by Camille Cabral-Oluwole
This has been one of the most interesting projects that I have worked on in a long time. To be honest, I’d never done any work as a research assistant before this, so I was incredibly grateful and excited that Kate was giving me the chance and opportunity to try.
There were times when it did feel a bit intimidating and overwhelming, especially at the beginning, I had to add to this already pretty big Excel sheet and find more to add on there – I found myself thinking, ‘will there even be anything else I can add to this?’ However, I am glad that I actually gave it a try because it opened me up to a world of theatre and history that I never knew about.
During my research I found out about so many interesting and shows and I actually found myself feeling a weird sense of retrospective jealousy, so many shows had such fun, interesting and unique concepts and I’d never get the chance to see them on stage; all I could do was sift through archives and read scripts and hope there was a recording of sorts somewhere on the internet. There were recurring names that kept popping up, like the likes of Micheal J.Ellis and Benji Reid, I found myself wanting to ask them questions, about their shows, their process, themselves as people. This project really helped re-ignite my curiosity and passion for theatre – specifically Black theatre. There are few upcoming shows that I found out about and will definitely try to see. That’s the joy of the creative arts though isn’t it, no matter how much you miss, there will always be more to discover.
I even found myself feeling a bit ashamed of myself, I’ve spent three years here in the city and I have friends that can attest to this – I often found myself complaining about there not being a big black theatrical, scene here, not like back home but I was wrong. I realised during this research that I wasn’t looking nearly as hard as I should have been; but now I know where to look and while I don’t know how many more years, I have in the city, I know that there will be ample shows for me to watch while I’m here.
There are so many interesting shows that we unfortunately had to leave out this year for several reasons but I’m positive that they will get their recognition eventually. I’d like to name a few and acknowledge them, perhaps they’ll pique your interest and get you to look into them more; The Devil has Quentin’s Heart by Benji Reid, Black Love by Michael Harvey, Sense of Belonging by Chuck Mik and many more.
The selection process wasn’t an easy one by any means either, we wanted to pick shows from across the decades, different genres, varying levels of popularity and each with their own link to this wonderful city itself. There were also a few obstacles that we had to face, many of the older shows didn’t have accompanying photos, or good quality ones, or we couldn’t find who needs to be credited, we contacted different theatres and individuals but replies would be difficult to come by.
The whole researching process has taught me a lot as well, not only how to manoeuvre myself around an Excel spreadsheet (although I will say I’ve gotten rather good at it now). I also learnt the importance of documentation! It’s so important to have something physical – or in many modern cases, digital, – to say that you were here, that the work got done. I’ve definitely found myself being more meticulous when writing the details of stuff down nowadays, you never know who’s going to be looking at it 30 years later.
If I was to do something like this again, which I hope I can, I feel much more confident now than I did at the beginning. I know where to look, how to ask for what I need and I know how long it actually takes to do all this work, I definitely have a stronger appreciation for anyone doing something similar/.