As the nation grapples with economic uncertainty, global adversity and targeted acts to oppress Black stories, IN Series’ latest revival of Arthur Arent’s “Ethiopia” reminds audiences that these realities are no stranger to American archives.
The original 1937 production holds the title of the nation’s first “living newspaper,” having offered a depiction of the global silence surrounding Italy’s invasion of the African country, featuring live speeches, world leaders, and a yearn for truth-telling left unstaged in the nearly 90 years of its conception – until now.
With new music and additional characters, such as opera singer Mayme Richardson, IN Series culminates its 2024-25 season with a two-part rendition that expands upon the unprecedented project in a tribute to the power of the arts and the role of diasporic connections throughout African American history.
“[Art] is probably the most powerful vessel that we have these days, through music, through song, through theater, through dance, to tell these stories that connect us, regardless of where you’re from or what color you are,” said Nakia Verner Thompson, who portrays Richardson. “I hope people [take away] how important art is, how important that we learn these stories, that we continue to tell these stories to our children, [and] to the people in the world.”
Gearing up for its Baltimore Theatre Project debut (May 30 – June 1), “Ethiopia” premiered on May 17 as a pop-up play at Theater Alliance in Southwest, D.C., showcasing a unique approach with the creative collaborations of the revival’s playwright Sybil Williams, composer Janelle Gill, artistic director Timothy Nelson, as well as the multi-character portrayals from the seven performers in the show.
The first half of the two-hour production honors the original living newspaper written in 1937, when a group of journalists and playwrights gathered in a mission to honor Ethiopia’s sovereignty while informing the public of a period of global disunity.
After one dress rehearsal, and a request to conclude the play with a recorded speech from then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Roosevelt administration issued a directive that “no one impersonating a ruler or cabinet shall actually appear on the stage,” effectively suppressing a piece that featured multiple government officials and world leaders, including Benito Mussolini, former dictator of Italy.
Eerily enough, 90 years later, the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) pulled funding for the revived production just two weeks prior to the show’s opening.
This time around, Nelson said, the arts refused to be suppressed.
“As Dr. King said, ‘the arc of [the moral universe] is long,’ and you cannot silence the arts,” Nelson told The Informer. “This piece had to come to light, it had to be voiced eventually. And if it took 90 years or 190 years, it was sort of inevitable.”
Tackling Old Stigmas With New Characters
With support from arts organizations and the show’s impassioned artists, “Ethiopia” emerged unapologetic in its wield to empower the stories of the Black diaspora, from African American spirituals to pan-African homages, and even the beats of Rastafarian drums helping to narrate the show.
For Williams, the newly written second act was about far more than highlighting cultural ties, but also illuminating the union that birthed in response to the Italy-Ethiopia conflict.
“When Italy invaded, it became the pain of Africans throughout the diaspora. There were people campaigning for Ethiopia from Harlem all the way to Mississippi all the way to Nebraska,” Williams said. “This notion that pan-Africanism was isolated and the African American people didn’t care about Africa, that’s absolutely not true.”
The new play recognizes pivotal Black leaders who built a bridge between the people of Ethiopia and their Black American counterparts.
After singing the opera classic “Aida” before former emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie, Richardson became a connective mouthpiece for the diaspora, preceding the likes of Paul Robeson, C.L.R. James and Josephine Baker as champions of pan-Africanism.
“We’re never that far culturally, we’re never that far historically, we’re never that far blood wise. All you have to do is simply reach out and grab that history and touch it, because it’s right there,” Verner Thompson emphasized.
Williams told The Informer she was personally moved learning about Richardson’s role in the second Ethiopian-Italian war, noting how she initially believed the opera singer was a figment of her own imagination.
“That was her tapping you on the shoulder, saying, ‘Remember me, remember me,’” a friend told Williams, the playwright recalled.
She highlighted the importance of upholding ancestral legacies.
“Now that history is being assaulted, and that African American histories are being assaulted, all of us are the keepers of this wisdom and knowledge for generations to come,” she explained, “and I just want people to realize that.”
Revival Highlights a Storied Diasporic Movement
Further, in addition to the revival premiering in Southwest, the contributions of Ethiopia and its allies exist throughout the histories of the nation’s capital.
Nelson noted how Richardson, a member of the Ethiopian World Federation (EWF), was also a part of the all Black Mary Cardwell Dawson’s National Negro Opera Company based in D.C.
Williams spotlighted the contributions of Ethiopian leaders like activist and EWF founder Malaku E. Bayen, a Howard University School of Medicine alumni, and featured composer Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, who has a local foundation to support youth interested in music.
“There’s so many histories that we could uncover, there’s so many people here in D.C. who built permanent relationships with Ethiopia that are long lasting,” Williams said. “I want people to know that there are Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, African Americans, Africans around the diaspora working to do amazing things here in D.C. for the uplift of all of us.”
Beyond D.C., Verner Thompson said the play highlights the foundation of Salisses’ understanding of “the plight of the colored American” in galvanizing liberation acts such as the Harlem Renaissance and Civil Rights Movement, among leaders like Marcus Garvey, A. Phillip Randolph, Langston Hughes, and W.E.B. DuBois.
Further, Verner Thompson praised Williams’ reimagined take as a well-executed refuge that will resonate with a lot of people, as it did herself.
She highlighted the creative decision to center the second act through the lens of Richardson’s fictional niece Chloe (played by Shana Oshiro), who’s navigating her own journey to self-discovery and identity by learning of her ancestor’s storied impact.
“I grew up in the South, and I grew up surrounded by the history. But yet, there was this disconnect to the continent because we don’t know where we’re from,” said the artist and South Carolina native. “Sybil did a really good job at showing…that longing to connect to your roots through something tangible, not just reading about it, not just watching a movie, but stepping on the soil and being with the people.”
With “Ethiopia” at Baltimore Theatre Project through June 1, Nelson considers the revival a “deep privilege and responsibility” on behalf of the pioneering act that began in 1937.
“All of them were down-and-out artists, journalists, that…poured themselves into this totally revolutionary – both stylistically and thematically – piece, and never got to see it come to life,” he told The Informer. “We kind of get to complete, in a way, their story that was left unfinished, to pick up their mantle.”
Meanwhile, Williams said she hopes “Ethiopia” instills a similar responsibility in audiences.
“Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of democracy, but with great freedom of speech comes great responsibility,” said Williams. “Your active civic responsibility is to engage the issues of the day, whether they be national or international, with some informed opinion that allows for positive action. I think the living newspaper still is at the forefront of that.”
Black-Americans come from Western Africa….