home_news

An Interview with Fairview director Dr. DeRon S. Williams

What drew you to Fairview? 

Fairview is a difficult play to understand, and it's a difficult play to direct. So, because of both of those things, it drew me in. I like a good challenge. I like to be challenged in the rehearsal room. I like to be challenged intellectually, and this play allows for that. It also leaves you wondering how the audience is going to respond to it, whether it be positive, negative, or somewhere in between, and that's where this play exists.  

How does Fairview situate itself in the history of theatre and pop culture?  

It draws from the Brechtian theater practice of alienation. [Playwright] Jackie Sibblies Drury really uses that device, wanting us to know that you're in the theater to heighten our understanding of what's being performed on stage. She wants us to understand the message and not get so enthralled in the entertainment of it all.  

In a more contemporary sense, I think she's trying to make sure that we are having this conversation about race, this conversation that we oftentimes shy away from. She's really making us process all of those ideas all at once, while teasing us with this piece of entertainment. She pulls us out of it abruptly towards the end of the performance so we can see very clearly that this isn’t a performance. This is life. We are presenting real issues, real problems right in front of you. Now, really think about that. 

What roles do 1990s Black sitcoms play as a popular culture reference point in this production? 

This play makes us question whether these sitcoms really portrayed black families in an honest way. It's wonderful to have these black families who are very much wholesome. Mom, dad, very well off, upper middle class, so forth and so on because that's on the complete opposite end of most imagery that you see on television when it comes to black families.  

But at the same time, it's also putting this plastic veneer, this shiny film on black families that there are no problems that exist, or these problems can be glossed over in some way. With this play, it slowly peels back that idea of this perfect family that was presented in The Cosby Show, that was presented in Fresh Prince of Bel Air. We can be wholesome. We can be a whole family. We can have this particular dynamic, but we can still have those real-world, everyday problems and issues that we go through. 

You have extensive experience in dramaturgy. What is dramaturgy and how would you describe your dramaturgical approach to Fairview? 

The dramaturg is the expert in the room who understands how to analyze the play based on its structure, really understand the history and how it plays into the context of the play. I would also say they're the researcher in the room. They're the person that would find all the cool information that we may not think of for our actors, designers, directors, or so on to explore.  

This is going to sound weird, but I really looked at it starting with the moment where one of the characters is talking about OJ Simpson. This idea of what does it mean to be a regular black person and this special black person or this rich black person. Really looking at the idea of black people and their blackness in terms of economics. Exploring that first really established for me the dynamics of the family. Because it's a middle class family, it started informing a particular behavior that I would see from them. It's important for us to understand these people from their full backgrounds because it plays a large part into Beverly's demeanor, in her preparation for this party and the perfectionism that she is going for. It exists in this particular status that she's trying to maintain within her social circle and within this idea of where we need to be to feel proper. 

What is the significance of performing this piece at Loyola in 2024? 

I think it's very significant to have people be a part of this conversation now at Loyola. Loyola is a predominantly white institution, in particularly within the theater program. A, it's an opportunity to start a conversation on campus through performance. We have departments who are interested in having conversations around this play. B, it's also welcoming and opening the door for other students of color, especially black students, to see themselves on the stage in roles that center them. Which could potentially usher in a new cadre of students to our program. I think that's very important doing both of those things at the same time. It also opens up a wide variety of things that we can do as we diversify our student population within our program, because there are so many more things that we can do.  

You recently edited Methuen Drama’s Anthology “Contemporary Black Theatre and Performance: Acts of Rebellion, Activism, and Solidarity.” Can you share what that process involved and what skills proved helpful?   

This project actually started before the pandemic when I was at my previous institution, Eastern Connecticut State University. But it really was prompted by 2020, when the pandemic hit, and George Floyd hit. So, a lot of conversations started coming out, and my friends and I thought it was very important for us to create conversation around activism, creating solidarity and rebellion through performance and theater. We wanted to make sure that it was very contemporary and we wanted to make sure that it was various methods and modes of doing that.  It looks at various ways of performance and I think it's a great conversation for undergraduates and graduate students and people who are interested in black performance and performance studies to explore. 

You’ve worked at a variety of Chicago institutions, including Goodman Theatre and Timeline Theatre Co. What do you find rewarding or unique about the Chicago theatre scene?   

I find that it's a family. Oftentimes, you're going to work with someone that you've worked with before. Because it's one big pot of cousins, uncles, aunts, of that nature. It's just a really good feeling to know that even if you're going to a new theater, 9 times out of 10, there's going to be someone on the production team that you've probably already worked with.