Local Theater Company’s Marketing Associate Erika Haase sat down with Local’s Co-Founder Megan Mathews for a conversation about Mathews time studying with Chair of the African and African American Studies Department at Harvard (and January, ‘21 Living Room Local guest) Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Can you share a memory you have from Professor Gates' class or your time with Professor Gates?
As a Harvard freshman sitting in his class in the 1992, I had just experienced firsthand the LA uprising as an eye witness and a TV viewer. Those two things didn’t match. Prof. Gates talked about media literacy and gave words to something I didn’t have language for but needed. My eighteen year old mind was blown away. It was then I decided to major in African-American studies under Prof. Gates guidance.
On Sunday, Professor Gates will be speaking about the importance of storytelling and understanding our personal histories. Do you have a vision on how we can use theater to do this?
Seeing the first production of THE COLORED MUSEUM by George Wolfe in middle school--when Pesha’s (Pesha Rudnick, Local Theater Company Co-Founder) mom courageously took 20 7th graders--rocked my world because I had never seen an all-Black cast before. I learned two things that night. First, it never occurred to me that I had never seen an all-Black cast, and may not again. And second, this was a problem for American storytelling. Furthermore, the differences and similarity between the characters’ lives and mine helped me get to know myself in a way I would never have otherwise. George Wolfe’s brilliant script is both hilarious and heartbreaking.
After your time at Harvard, you went on to co-found Local. Was there anything in your time at Harvard that inspired this move?
Prof. Gates’ department was both rigorous and allowed a lot of freedom. For my senior project, I directed FOR COLORED GRILS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF (by Ntozake Shange). Although the theater wouldn’t include it in the main season, I got a grant from the African-American Studies department and self-produced. We sold out every night and attracted new audiences. It was this experience that showed me the power of live theater. After graduation, Pesha and I kept self-producing plays and Local Theater was born.
What are you most looking forward to for Living Room Local with Professor Gates this Sunday?
Being a student of Prof. Gates one of the things I am most proud of in life. The other is co-founding Local Theater Company with Pesha. That these two things are coming together on Sunday fills me with such joy I hardly have the words, and if you know me well you know that doesn’t happen often!
