” Black said. “He was the director and I was the playwright and we did two new one-acts a week.” Black said he’s also coming to support the work of two more good friends. The roles of the mother and father in this production of “One Slight Hitch” are filled by two more of his longtime theater colleagues, Rebecca Nelson and Anderson Matthews. “I’ve know them for years; they are both terrific actors,” Black said. “Rebecca has done a lot of my one-acts. We’re all very close.” And then, there’s his eternal soft spot for the theater. “If I can help, I’ll help,” Black said of the fundraising part of his appearance. “I know the financial conditions of the American theater, and they are not good.” His own “Hitch” Black, now 64, said he gave up playwriting as a full-time career in his 40s. The original version of “One Slight Hitch,” was among the last plays he wrote. The original plot for “One Slight Hitch,” Black said, was drawn from his own life experiences. “It was based on a what- if,” Black explained. “I was living with a woman for 15 years who said she’d never get married [and] a year and a half after we broke up, she got married. “All my friends went to the wedding,” Black continued. “The family was all asking where I was – they didn’t like [the groom], they liked me – and on the basis of that I went, ‘wow, there’s a play’.” But even this more mainstream work, something Black said he knew he needed to write or “I was never going to survive in American theater,” was enough to help him make a go of a playwrighting career. “Nobody was giving me a Guggenheim; I wasn’t getting a MacArthur,” said Black, referring to the two fellowship programs that support playwrights and other creative artists. So since 1990 it’s been his smart, insightful and angry brand of political and social satire – shared with millions through specials on HBO, Comedy Central, a recurring slot on The Daily Show and numerous comedy albums – that’s paid the bills. It’s that same comedy career, Black said, that allowed him to drag out the play – a look at marriage through the lens of society in the 1980s –and begin tinkering with it again. “I knew it needed to be rewritten and I knew I had the opportunity to rework it and a friend of mine who wanted to direct it,” Black said of his decision to revisit the old work back in 2000. After the final rewrite, “We did four workshops [with it] I could afford to do them now,” he explained. Early performances of the play included a debut at the Williamstown Theater Festival in July of 2010. Black said he hopes audiences at The Majestic enjoy “One Slight Hitch’s” take on how “my parents generation and my generation approached marriage,” and that they have a good time at the play. “I hope they laugh and I give them a little bit to think about,” Black said. “At the end marriage is not the be all and end all, that there are other options, and they are not wrong.” Black’s social comment comedy will be at The Majestic through April 4. For performance times and ticket information, call the box office at 413-747-7797 or visit the theater’s website at www.majestictheater.com For more Black Fans of Black’s standup can catch his latest comedy show, “The Rant is Due, Part 2,” when it makes stops at the Shubert Theatre in Boston on April 10 and at the Providence P.A.C. in Providence, Rhode Island, April 12. For more info about these shows, and ticket availability, visit Black’s website, www.lewisblack.com. They can also watch video from past rants – as well as live streaming of the last 15 –or-so- minutes of his live acts on show nights – on his website. Check the tour schedule to find out when a live clip might be posted. “Essentially I’ll continue to stream the end of my performances for free until the latter part of this year,” Black said. “I think that’s pretty good. I can’t figure out how to monetize it, but I’ll maximize it for now. “If they aren’t going to give me a TV show, I’ll be on the computer,” he added. This summer, moviegoers will also be able to catch him in the latest Pixar animated feature film, due in theaters this June. Black plays the voice of “Anger” in the studio’s upcoming release, “Inside Out.” “It was tremendous,” Black said of the experience. “I consider myself lucky to be part of it. “It’s one of the most extraordinary creative processes I’ve ever been part of and witness to,” Black continued. “It makes me sick how amazing they are.” Black commented that the reason Pixar does such groundbreaking cinematic work is that “there is no one saying, ‘boy, you should do this’,” when it comes to creativity. “You let creative people alone… that’s how creation take place,” Black said with his trademark tinge of angry frustration. “The fact that that hasn’t been learned over the course of my lifetime is beyond my comprehension.” You might also see more of him in your local theater sometime soon, too. Black confessed he’s got another play in the works right now. “I’m going to work on my version of [Thornton Wilder’s]’Our Town,’ Black said. “I’m still writing it, trying to get a draft out.”