AAPEX's RAP April 4th at The Players' Club (NYC)

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AAPEX Interview: Saida Leekong

Saida Leekong

I was excited when Stella Adler acting instructor Benard Cummings took me up on my request to cast actors from among his students for the ensemble for our upcoming NYC reading of Alan Aymie's RAP at The Players Club on Gramercy Park.

I certainly didn't expect to find myself working with anyone from Clarkesville, Tennesse, a neighbor city of Nashville and home to the fabulous Roxy Theatre
. 

But I am and her name is Saida Leekong - now there's a good ol' Tennessee name for you!

Saida is exotically beautiful, she must be talented to be studying at Stella Adler, and I can tell from our communications that she is clearly ambitious. It's always a treasure to be able to work with a young actor of this caliber.

 In addition to her studies at Stella Adler, Saida is also a cheerleader for the NY Jets.

Here's what Saida has to say for herself:

"Theatre and the Arts played a huge role in my childhood and upbringing. I can not recall a time that I was not involved the Arts. I have always been passionate about the arts; my mother was very influential on me and encouraged self-expression through the arts at a young age. She enrolled me in dance at 4 years old and from that time I dabbled in everything from gymnastics, art classes, even piano. However, my passion for acting stuck.

I began acting training at nine years old ( the youngest student at the time) at the Roxy Regional Theater under the direction of John McDonald. I was very serious about my " craft" ( as they say in the acting world)  From a  very young age I knew there was no other path for me. 

I live by the idea that growth as an actor and as a person are synonymous, which is the foundation of teaching at Stella Adler. I still consider myself a very young artist, so my evolution is daily. I think that all artists are continually growing and learning more about themselves through their craft. 

I have been truly blessed. Upon moving to New York I spent my first months here as a 2010 New York Jets Cheerleader. I am also a full time student at Stella Adler conservatory. In addition to my already full schedule I balance a career as a professional dancer and upcoming actress. I am excited to be starting my new year off with my first New York stage production at the prestigious Players Club.

I had a great upbringing in Clarksville, Tennessee and theater and the arts played a huge role in my childhood. The Roxy Regional Theater is a great treasure, that offers alot of opportunities to young and new actors. I also am a graduate of Clarksville High School which has an amazing four year theater program under the direction of Barbara Wesner. There are several outlets for the arts in Clarksville. others trained before me under McDonald and Wesner have also gone on to have careers in acting. 

God has blessed me to be able to follow my dreams and represent my hometown proudly and thank those who gave me and many others an opportunity."

Please join us on Monday, April 4th, at The Players Club in New York City for our reading of RAP, winner of the AAPEX Best New Play 2011 award. For reservations and further information, contact Jaz Dorsey, Dramaturg, The African American Playwrights Exchange, by email at jazmn47@aol.com

Along with Saida, the cast features James Brown-Orleans, Mr. Jimmy Gary, Terrence Epps, Lindel Sandlin, Jason Gray, Adriana Spizuvoco, David Hartstone, Aaron Wright and Mark Barlow.

To Contact Saida, please click post's title.

AAPEX Actors Showcase at The Players Club 4/4 (NYC)

AAPEX is preparing for our first NYC Actor's Showcase at The Players Club on Gramercy Park on Monday, April 4th.

The play, RAP, is by Alan Aymie of Los Angeles. 

Confirmed cast members:

James Brown-Orleans, who created the role of Kwame/Bling Bling in the first Los Angeles production of RAP and who is currently in the Broadway cast of THE LION KING.

Jimmy Gary, recognized as AAPEX Actor of the Year 2011 - whose television credits include LAW & ORDER, NURSE JACKIE and WHITE COLLAR.

Terrance Epps, who has been on board for our 2 NYC readings of Merrill Jones' award winning play MRS. STREETER.

Please save the date!

Jaz Dorsey
Dramaturg
The African American Playwrights Exchange

AAPEX's Best New Play for 2011: RAP by Alan Aymie

I read a lot of scripts. It usually takes me a day or two, sometimes a week, but every now and then one comes along that grabs me by the brain and pulls me through in a single sitting.

Such a script is RAP - AAPEX's "Best New Play 2011" by Los Angeles based play playwright Alan Aymie. Maybe it's because I live in "Music City USA" where all is fair in love and stardom, but this scathing satire of the music industry has a very visceral effect on me. And on top of that, it is a very producible script, the kind you can't wait to hand over to the actors and get on it's feet. So I asked Alan to tell us about himself and the play and herewith:
Jaz Dorsey

What role did theatre and the arts play in your childhood and upbringing?

Growing up, I was on my own a lot as a child. This was probably a self-imposed exile – at least most times but whatever the reason I often found myself at the center of my own self-created adventures where I, inevitably, served my role as the noble hero fighting off dragons, monsters and demons in whatever new story I had created in my mind to act out. On those times when I wasn’t alone, I was often with my Dad at his record store. My father owned a record store in Boston when I was a kid. He had always loved music and was in a Doo Wop group when he was younger. His first job in the music industry was working for James Brown – promoting his music to radio stations along the East Coast. He had become friendly with James and several other R& B groups during the 60’s & 70’s. It was his love of music – more specifically soul music – that fed my own artistic urgings to express myself as well. Although, I remember being in school plays as a kid, it is those memories of my father’s record store, the performers who would visit it and my dad’s utter joy at singing along to the radio that led to my life in the Performing Arts.


Tell us about your own evolution as an artist.

I evolved as an artist in probably the most backwards way anyone can – growing up I wanted to wear a suit. My father, with a box of 45’s under each arm, was the only dad in my town that didn’t carry a briefcase or wear a suit and I would hate it because growing up as an Arab-American in Boston, I felt we stood out enough already. Certain names I was called – words that were written on our sidewalk left me as a young boy feeling I was “less than” and all I wanted was to find a way to fit in with the status quo. In these pursuits, I ended up going to college to get a business degree and subsequently, a job where I could wear that proverbial “suit”. What is funny and quite ironic now is that the only moments of those college years where I actually felt like I fit in were the few opportunities I had to perform on stage. However, several years later, in my “suit” job – bored and miserable, I found myself being promoted to Baltimore, MD where my future as a well-paid, bored and miserable sales manager seemed certain until a sales trip where I ended up seeing August Wilson’s FENCES at a regional theater in Norfolk, Virginia. That night, I knew I had found what I want to do with my life. On the ride back to Baltimore, I quit my job and called the University of MD to ask for an application to their Theater Arts program. I went on to get my BFA and worked professionally in DC before moving to LA by way of NY. Eventually I started writing and the first “play” I ever wrote and performed was a 45-minute solo piece about a young man that has to kill a rat in his girlfriend’s kitchen. I performed that piece at a very chic jazz club here in LA and ended up clearing nearly the entire restaurant before I finished. As I sadly collected my belongings and prepared to leave in utter failure, a man walked up to me and said, “Congratulations, you are now officially a playwright.” I guess that was the first step.

What inspired you to write RAP and what has been the evolution of this project?

I wrote this piece as a thank you gift for a very dear friend, James Brown-Orleans, who had directed me in a solo piece that I had written. The solo play went on to be produced in LA, NY & the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, CO and James was there every step of the way. I never paid him a cent for his service and he never asked. I ended up writing my play RAP as a showcase piece for him as a way of saying, “Thank you”. The first reading we did, James sang and played his guitar for the audience for over an hour before the reading. It was a true example of Art imitating Life. That night, there happened to be a casting agent from Disney’s The Lion King in the audience and James was cast in the travelling company for it. He has since been promoted to the Broadway cast and has been performing the show there ever since so I guess I’m all paid up. The play itself, however, came to a halting stop after losing James as the task of finding an actor who could sing, rap as well as create the two very diverse personalities of the African KWAME and the urban African-American rap singer, MC BLING-BLING proved to be daunting – if not impossible. The play was shelved and probably would have never seen the light of day if it weren’t for an impromptu conversation with a casting director here in LA where another actor’s name came up. This actor, James Black, went on to not only perform the role brilliantly but inspire many rewrites of the main character as well and I – and the play - are eternally grateful.

What are your thoughts on LA as a center for African American theatre?

My thoughts on LA as a center for theater – any theater - is that it is quite difficult for a flower to grow in the shadow of a large tree. Here in LA, unlike any other city in the country, there exists a tree - a behemoth known as the Film & TV Industry that casts a fairly large shadow over the theatrical landscape. The theater that is produced here in LA often seems gnarled and twisted, as any living thing would if it were trying to reach the light. There seems to be two very distinct approaches to creating theater here in LA which consists of either a very purposeful attempt to ignore this giant shadow or a more desperate and obvious attempt to cater to it – either of which fails to serve theater’s true purpose, which, I believe, is to shed light onto the horizon of the human condition. In regards to African-American theater – more specifically African-American Theater produced here in LA – the challenge of going beyond the shallow entertainment-generated stereotypes without simply becoming “political theater” is a fine balance. And although the loss of great artists such as August Wilson, have devastated the nation’s theatrical landscape – more specifically, African-American Theater, great voices such as Suzan-Lori Parks continue to shine a bright light onto the horizon.