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With “Chicken & Biscuits,” Bristol Riverside Theatre makes diversity the main course

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Historically, theater has been no picnic for Black artists struggling to have their stories heard and acted on.

But is it time to break out the baskets of chicken and biscuits with jam?

It is for at least one local theater company: The Bristol Riverside Theatre has scripted a change in character, moving the Black story from sidekick to center stage, a shift upwards rather than sideways. It is all evident in its choice for this season’s finale: “Chicken & Biscuits,” the Douglas Lyons comedy of manners — good manners and bad — that follows the funeral of a renowned Black pastor/patriarch whose family uses the burial service as a means to disinter old problems and protracted jealousies.

Tyrone L. Robinson is directing this play’s Philadelphia-area premiere, running May 16 to June 4.

But in the very broadness of this Broadway farce, are these family members — from hussy to husband, gay son to his white Jewish boyfriend — characters or caricatures?

Avers Amy Kaissar who, with husband Ken, are co-producing directors for BRT, taking their roles three years ago, they’re all three-dimensional depictions. But no 3D funny glasses needed; the funny parts are plain to see on stage, they say. “This is not a broad comedy about a Black family, it’s about people who are no different than any other family,” adds Amy. “Lyons wrote about real people,” not stereotypes.

What isn’t funny, agree the Kaissars, is that theater has taken this long to expand the role of Black players on and behind the stage. “Black writers have long been misrepresented. There are a lot of amazing plays they’ve written that are out there,” says the Israeli-born Ken, a playwright himself.

Indeed, there has been a renaissance of such reasoning in the past two years, with such scribes as Lynn Nottage (“Clyde’s”) and Keenan Scott II (“Thoughts of a Colored Man”) getting major marquee mentions. The former blackout has become a black-in on Broadway and beyond.

Often lost, the BRT producing couple claims, is the comic element in what black scribes have to say. Black lives matter — as does the material mining their voices. But does it all have to be portrayals of the social stigmas limning their legacy? “This is not a play about systemic issues,” Amy says of “B&C.” “It is about Black love, joy. This is theater that I am [keenly] interested in; its strength is in showing the specific, the universal.”

A 2021 article in The New York Times claimed that the universe is expanding on Broadway for Black writers and their stories. True, but sad, says Amy, that it’s taken so long. “It’s sad that it’s a little late to have that happen...”

What is a happy occasion is the side dishes the Kaissars have cooked up to go with the main stage meal at BRT: A little jam with those “Biscuits?” That’s what the couple and the crew offered on April 30, a “Community Jam,” affording a free preview of the comedy along with interactions with the actors; gospel choir performances; and picnic fare — including, of course, chicken and biscuits — and other comfort foods.

It is, claim the producers, a comfort and a joy to generate such a welcome to Black Bristol, “an opportunity to celebrate what we do,” says Ken. Also, on the agenda: A Black Theatre Night, May 26.

And what they do, he adds, is “being out there,” providing enhanced entrances for those wanting to audition a new experience.

The Kaissars have a good vantage point of the possibilities: What they see is an “America Rising,” their BRT project which “looks at all playwrights of all ethnicities.” Past products of the project included last year’s “Odd Man Out” a play that takes place in complete darkness.

Neither Ken nor Amy is the “odd man out” in what they’re trying, thinking of Black theater as not mere baubles and bling — dazzling in isolation if presented irregularly — but classic theater elements integral to a season. Both give credit to other area regional theaters — such as InterAct and The Arden — which, too, have featured Black theater. Indeed, BRT is among a coterie of cutting-edge regionals, a cohort that extends to Broadway itself and its broadsides against exclusionary fare.

It is not bravery worthy of bravos but a matter of doing what should have been done a long time ago, says Amy. The years that theater hissed at Black history, subjugating Black subjects to the sidelines, is over — for now.

Amy doesn’t make a career predicting the future, but “I prefer to put hope on what will be.”

What is now is major progress coming from producers with a predilection for successful change. Both Kaissars have bios brimming with accomplishments and acclaim with actors and in academia — Amy, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, previously served BRT as its managing director and has worked/produced extensively on and off-Broadway; playwright Ken, whose teaching roles include Rider University, is, like his wife, a director whose personal casting achievements include his podcast, The Audition Helper.

In helping to give voice to the underserved, the Kaissars are exhorting a theatrical hallelujah in, as Amy notes, “trying to elevate all voices,” to shine a floodlight on an audience neglected in the past. And maybe a little “Chicken & Biscuits” would help?

“We want to have fun,” says Amy of “Chicken & Biscuits.” “This is not a play about social ills and racism.”

And while this family is Black, what is colorblind is the BRT mission, says Ken. After all is said and staged, “We are celebrating humankind.”

Michael Elkin is a playwright, theater critic and novelist who lives in Abington. He writes occasional columns about theater.


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