Interview: Playwright Leslie Lee
Adam Thurman, Director of Marketing and Communications recently interviewed The First Breeze of Summer playwright, Leslie Lee.
What was writing The First Breeze of Summer like?
I approached the play with a mixture of dread and love. The dread came from the fact that the play is semi-autobiographical. The character of Lou is loosely based on me. My grandmother had children by different men. It was a family secret that went hidden for years. When I found out about what my grandmother did, I mentally removed her from the pedestal I had placed her on. Over time, I was drawn to learn more about her, so I started to research her background. That research was the start of The First Breeze of Summer.
I loved the process of writing the play but that sense of dread returned when my family came down to see the show. They came down in buses with fellow members of their church. I was so nervous that I was backstage nursing a bottle of Scotch! After the show they told me that they felt like this particular family skeleton should not have been locked in the closet.
Religion plays a huge role in First Breeze. How does the play mirror your own spiritual journey?
When I was younger I was skeptical about religion, which put me in sharp contrast with the rest of my family who went to church 52 Sundays a year. When I wrote the play, I was moving away from the church because I couldn’t connect with the fire and brimstone God that my parents worshipped. As I got older, I found myself reconnecting with my spiritual side and returning to church.
The audience for First Breeze is going to be diverse. What do you think all cultures can take away from the play?
Walter Kerr (of the New York Times) said that First Breeze was the first African American play that invited him in to share in it. I loved that comment. This play isn’t good because it is a Black play. I work very hard to create characters that can speak for all of society, and the characters in First Breeze do that.
How do you see the state of African American theatre?
I’m a bit apprehensive. There simply aren’t enough venues that consistently produce African American playwrights. The state of the playwriting, however, is very strong. I teach (Tisch School of the Arts at NYU) and I am constantly impressed with the quality of writing of my students. Good plays are being written, there just aren’t enough places for them to be produced.
–Adam Thurman
