James Baldwin. Malcolm X. Nikki Giovanni. These are just some of the authors, poets and thinkers you can find represented on a shrine that the cast of “Immediate Family” has created as Out Front Theatre.
The play, written by Paul Oakley Stovall and running at Out Front from March 13-29, is about a family wedding that goes awry when son Jesse decides to bring his new boyfriend along. To help get the relatively small cast into character and feeling like a family, Thandiwe DeShazor asked them to bring in books, baby pictures, and other items that represent some transformative part of their lives to put on the shrine.
“It’s relatable to them onstage, so when we’re working we can have these real conversations and say, hey – can we relate this moment in the show to what you shared at the table, or what you shared on the shrine?” DeShazor said. “It really gets them motivated in a different way.”
DeShazor hoped the shrine would help the cast feel as connected to the show as he did. “Immediate Family” is a coming out story, and he saw so much of himself in the main character of Jesse.
“I also introduced my boyfriend at the time, now husband, to my family in a very kind of unorthodox way they were not primed for,” he said. “In that way, there’s a lot of similarities to this story, and I really wanted to bring a certain level of truth to it.”
DeShazor has been acting and directing in Atlanta for years, even writing his very own show “Natural Woman: An Aretha Story.” But this is the first time he has directed a show for Out Front Theatre. DeShazor also serves as the program manager of the Counter Narrative Project (CNP), which aims to change the narrative surrounding Black LGBTQ+ people, particularly Black queer men. According to DeShazor, the opportunity to direct arose when Out Front and CNP were talking about ways to collaborate.
The cast includes Jason Jamal Ligon as Jesse, Irene Polk as his sister Evy, and Elliott Young as his brother Tony. Other cast members are Kierra Danielle, Catherine Campbell, and Jeff Hathcoat.
DeShazor said many of the casting decisions came down to who had the best chemistry.
“The fact that they made the call back, the fact that they got into the room, means the performance was great,” he said. “A lot of times it came down to energy and chemistry between the characters once we place them together.”
The cast has had a roughly three-week period to rehearse, but DeShazor said the strength of the cast has been evident as they work through tough scenes and find the necessary beats to hit. In one scene, Jesse comes out to his brother Tony. It starts as a comedic, sweet moment, where Tony tells Jesse that he already knew, and he loves him no matter what. But, even if Tony takes the news well at first, he still warns Jesse to not be all over his boyfriend in front of the entire wedding.
DeShazor said it was important to get this particular moment right because of how true it feels to so many people and their coming out experience. That’s part of what “Immediate Family” is about: learning how to meet people where they are in their journey of acceptance, but also learning how to help them when they make a misstep.
“That kind of pulls the rug from under Jesse, because it’s this idea of thinking that you can find a safe place, and then someone says something completely ignorant and completely hurtful,” he said. “It’s something that is very relatable to a lot of people, where someone is trying to be an ally, but they don’t have the tools or the education to really be that ally that you need them to be.”
Tickets for “Immediate Family” at Out Front Theatre can be bought online.
