Roger Guenveur Smith’s solo performance ‘In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat,’ is running through Nov. 9 at the Outside In Theater in Highland Park. The performance details the life of artist Jean Michel-Basquiat, who was part of the 1980s neo-expressionism movement.
Photo by Jiahui Ji
Wave Staff Report
HIGHLAND PARK — Outside In Theatre is hosting the Los Angeles run of Roger Guenveur Smith’s solo performance “In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat,” running through Nov. 9.
By staging a dialogue between memory, art and politics, Smith’s solo work builds a bridge between the visual art world and the theater, offering audiences a live encounter with Basquiat’s story.
Native son Roger Guenveur Smith returns to Los Angeles after a tour of three nationally acclaimed performances: his signature “Frederick Douglass Now;” “Otto Frank,” distinguished as Bay Area Solo of the Year at the Magic Theatre; and “In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat,” called by the Minnesota Star Tribune
“spellbinding … a storytelling master class.”
“In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat” was initially improvised for Basquiat retrospectives at the Brooklyn Museum and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as commemorative events at Bootleg Theater. Smith recently engaged in conversation with filmmaker Sophia Heriveaux, Basquiat’s niece, for the Gagosian Gallery’s comprehensive survey of the New York artist’s West Coast work.
“In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat” is scripted by Smith and scored by Marc Anthony Thompson. Their frequent collaborations include “A Huey P. Newton Story,” adapted from the Obie Award-winning stage play into a Peabody Award-winning telefilm, as well as the Bessie Award-winning “Rodney King,” currently streaming on Netflix. Both Newton and King were directed for the screen by Smith’s longtime colleague Spike Lee.
Smith and Basquiat befriended each other in Los Angeles, with Basquiat painting in a Venice studio and Smith rapping in the fertile 1980s club scene as Hollywatts. Throughout the decade, Smith’s politically charged soliloquies frequently found their way onto Basquiat’s canvas, and Smith eventually created “Smiley,” a Basquiat-inspired character for Lee’s classic “Do the Right Thing.”
Tragically, as Smth was improvising the artist/arsonist Smiley in Brooklyn, Basquiat died in Manhattan.
Basquiat was a self-taught ground-breaking American artist who rose to fame in the 1980s neo-expressionism movement. His work, which combined graffiti and abstract expressionism, explored themes of race, identity, politics, classism and colonialism.
Smith is an actor, writer and director best known for his collaborations with Lee. Born in Berkeley, he gred up in Los Angeles, graduating from Loyola High School.
The design team includes Marc Anthony Thompson on sound, which he will be running live during performances, Arlo Sanders on lighting and James Cowan of Rewarding LLC on scenery.
Smith and Thompson have previously devised work inspired by Christopher Columbus, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Marley, artists Simon Rodia and Charles White, and baseball greats Juan Marichal and John Roseboro, while staging travelogues of Philadelphia, Iceland, San Francisco and Panama, as well as revivals of Katori Hall’s “The Mountaintop” and Steven Berkoff’s “Agamemnon.” Smith directed the Ovation and Bessie Award-winning “Radio Mambo: Culture Clash Invades Miami,” and, with Mark Broyard, created and performed “Inside The Creole Mafia,” a “not-too-dark comedy.”
Smith studied at Yale University and Occidental College, and has taught at both institutions, as well as Cal Arts, directing his performing history workshop.
Jessica Hanna, producing artistic director of Outside In Theatre, says, “It is one of the joys of my career to have produced a number of Roger’s solo shows since 2007, including the original workshop of ‘Rodney King,’ which then toured the world and continues to resonate on Netflix.
“Our new theatre is built in a warehouse that once was used as a studio for visual artists like Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy, and Roger’s remembrance of Jean-Michel Basquiat, his artistry and their friendship is a perfect play to resonate in this space.”
Performances of “In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat” take place on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. through Nov. 9. Tickets are $40 for general admission and $25 for students and seniors. The show is approximately an hour long.
Outside In Theatre is located at 5317 York Blvd. Street parking is available in the area. It is a new, nonprofit theater hoping to become a force in equitable and transformative storytelling.
The theater is focusing on new work, both scripted and unscripted, eveloping new plays as well as creating improvised stories that will lift up the voices of the global majority (a collective term for people of indigenous, African, Asian and Latin American descent), queer, disabled and other traditionally marginalized groups and their allies.
For more information, visit www.outsideintheatre.org.
