By Mary Ann Bourbeau
MIDDLETOWN – Due to popular demand, the Dunbar Repertory Company is producing the play “Butterfly Confessions” for the fourth time, with performances scheduled at the Middletown Arts Center Sept. 6-8 and 14-15.
Yetta Young of Los Angeles wrote “Butterfly Confessions” in 2010 after producing the first all-African-American version of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues.” The play is a love letter to women, blending humor and heartbreak with education, empowerment and inspiration. The cast ranges in age from 24 to 65, and the topics will hit home for everyone. Subjects include love, children, friendship, illness, violence and loss and healing.
“Time and again, I had proven what I could do with scripts crafted by others, but I feel that eventually, every visionary must take to the sky with their own flight plan,” said Young. “For me, that was ‘Butterfly Confessions,’ which embodies my mission to not only entertain but to empower through theater. It was time to step out on faith with my own piece that shared some of the experiences of black women that we seldom share in open company.”
Young has been featured on Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” at the National Black Theatre Festival and the Beverly Hills NAACP Theatre Awards. She has produced or directed Taraji P. Henson, Mo’Nique, Sherri Shepherd and Kandi Burruss, among others. She uses the “Butterfly Confessions” monologues as a teaching tool to inspire and educate socially conscious women of color about the potential to revolutionize their communities and transform lives through the power of theater and enter tainment.
“I believe women will walk away seeing themselves in one or more of the monologues or vignettes,” said Young. “For black women, I believe it will validate some of the experiences they may have had, but because we are culturally taught not to air our dirty laundry, they have never really been seen, heard or validated and told that their traumas and experiences are worth acknowledging, healing and celebrating.”
The women of “Butterfly Confessions” curate their own magic with each perfomance and facilitate new connections and discoveries while creating a space of affirmation and inclusion. The six female actors performing the vignettes are Tracie Johnson Ashe of Tinton Falls, Renee Bordonada of Eatontown, Rochelle Miller of Howell, Latimah Naylor of Asbury Park, Dani Richards of Marlboro and Lorraine Stone of Eatontown.
Artistic director Darrell Lawrence Willis Sr., a retired theater professor at Brookdale Community College, co-founded Dunbar Repertory Company with Ramon James Morris in 1987. The company was founded at Brookdale to raise funds for the Black Student Union and is now the Middletown Arts Center’s resident company, staging at least three productions each year. It is known to residents as Monmouth County’s African-American Theater Company, and is committed to celebrating African-American culture through live literary readings, main stage theatrical productions, educational programs and services.
“I describe ‘Butterfly Confessions’ as a performance art piece that is a combination of ‘The Vagina Monologues’ and ‘For Colored Girls (Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf),’ ” said Willis. “It’s an important piece for all women to see, not just women of color. Men can learn from it too.”
Young said her New Jersey partnership is unique because Willis and Mark Antonio Henderson, Dunbar Repertory Company’s artistic director and co-artistic director, are both men.
“They have both remained very passionate and committed to the play,” she said. “I am honored that they continue to partner with us year after year.”
To inspire conversation, the cast meets with audience members in the lobby after each performance.
“The performance has music, drama and laughter,” said Willis. “It’s one of those pieces that generates camaraderie and fosters good, positive discussion.”
“Butterfly Confessions” will be performed Sept. 6, 7 and 14 at 8 p.m. and Sept. 8 and 15 at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at 732-706-4100 or middletownarts.org. Copies of Young’s book will also be available for sale.
Arts and entertainment reporter Mary Ann Bourbeau can be reached at mbourbeau@tworivertimes.com.
