ABOVE: Jermaine Robinson (L) and Brandon Burditt in “The Colored Museum.” Photo by Chaz D. Photography.
The lights dim and deepen into a purple haze that so many LGBTQ clubs seem to live in. Miss. Roj, played by Jermaine Robinson, emerges on the American Stage Theatre Company stage in an animal print skin-tight romper.
She snaps, prepares to violently rattle a rocks glass and “The Gospel According to Miss Roj” fills the room. It’s impossible to look away. Feel intimidated? Stare at her stark white go-go boots.
One audience member, Patrick A. Jackson, assistant producing artistic director at American Stage watches her command the audience as a transgender “extraterrestrial” – as she calls herself – with a secret smile.
On the Nov. 4 opening night of “The Colored Museum,” Jackson was snapping along with Miss Roj, watching the actor he coached disappear into his role.
Jackson isn’t just the assistant producing director on “The Colored Museum” at American Stage, he’s a working actor who uses the Miss Roj monologue in his audition reel. Since being introduced to the queer character through George C. Wolfe’s satire in his college years, he’s felt a sort of connection to the emotional rollercoaster that lives in the fictional character of Miss Roj.
She’s mesmerizing, but she’s troubled, in her time loop inside of the LGBTQ+ ‘80s nightclub, ironically coined “The Bottomless Pit.” She’s drinking and dancing her demons away, but the demons remain.
When Jackson attended Morehouse College, the emerging actor didn’t get the part of “Miss Roj” when he first auditioned. Over a decade later, Jackson is the producing director of “The Colored Museum” at American Stage.
“I saw it [“The Colored Museum”] in college, and Miss Roj spoke to me, but when I saw it in 2006-2007, I don’t think I would have been able to handle the character back then. To step into that character is a risk.”
A lot has changed since Jackson’s time at the historically Black Atlanta university, and he now has no hesitation directing the show, including the beloved Miss Roj skit. Step into rehearsal and you’ll find Jackson following every line, every step and every choreographed dance number from off the stage.
Each of the 11 skits, including “The Gospel According to Mrs. Roj,” comes together to fulfill George C. Wolfe’s satire on Black stereotypes. Wolfe picks at everything from “A Raisin in the Sun” to the scorned Josephine Baker, who had to relocate overseas to be recognized as an icon.
Jackson focuses on it all and works as the choreographer on the American Stage production, but he’s had his Miss Roj moments in real life.
“There have been times, yes, that I’ve been Mrs. Roj,” Jackson says with a laugh. “Instead of being crushed by those things, instead of seeing only the sex and clubbing and partying, I choose to see the celebration. Our culture is one of celebration.”
Jackson and “The Colored Museum” director Keith Arthur Bolden didn’t approach the aging skit without caution. Just like when the play debuted in 1986, trans culture exists in the clubs, but the ballroom scene is not what it once was 40-plus years ago.
Ultimately, they decided against adding more modern references. The stage is relatively empty anyway, barring a high top for one and actor Brandon Burditt walking out as a jean short-wearing and disapproving waiter for The Bottomless Pit.
Burditt brings the clear liquids, presumptively vodka sodas, and Robinson snatches them angrily until his character is a bit drunker, a bit more agreeable.
“My hope is that people who are dealing with their demons will choose something positive to get through them,” Jackson says.
As for Miss Roj, she’ll keep dancing the demons away until the curtain closes.
See “The Colored Museum” at American Stage Theatre Company Wed-Sun through Nov. 27. Purchase tickets and learn more at AmericanStage.org.
You must be logged in to post a comment.