Waitin` 2 End Hell

Waitin' 2 End Hell by William a. Parker directed by Buddy Butler featuring Alex Morris

by Nigel Hatton, Stanford University

Classic battles between men and women have gone down on the African-American theater stage, film and television screen, and literary page. Think, Fred Sanford and Esther. George and Weezie. Sofia and Harpo. Ruth and Walter. Paul D. and Sethe. Add to the list Dante and Diane, the urban and urbane fortysomething couple at the center of William a. Parker's provocative Waitin' 2 End Hell.

The play, set in Sacramento, in the present day, has its share of love, laughter and good times, but those themes emerge only in the context of a centrifugal storm of confrontations related to money, sex and power.

After 20 years of marriage and two children, Diane and Dante have come to a crossroads and their storybook life begins to unravel. A beautiful, proud black family nears destruction, and the play dares to place blame and search for solutions. Diane, a high-powered advertising executive, has her friends -- Angela and Shay; Dante, a parole officer, has his -- Alvin and Larry. The ensuing battle of the sexes unfolds around card tables, kitchen islands, front porches, couches and love seats, and is sure to bring anger, outrage and surprise.

To begin, the trope of the philandering male is turned on its head, one of many twists in the play intended to deny stale and predictable dialogue in the world's oldest conflict. Parker, the unapologetic playwright schooled in, and still beholden to, the Black Arts tradition of the 60s and 70s, set aside all pleasantries in bringing his play to light. He wanted women to have voice; he wanted men to equally have voice, pandering to the protestations of neither. Before giving the script life, he enlisted focus groups of women and men to understand what was on people's minds when it came to relationships. "The energy was phenomenal," he said.

Phenomenal and contentious. Early readings of the play got him cussed out, he says, and the staging's long and extremely successful run off-Broadway in New York and in theaters around the country left audiences in conversation well after the last curtain call. What else to expect from a production that weaves love, hardship and perseverance through references to the Queen and King of Soul, Shakespeare, Marvel comics superheroes, verses from the Bible, and the crooner whose lyrics, "Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh," epitomize male acts of desire for reconciliation and reunion.

Question: Who defeated Samson -- the Philistines or Delila? Question: who was the first person to knock out professional boxer Mike Tyson -- Buster Douglas or Robin Givens? Waitin' 2 End Hell complicates the answers in two riotous acts void of silences and evasion.

The play hits the Lorraine Hansberry Theater stage at a critical and unprecedented moment in the history of the United States. The First Family walking the residential quarters of the White House is African American. President Barack Obama has called the arts "the essence of what makes America special" and has vowed to increase arts funding and restore the place of the arts, artists and arts education in the American consciousness. Even more encouraging, First Lady, Michelle Obama, educated at Princeton and Harvard Law School, lists her first priority as being a mother to her two daughters, her second priority as helping "other families get the support they need, not just to survive, but to thrive."

"Policies that support families aren't political issues," she says, "they're personal. They're the causes I carry with me every single day."

All of these developments in American and African-American life, the arts and family advocacy bode well for Parker and his mission as a writer.

"I want to teach, to begin dialogue, conversation that leads to resolution," Parker says. "It is time for the hostility between black men and women to end. There's a wide chasm, gulf between us and it should not be there. What has happened is women no longer see (black men) the way they saw Martin or Malcolm or a young Jessie or Booker T. Washington. The Image of the black man has been so tainted, it leaves black women with little hope."

The numbers lend support to Parker's concerns, and the black family is what suffers the most. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, African Americans have the lowest rate of marriage and marital stability among all ethnic groups. Their unions are more likely to end in divorce than those of Whites and Hispanics, and less than half of black heads-of-household live with a spouse (the percentage is 80.6% for Whites, 60.1% for American Indian/Alaskan Natives, and 70.2% for Hispanics).

Enter the playwright, Parker, the lifeworld of his characters Dante and Diane, and the African-American theater, what Parker calls "one of the last forms of expression that is truly ours, uncensored" where "you can say what you want to say, do what you want to do, as long as audiences want to see your work."

"My influence is the world," he says, "and I try to understand and be attune with what's happening in the world."

Listening to Parker brings to mind the Black Arts Movement and the manifestos and black aesthetics manuals of Hoyt Fuller, Addison Gayle Jr., Amira Baraka, and others. In the late 60s and early 70s, Baraka would talk of "The Revolutionary Theater" and many black playwrights and critics placed heavy emphasis on the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, and the need for authentic black art that used black forms, employed black producers, and dealt with black issues. For Baraka, "The Revolutionary Theatre must take dreams and give them a reality." Gayle Jr., listed honesty as "a fundamental principle of today's black artist." Fuller spoke of a "black aesthetic, a system of isolating and evaluating the artistic works of black people which reflect the special character and imperatives of black experience."

Thus, it is important for Parker that Dante and Diane, no matter their problems, appear as "among the upwardly mobile African Americans who were born in the sixties and who have clung to their Blackness." The characters in the play work through struggles borrowing from black vernacular, the language of the black church, and contemporary black music. The desire for family reaches through generations and connects to Africa.

Mudslinging aside, "I love my family," is a central expression of Waitin' 2 End Hell.

A former member of the Sons/Ancestors Players at California State University, Sacramento, in the 70s, Parker remains true to its black aesthetic ideals. It is one of the oldest black theaters west of the Mississippi and one of its founders, Myrtle Stephan, emphasized "the quest of theatre in the African continuum."

"The African desire in life, which is mine, focuses on several key things," he says. "Universally, Africans believe man is an irreducible spirit. We are here for a period of time. At the end of our time our spirit moves to another place. Africans try to strike a balance between god, humanity and the universe. Through a collective effort as people we try to achieve greatness.

"We learned that the writer's job is to capture and preserve and pass on our history and we do that through our works."

Download a PDF of the entire programme by clicking here.

Lorraine Hansberry Theatre presents

now playing through March 1, 2009

at PG&E Auditorium, 77 Beale Street (near the Embarcadero BART Station), San Francisco

(Waitin' 2 End Hell contains strong language and deals with mature situations which may be inappropriate for children under 14.)

Waitin' 2 End Hell

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by Nigel Hatton, Stanford University


Classic battles between men and women have gone down on the African-American theater stage, film and television screen, and literary page. Think, Fred Sanford and Esther. George and Weezie. Sofia and Harpo. Ruth and Walter. Paul D. and Sethe. Add to the list Dante and Diane, the urban and urbane fortysomething couple at the center of William a. Parker's provocative Waitin' 2 End Hell. The play, set in Sacramento, in the present day, has its share of love, laughter and good times, but those themes emerge only in the context of a centrifugal storm of confrontations related to money, sex and power. After 20 years of marriage and two children, Diane and Dante have come to a crossroads and their storybook life begins to unravel. A beautiful, proud black family nears destruction, and the play dares to place blame and search for solutions. Diane, a high-powered advertising executive, has her friends -- Angela and Shay; Dante, a parole officer, has his -- Alvin and Larry. The ensuing battle of the sexes unfolds around card tables, kitchen islands, front porches, couches and love seats, and is sure to bring anger, outrage and surprise. To begin, the trope of the philandering male is turned on its head, one of many twists in the play intended to deny stale and predictable dialogue in the world's oldest conflict. Parker, the unapologetic playwright schooled in, and still beholden to, the Black Arts tradition of the 60s and 70s, set aside all pleasantries in bringing his play to light. He wanted women to have voice; he wanted men to equally have voice, pandering to the protestations of neither. Before giving the script life, he enlisted focus groups of women and men to understand what was on people's minds when it came to relationships. "The energy was phenomenal," he said. Phenomenal and contentious. Early readings of the play got him cussed out, he says, and the staging's long and extremely successful run off-Broadway in New York and in theaters around the country left audiences in conversation well after the last curtain call. What else to expect from a production that weaves love, hardship and perseverance through references to the Queen and King of Soul, Shakespeare, Marvel comics superheroes, verses from the Bible, and the crooner whose lyrics, "Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh," epitomize male acts of desire for reconciliation and reunion. Question: Who defeated Samson -- the Philistines or Delila? Question: who was the first person to knock out professional boxer Mike Tyson -- Buster Douglas or Robin Givens? Waitin' 2 End Hell complicates the answers in two riotous acts void of silences and evasion.	The play hits the Lorraine Hansberry Theater stage at a critical and unprecedented moment in the history of the United States. The First Family walking the residential quarters of the White House is African American. President Barack Obama has called the arts "the essence of what makes America special" and has vowed to increase arts funding and restore the place of the arts, artists and arts education in the American consciousness. Even more encouraging, First Lady, Michelle Obama, educated at Princeton and Harvard Law School, lists her first priority as being a mother to her two daughters, her second priority as helping "other families get the support they need, not just to survive, but to thrive." "Policies that support families aren't political issues," she says, "they're personal. They're the causes I carry with me every single day." All of these developments in American and African-American life, the arts and family advocacy bode well for Parker and his mission as a writer. "I want to teach, to begin dialogue, conversation that leads to resolution," Parker says. "It is time for the hostility between black men and women to end. There's a wide chasm, gulf between us and it should not be there. What has happened is women no longer see (black men) the way they saw Martin or Malcolm or a young Jessie or Booker T. Washington. The Image of the black man has been so tainted, it leaves black women with little hope." The numbers lend support to Parker's concerns, and the black family is what suffers the most. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, African Americans have the lowest rate of marriage and marital stability among all ethnic groups. Their unions are more likely to end in divorce than those of Whites and Hispanics, and less than half of black heads-of-household live with a spouse (the percentage is 80.6% for Whites, 60.1% for American Indian/Alaskan Natives, and 70.2% for Hispanics). Enter the playwright, Parker, the lifeworld of his characters Dante and Diane, and the African-American theater, what Parker calls "one of the last forms of expression that is truly ours, uncensored" where "you can say what you want to say, do what you want to do, as long as audiences want to see your work." "My influence is the world," he says, "and I try to understand and be attune with what's happening in the world."	Listening to Parker brings to mind the Black Arts Movement and the manifestos and black aesthetics manuals of Hoyt Fuller, Addison Gayle Jr., Amira Baraka, and others. In the late 60s and early 70s, Baraka would talk of "The Revolutionary Theater" and many black playwrights and critics placed heavy emphasis on the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, and the need for authentic black art that used black forms, employed black producers, and dealt with black issues. For Baraka, "The Revolutionary Theatre must take dreams and give them a reality." Gayle Jr., listed honesty as "a fundamental principle of today's black artist." Fuller spoke of a "black aesthetic, a system of isolating and evaluating the artistic works of black people which reflect the special character and imperatives of black experience." Thus, it is important for Parker that Dante and Diane, no matter their problems, appear as "among the upwardly mobile African Americans who were born in the sixties and who have clung to their Blackness." The characters in the play work through struggles borrowing from black vernacular, the language of the black church, and contemporary black music. The desire for family reaches through generations and connects to Africa. Mudslinging aside, "I love my family," is a central expression of Waitin' 2 End Hell. A former member of the Sons/Ancestors Players at California State University, Sacramento, in the 70s, Parker remains true to its black aesthetic ideals. It is one of the oldest black theaters west of the Mississippi and one of its founders, Myrtle Stephan, emphasized "the quest of theatre in the African continuum." "The African desire in life, which is mine, focuses on several key things," he says. "Universally, Africans believe man is an irreducible spirit. We are here for a period of time. At the end of our time our spirit moves to another place. Africans try to strike a balance between god, humanity and the universe. Through a collective effort as people we try to achieve greatness. "We learned that the writer's job is to capture and preserve and pass on our history and we do that through our works."
Download a PDF of the entire programme by clicking here.
Lorraine Hansberry Theatre presents now playing through March 1, 2009 at PG&E Auditorium, 77 Beale Street (near the Embarcadero BART Station), San Francisco (Waitin' 2 End Hell contains strong language and deals with mature situations which may be inappropriate for children under 14.)