Opening night big reveal for subject of play
by Gale Horton Gay
gale@dekalbchamp.com
Tre’ Maxie is crossing his fingers that Afeni Shakar will be favorably impressed with his play. Photo by Gale Horton Gay |
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Tre’ Maxie may be more anxious than most playwrights on opening night. His play, Afeni Shakur/In Her Defense, focuses on Shakur when she was jailed and went on trial for charges related to her involvement in the Black Panther Party during the 1960s. It is Maxie’s theatrical debut but that isn’t what’s likely to make him nervous. The fact that Shakur will be front and center and witnessing the play for the first time just might.
Maxie said he is “cautiously optimistic” that Shakur will like what she sees onstage at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Stone Mountain. “I know that she has full trust in us [the center’s staff], knows we will do it justice.” And the fact that Shakur gave her approval to stage the production and didn’t ask to review the script or attend rehearsals shows that she trusts him and the staff, respects their professionalism and understands creative license, Maxie said.
Maxie serves as director and executive assistant to Afeni Shakur-Davis, mother of slain rap icon Tupac Shakur.
“There is so much history in this thing,” said Maxie. “Everybody knows Tupac, Tupac, Tupac but where did Tupac come from? What did his mama do?”
In 1969, Shakur was arrested along with other members of the Black Panther Party. The group was arraigned on more than 156 differing charges associated with conspiracy to destroy New York City department stores, subway stations and police stations. It captured headlines and was known as the Trail of the Panther 21.
The idea for the play grew out a desire by Maxie and the center’s staff to do something special for Shakur’s 60th birthday last January. They gathered reports and documents related to the trial and Shakur’s decision to waive legal counsel and represent herself in court. After the material was presented to her in a plain binder, the idea was sparked to share it with the public through an exhibition, which is currently on display at the center through March 28. Then someone remarked it would make for a riveting play. Maxie got to work.
Much of the research for the play came by searching through old news reports of the trial, which was noted as the longest and most expensive political trials in New York state history at the time. The trial lasted for two years.
Maxie, who has written screenplays as well as handled political productions and galas, is quick to point out that the production does not attempt to explore the Black Panther Party or the other defendants who were tried at the same time as Shakur. The focus is solely on Shakur.
The hour-long play covers three aspects of the trial: her opening statement in court, the second time she was jailed during the trial while pregnant with her son and when she was acquitted—a month and a day before giving birth. Actress Anita Faith Williams, who played the lead in Juanita Bynum’s A Night of Passion and had a role in the movie Stomp the Yard, is cast in the title role and leads a cast of 10.
And a good portion of what theatergoers will hear in the play are Shakur’s own words, as according to Maxie 80 percent of her words in the production are direct quotes taken from trial testimony. “I wanted the play to use as many of her original words as possible,” he said.
Asked what he would like audience members to take from the performance, the playwright said to be inspired to overcome obstacles.
Maxie said Stone Mountain was chosen for the play’s debut as a thank you to the local community for supporting the center. Plans call for staging the play in Atlanta and beyond later this year, he added.
In Her Defense opens Feb. 22 and runs Friday and Saturday through March 1 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 to $15. For more information, visit www.TASF.org or call 404-298-4222. The Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts is located at 5616 Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain.
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