Artslandia at the Performance: Portland Playhouse Nov/Dec 2014 | Page 23

GOOD DEEDS

Jones says he encountered skepticism when
he first proposed mounting the competition
in Portland, but soon found support from
high school literature and social studies teachers, such as Roosevelt High School’s George
Bishop, who already had been having his
classes read all 10 plays in Wilson’s acclaimed
Century Cycle, a decade by decade examination of African-American life in the 20th century.
“The language is so rich and so relevant to
what the students are already going through,”
Jones says. “And not just the black kids, but
the Latino kids and even some of the white
kids.”
Earlier this year, the Portland finals attracted
500 people to Portland Center Stage’s Gerding Theater. “The diversity in the lobby was
shocking and exciting,” Jones recalls. “One
of the things we’re trying to do is bring new
people to the theater, and I’m sure there were
people who’d never been to PCS before.”
Forty students took part in the inaugural
Portland regional, and Jones says things are
off to a quicker start this year. Plans for the future include training some of the participants
in project management, marketing and the
like, enabling students to take an active role in
running the competition.

N

one of the three Portland entrants placed
at the national finals, “The ones from
Atlanta were just scary,” Jones says about the
accomplished competitors they encountered,
but they’re not complaining.
“The whole experience was incredible and gave
me a lot of insights,” Steele, now 17, recalls. “It
was emotional as well — there was some competition and stepping on each other’s toes. But
that taught me a lot about myself. And that
I need to always keep the learning aspect up
front in my mind.”
Steele and Edwards have both been learning about the arts for a long time already.

Edwards’ mother is a painter, and her father
works in film. Steele’s parents are musicians;
she’s been singing with her mother, the popular Portland rhythm & blues singer LaRhonda
Steele, for as long as she can remember.
“When I was five I sang on a CD, Redemption Time, that my mom was doing with Norman Sylvester, and I don’t think it’s stopped
since,” Steele says. Edwards has been dancing since she was 4. Both write poetry. Both
have been involved in theatre off and on since
third grade, with companies like Northwest
Children’s Theater and the Portland Theatre
Brigade. And both were familiar with Wilson’s
work from such local productions as Portland
Playhouse’s Gem of the Ocean in 2011 and
Jitney last winter.
Coincidentally, both chose the same monologue, featuring the character Tonya from
King Hedley II. Because there is a natural
break in the text, Steele took the first part and
Edwards took the second.
The Red Door Project helped them hone their
interpretations and performances, with master classes and coaching by the likes of Russell
Hornsby of TV’s Grimm. Even so, both say
they learned the most from watching their
fellow students.
“There’s not a lot that’ll get me up on a Sunday morning, but I always looked forward to
those classes,” Steele recalls. “The whole process helped me discover my love for theatre
again.”
Edwards’ learning accelerated over the summer when she returned to NYC to attend the
Circle in the Square Theatre School.
“I just love New York, the energy of the city!”
she exclaims. “I knew I had to get back there.”
Despite her mother’s apprehension, Edwards
launched a crowd-funding effort on Indiegogo, and within a few days gathered several
thousand dollars to cover expenses. “I didn’t

have family there, didn’t know anybody, didn’t
know the city,” she says. “But I was able to
learn so much, especially about myself as a
person.”
Edwards rented a room in a Spanish Harlem
brownstone and learned to navigate the city.
The youngest of 10 students her class at Circle
in the Square, she studied Stanislavsky and
the Method. On a whim, she took advanced
classes at the prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

T

he promise of these young performers
was confirmed onstage this fall. Steele’s
voice stood out even amid a powerhouse cast
in Parade. And at a rehearsal at Artists Repertory Theatre it was clear that Edwards had
created a credibly nuanced character that fit
right into the taut small-ensemble work of
Exiles.
And they’re just getting started.
“Lauren’s going to be one of those people who
performs on Broadway as her day job, then
writes and DJs and a half-dozen other things
on the side,” says Chanda Hall, artistic director of Staged! “She’s incredible.” Regarding
her varied interests, Steele herself simply says
she’s “gonna pull a Maya Angelou.”
For Edwards, passing through the Red Door
has brought her back to a confident sense of
self.
“If you’d asked me last year, I’d have said I’m
going to be a lawyer,” she says, sounding momentarily dejected at the memory. “The best
thing Red Door gave me was the courage to
do what I really want to do. I want to be — I
am — an artist. I think the coaches saw something in me that they wanted to nurture, and
they gave me so much. I think Red Door saved
my life in more than one way.” .

TOP LEFT Sekai Edwards as Saadia in Artists Repertory Theatre’s recent production of Exiles. Photo by Owen Carey. TOP RIGHT Lauren Steele as Minnie, opposite Jimmie Herod, in the Staged! production of Parade this fall. Photo by Alaina Kuehn.

ARTSLANDIA AT THE PERFORMAN