Preview: The Color Purple at the MATCH

Alric Davis, founding artistic director of the Sankofa collective, and Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The color purple go back a long way. Maybe even too far.

“I read it when I was too young to read it,” Davis says with a laugh.

Davis credits his grandmother, an avid reader, with introducing him to the book, one of his favorites, when he was 11 or 12. This weekend, Sankofa and The Garden Theatre will open Houston’s first all-local, all-professional production The color purpleThe musical adaptation of – a production that Davis and Logan Vaden, the Garden Theatre’s founding artistic director, will co-direct.

Davis recalls that Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated 1985 film version, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, was also “a classic” in his household growing up, but he developed a deeper understanding of the story and characters in 2013, which was his senior year at GW Carver High School.

That year, Carver, under the direction of Tony Award-winning theater director Roshunda Jones, became the third high school to stage a regional production of the 2005 Broadway musical adaptation. Davis starred in the production and served as assistant director.

“11 years later, here I am, approaching the same story I love so much from a different angle,” Davis says. “Knowing it so well, most of my life, has definitely benefited me in being able to interpret it today.”

The novel, like all subsequent adaptations, tells the story of Celie, a downtrodden woman living in Georgia, over decades, beginning in the early 1900s.

“It’s very much an American epic, a Southern Gothic epic, but I think what resonates with people is Celie’s journey,” Davis says.

Celie, Davis notes, is a victim of parental abuse, physical violence, forced separation from her family, and loneliness, but “she later becomes a businesswoman, gains control and autonomy, and she fights and not only defends herself, but also learns to defend women and the people around her.”

“Everything she goes through almost makes her look like Atlas. She looks like Job in the Bible,” Davis adds.

Unlike Carver’s production, which “was more about spectacle and the brilliance of the book,” Davis says this joint production is the 2015 Broadway revival, which is “more about the spirit.”

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Nicole Gee in the Sankofa Collective and Garden Theatre co-production of The color purple.

Photography by Pin Lim

“I think what I like about this revival is that it’s about transforming the mind. It’s really minimalist and stripped down – you just have a few benches, a few tables and chairs – but it leaves a lot of room for imagination and creative play,” Davis says.

One of the ideas the production will draw on is the West African tradition of griots, historians who preserve the history of their villages and towns and use their stories to entertain and uplift their people. In this way, Davis sees himself as a griot and sees the show and its characters doing the same thing — preserving history to help their people move forward in a positive way. In this production, the characters are self-aware, with meta moments and breaking the fourth wall.

“It’s a really cool opportunity for us to come together and say, if these characters had the power and control and autonomy that they wanted, what would that look like,” Davis says.

The fact that this production is a regional premiere that draws on local and professional talent is another way, Davis says, of breathing new life into such a well-known work.

“Using local talent and putting it on Houston bodies, actors and a creative team just adds a level of freshness that doesn’t exist,” Davis says. “There’s so much beauty in using Houston actors, who are incredible and who typically don’t get the opportunity to showcase that talent, especially when it comes to men and women of color.”

April Wheat is tasked with handling the singing, acting and dancing required for the role of Celie, and Davis calls Wheat’s casting “a no-brainer.”

Davis was so impressed with Wheat’s work ethic and professionalism after the two worked together on small projects for The Sankofa Collective (including a charity concert where they performed as Beyoncé and Jay-Z) that he knew he wanted to work with her in a more formal capacity. The opportunity eventually presented itself. The color purpleand Davis says it couldn’t have been a better solution.

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The casting of The color purplea musical co-production of the Sankofa Collective and the Garden Theatre.

Photography by Pin Lim

“As a person, as a human being, we naturally root for her. And so, as Celie, it’s perfect, because Celie goes through so much and throughout this moment, we have this kernel of hope that she’s going to get through this and like April, she always does,” Davis says. “She makes me cry with her vulnerability and the way she uses all the experiences that she’s been through. She’s a mother. She’s a Black woman in society. She’s a classically trained singer who has been criminally underutilized and underappreciated.”

As Wheat prepared for the role, Davis says he had one very clear request: Don’t look at any other references.

“I know Fantasia (Barrino) exists. I know Cynthia Erivo exists,” Davis said. “I said, ‘Leave all that at the door. We want you. You’re the first regional of this project in Houston. Come on in.’”

Davis adds that he tried to encourage everyone, from the actors on stage to the creative team behind the scenes, to embrace the show “as an open vessel” and “let the story take shape.”

“If we allow ourselves to leave ego out of the room, just be blank canvases and allow this story to really convey its message of love, acceptance, joy, resilience, everything else will fall into place,” Davis says.

That said, a deliberately open and transparent dialogue about cultural differences between The Sankofa Collective, an all-black company, and The Garden Theatre, a majority-white company, was necessary to allow them to identify and unpack the universal themes of the story, ones that transcend race and class. Fortunately, this is a specialty of The Sankofa Collective, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary.

“We made it our mission to fill the gaps and really build community,” Davis says.

Yet Davis names The color purple His favorite musical is “one of the few that allows us to tell a story for ourselves.” It also, he says, employs “black and brown people in an industry that is not designed for us.” In both cases, it remains true to the Sankofa Collective’s mission to expose, educate, and enrich the community in, with, and through theater.

“My mission in life is to make sure that black and brown people are safe and heard, and this show is perfect for that. The tagline, ‘I may be poor, I may be black, I may be ugly, but I’m here,’ is just monumental, and it’s also one of my guiding lights.”

Davis’s Opinions The color purple “It’s a call to action,” and he hopes their production will be the same. “We want the show to serve as a call to action, to say that you may not be going through exactly what Celie is going through, but you can also be able to take ownership and control of your life.”

Performances of The Color Purple are scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday, August 2, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, August 3, and 2 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, August 4 at MATCH, 3400 Main Street. For more information, visit sankofacollectivehouston.com or thegardentheatre.org. $25 to $35.