Theater is supposed to reflect what is happening in society, and one of the things that I have always loved about Woodie King’s New Federal Theatre (NFT) is that for 52 years, it has relished the opportunity to do just that.
Now, it is focusing on telling a story that happened in 1925, which dealt with a forbidden love between a Black teacher and a Chinese businessman in the Mississippi Delta. The play, “Gong Lum’s Legacy,” written by Charles L. White, with direction by Elizabeth Van Dyke, who is also NFT’s new producing artistic director, will begin performances Thursday, March 24, at the Theatre at St. Clements at 423 W. 46th St.
When one thinks of Jim Crow, one associates discrimination against Black people, but this play shows that Chinese people and anyone non-white faced similar problems. Looking at how relevant this is, given what’s happening in the world right now, Van Dyke broke this society down. “I think in our country, founded on a division—the Confederates States of America and the United States of America—Confederates states were white and white was superior.
This play is historically based and that takes it to a whole new level. Van Dyke explained, “History, it’s people. They are working at living their lives. In Gong Lum’s case he took a stand, he wanted to send his daughters to a white school. And it is taking a stand that became historical after the fact. The Chinese, the sharecroppers, they didn’t think they were making history, they were living the lives they were dealt. We’re making history with COVID, we’re not trying to make history.
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