Even when auditioning for the world premiere of “The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes” at Northwest D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Lauren Fraites felt empowered by the other Black women competing for roles.
“That audition room was the first time that I had been in a room just surrounded by Black women– everyone was supporting each other. We’re all learning these dances, we’re all helping each other. It was just such a positive environment to audition in from the jump,” Fraites told The Informer in a WIN-TV interview.
The rehearsal process proved just as rewarding for the Richmond, Virginia native and George Mason University graduate.
“Everyone that we’ve been working with, the entire cast, everyone throughout the production. And it’s just been a really wonderful safe space that we created for ourselves in our rehearsal room,” Fraites said. “This is definitely one of the best experiences that I have had in theatre.”
“The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes,” written by Vivian J.O. Barnes and directed by Taylor Reynolds, is about a fictional HBCU dance team, as six dancers lead up to their homecoming performance. The strong ensemble cast features Billie Krishawn (Shantee), Kimberly Dodson (Maya), Sabrina Lynn Sawyer (Kiera), Kalen Robinson (Racquel/Dionne), Khalia Muhammad (Gabby/ Nikki) and Fraites as Aleyse. The show tells an engaging and entertaining story of Black womanhood, hard work, sacrifice, and resilience, and explores both joy and pain.
As a former captain of her high school dance team, Fraites said that Barnes does a wonderful job humanizing the characters.
“I’m very grateful that we have Vivian J.O. Barnes who wrote this amazing play and can bring everyone together is really special,” the actress explained.
“There’s a lot of twists and turns in the play. There’s a lot of surprises,” Fraites said. “Somehow she has been able to write these characters in such a raw form. You’re able to see their humanity and each character is so different, but you’re able to just get a viewpoint of these young Black women, in college–18 years old to 21 years old— and they’re just allowed to be their most human self. Their most disgusting, their most exhausted, their most excited, their most tired. It’s everything at once. It’s just so wonderful.”
“The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes,” Fraites explained, offers audiences a fresh perspective on the nuances of being a Black woman in America.
“I feel like we put so much pressure on Black women to show up with this degree of excellence,” she said, adding that African American women are often not given safe spaces to release emotions without judgment. Barnes’ characters don’t shy away from feelings.
“Emotion is allowed and accepted throughout this show,” Fraites said.
Audience Engagement at Its Finest, The Show Must Go On
“The Sensational Sea Minkettes,” is already a play that celebrates unapologetic Black young womanhood; however, the Feb. 16 show was particularly special, as it was a Woolly Mammoth “Blackout performance,” when the entire audience is Black.
“A Blackout performance is the transformation of the theatre into an affinity space for an all-Black audience. This is a very intentional healing space that prioritizes the needs of Black identifying audience members to be seen and celebrated in theatre spaces and process complex questions of race,” said Kristen Jackson, Woolly Mammoth’s associate artistic director and director of Connectivity.
The Blackout performance honored the Native Americans who originally settled on this land, as well as the African Americans who built much of the District to what it is today.
“The foundation of this city, and most of the original buildings in Washington, D.C., were funded by the enslaved people of African descent and built by their hands. It is essential that we name this in order to combat the erasure of the people who came before us and whose descendants are still among us,” said D.C. native Kimberly Douglas, who serves as Woolly Mammoth’s managing director.
The Feb. 16 performance also honored the life of Risikat “Kat” Iyabo Okedeyi, a member of the Woolly Mammoth’s artistic community and a District cultural curator who died December 2023. A strong supporter of Blackout performances, close friends of Okedeyi’s shared tributes and stories about the District multi-hyphenate’s life and legacy.
The show was engaging, had memorable characters and despite topics such as stress and depression, included funny moments and entertaining dance movements.
As the Feb. 16 performance was winding down, and in a particularly emotional moment, the show was interrupted by a fire alarm, requiring the entire building to evacuate. Instead of the action completely ending, the show’s band came out to play tunes as the cast danced to the music.
I truly can’t imagine this moment playing out the way it did at anything other than a Blackout performance. It was a beautiful moment of Black joy, as the now displaced audienced danced and sang on the sidewalk and in the streets with the cast and crew.
While not every night might not have as much action as the Feb. 16 performance, “The Sensational Sea Minkettes,” is a show to catch before it closes Sunday, March 3.
From discussions ranging from Beyonce and twerkable songs to depression and societal pressures, “The Sensational Sea Minkette,” takes audiences on an entertaining, emotional journey.
“Hopefully you will laugh. Hopefully you will cry. It’ll make you feel all the feels. It’s very relatable,” Fraites told The Informer. “I’m excited for audiences to see it.”