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In the performance landscape of the 1990's, there's been one consistent evergreen: the autobiographical solo based on recollections of the performer's youth or coming-of-age. Those of us who have seen dozens of these -- from brilliant to banal -- will attest that Hassan B. Rogers' homey memoir "Mrs. Rogers' Back Porch", playing at Karamu's intimate Arena Theatre, ingratiates itself with a welcome difference.
Although Rogers is himself a fine actor/storyteller -- natural, warm, and easy-going -- the real magic happens in his theatrically-effective decision to open up his tale and illustrate his tale with pithy, vivid scenes. He includes an accomplished quartet to help people his memory's neighborhood: two sharp young women, Alicia Kirkland and Andrea A. Dixon, and two delightfully funny men, Doni A. Rogers and real-life childhood best friend Grant Cox. It makes for a homespun, nostalgic evening, one that might make you feel like you're at a reunion with some of your more entertaining relations: not a little sentimental, now and then preachy, but full of authentic connection and high-spirited fun.
"Mrs. Rogers' Back Porch" is ultimately a praise song to growing up in the mid-1970's in Garden Valley, an East Side neighborhood better known for its projects and poverty. With dramatic economy, Rogers needs only two scenes to tell us volumes about family life before their move to the inner city: a rigid, embittered father, shaking his sleepy children awake in the middle of the night to preach Black Muslim rhetoric at them -- and the brutal whipping the young Hassan gets for trying to cadge Pringles from a white neighbor kid across the street.
Once the family moves to "G.V" after his parents' separation, life gets looser and far sweeter. Rogers and his ensemble are a joy to watch as they conjure impossibly natural scenes of youth: watching girls on the corner, playing games like Four Corners, hand jive, hide-and-seek, improvising and do-wopping songs and harmonies. He conjures the embarrassing, exciting moments of a first high school slow dance -- a girl's eagerness, a teenage boy's too-responsive body, and the push-pull advice of kibitzing buddies.
There are also the flirtations with danger: an episode of teenage school vandalism that ends with a police visit; a foray through the backyards of an alien white neighborhood; and a hilarious first taste of alcohol, as boys doctor up a bottle of Thunderbird with generic Kool-Aid. (In the week post-Littleton massacre, these urban teen escapades seem almost heart-breakingly innocent.)
The folksy familiarity of the material doesn't inhibit audience enjoyment; instead, there's a continuing sense of recognition, and the fresh performances, aided by Rogers' simple but savvy direction, keep it engaging, even when the writing occasionally flags. More than a collection of personal stories, "Mrs. Rogers' Back Porch" becomes an effective evocation of a time and place.
As an alternative to the staged readings of past Arenafests, Karamu's decision to commit to a workshop production of this original work by a local artist -- with spare production values but immense heart -- must be counted a rousing success.
Originally published in the Plain Dealer, May, 1999
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