Just steps away from the Morgan L stop and across the street from the vaguely New York Times-famous Pine Rock Box Shop’s pickle margaritas, a theater troupe is trying to establish Bushwick as an “Off-Off-Broadway” destination. Run by the Canadian acting teacher Michèle Lonsdale Smith, the Gracemoon Arts Company opened with dramatic flair last week, putting up an outdoor red carpet to introduce the various members of the largely Canadian ensemble of actors, now opening its doors in Bushwick. Per their website, these efforts were guided by “humanitarian intent for the immediate community and beyond.”
They are executing this plan on Grattan, located underneath the extremely colorful retailer OOH BABY. Gracemoon Arts is a more subdued addition, operating out of a sparse space largely decorated with paintings by Tal Gottfried, a member of the ensemble who doubles as a formidable painter and adds a psychedelic, expressionist funkiness to the whole entrance.
Gracemoon has started its Bushwick journey by putting on “The Dutchman,” a one-act play written by Amiri Baraka that originally premiered in 1964, precisely 60 years ago and is currently the subject of a second filmed adaptation sometime in the near future and starring André Holland, Kate Mara and Zazie Beetz. Running at the new playhouse from July 12th until the 21st (later stretched out until the 27th), it’s a production that revolves around particular stereotypes: a well-dressed Black man, reading a book on a train, and an abrasively flirtatious Jewish woman. Their charged, train ride-long interaction becomes sexualized before leading to devastating consequences. Evoking Adam and Eve, Lula, played by Leah Doz, chomps on apples throughout, continually offering them to Clay.
Doz, a ten-year veteran of the company, portrays Lula with a blend of graceful cunning and increasing instability, as temptations begin to erode her resolve. In the Gracemoon production, Doz moves around the stage in a mocking rage, making the audience uncomfortable as her flirtations escalate into racist tirades. Daren Herbert, a founding member of the Gracemoon Arts Company, plays Clay, bourgeois in a well-tailored suit, struggling with the pull of Lula’s sexual temptations. In his own way, he too unravels, exploding in a powerful monologue directed at the other train passengers, who remain silent and passive throughout, swaying their shoulders just so to mimic the movement of a train.
In a shocking finale, Lula violently stabs Clay and only one woman, played by Gabrielle Graham, watches the scene and then quietly weeps over the body. The only other person of color on the train, her reaction is an affecting moment of Black female grief, which made me think of reading Jesmyn Ward novel Men We Reaped, also a story about Black men lost to societal complacency, as the other passengers throw his body off at the next stop.
The set is remarkable itself; an incredible replica of a 1950s train, bought from the set of the hit, recently-cancelled Amazon Prime show “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Advertisements line the tops of the seats, featuring images of white women trying on makeup and clothing, adding an authentic touch to the period setting and showcasing a small piece of the enormous Maisel budget.
Both Doz and Herbert deliver enthralling performances, capturing the symbolic intentionality of Baraka’s work, written during a tumultuous period for race relations in the United States. Baraka co-founded the Black Arts Movement in 1965, the day after Malcolm X was assassinated. He described its goal as “to create an art, a literature that would fight for Black people’s liberation with as much intensity as Malcolm X, our ‘Fire Prophet,’ and the rest of the enraged masses who took to the streets.”
During this period, Baraka also left his white Jewish wife, the poet Hettie Jones, a possible influence on the creation of Lula, his play’s erratic temptress. (His Wikipedia page features separate sub-sections on: “misogyny,” “advocacy of rape,” “homophobia,” in addition to anti-Semitism.) At one point named the poet laureate in New Jersey, the position was dissolved after he wrote a poem about 9/11 that included the lines “Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed / Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / To stay home that day.”
When I asked the Gracemoon people about Baraka’s backstory, I was told the company does not shy away from contentious figures and topics and, in fact, they seem to have chosen this play with that very intention. “Of course. That’s the nature of the company. We talk about everything and we have no interest in avoiding artists that are shrouded in controversy,” Augustus Oicle, another member of the company, told me.
“Misogyny and anti-Semitism are both topics that will be addressed in upcoming productions. We don’t shy away from any conversation,” says Oicle. “These are exactly the kind of questions we’re hoping to discuss in the post-show conversations. If he didn’t write the play, we wouldn’t be able to ask those questions.”
These discussions, in fact, occur in the salon at the back of the theater, where audience members are encouraged to ask questions about topics involved in the play, alongside the cast and ensemble, in a room surrounded by string lights and plush couches.
Amrit Kaur, another company member — perhaps its most famous one, as one of the leads in the HBO dramedy “Sex Lives of College Girls” and will, at some point, take on a lead — also praised the theater’s openness, comparing it with her experiences in Canada’s acting scene, where she finds people “too polite” to engage in tough conversations. As Kaur tells it, Lonsdale Smith, Gracemoon’s director, creates an environment that encourages actors to push their boundaries.
“I was crying the whole time. The first part of the class focuses on relaxation, a Strasberg exercise where you sit in a chair and find muscular tension, believing there’s emotional consciousness in your physical tension,” says Kaur.
Kaur isn’t alone. Another member of the company claims that joining helped him overcome drug and sex addiction. These life-changing commitments to Michèle and her vision of passing on their collective learning through storytelling have fostered a close-knit group. You can watch them encourage eachother during the after-play salon, with lots of heart clutching and loud laughs. They strive to disarm the space, trying to make the argument that a lengthy conversation after the show is just as important as the performance itself, both included with the ticket.
In the upcoming “seasons”, each running approximately two months, the company will journey through subjects like “Misogyny,” “The Abuse of Sex, Art & Addiction,” and, last but not least, “Love.” Future plays include a run of Eleanor Burgess’“The Niceties,” which debuted off-Broadway back in 2018, and a production of “Intimate Apparel,” by the multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning Lynn Nottage. These will, as one company member put it to me, “investigate what we humans do behind closed doors.”
The Gracemoon Arts Company is located at 13 Grattan Street. “The Dutchman” plays there until July 27th, get tickets here. Keep up with their calendar via their website.
Photos taken by Michelle Maier.
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