The Rep blends past and present in Dominique Morisseau’s “Confederates”

This week, The Rep brings to life Confederates, a timeline-jumping play by MacArthur Genius Award–winning playwright Dominique Morisseau. The story centers on two women living more than a century apart—one an enslaved woman and Union spy, the other a modern-day professor at a private university. Both are forced to navigate racial and gender biases as they seek to lead in their respective times. Elizabeth Carter, a Bay Area–based actor and director, is directing the production. We caught up with Carter between tech rehearsals to discuss Morisseau, artistic partnerships, and what has and hasn’t changed for Black women in leadership.

For those who are unfamiliar with Confederates, can you tell us a little bit about this story.

Dominique Morisseau weaves together two women who are leaders in their own time, set in the past with an enslaved woman, Sara, and in the present with Sandra, who is a professor at a prestigious institution of higher learning. These two women are navigating the worlds of racism, sexism, classism…it’s really about that trajectory of what Black women have to navigate. We see them in these two mirrored worlds, which are really sort of the same place in a way. But it’s a comedy about the absurdity of the institutions and how that plays upon them. This play highlights how we get free as Black women. 

Tell us about your cast. You’ve got folks flipping between characters and timelines, which has to be challenging.

It’s a beautiful group of actors. I could not ask for a more skilled, thoughtful, intelligent, joyful group of people. We have five actors, two of whom stay in the same roles, and then three actors who move between time periods.They play someone in the past, they play someone in the present, and they go back and forth actually quite quickly. So it really is a challenge. But everyone’s been really up for it. The pacing and the twists and turns of what you discover throughout the scenes is really exciting. This group of actors is really wonderful at upholding this really challenging piece that asks us to really grapple with some big stuff, but also make it funny.

Everyone’s kind of coming in from a different place, which is exciting, and bringing their own experiences to this process. But they’ve really gelled together. From the first day, I was like, Oh, okay. This is a special group of people.

Dominique Morisseau is such a talent, especially when it comes to crafting these relationships both between the characters and within the characters themselves—their relationships to their own stories. What’s it been like for you working with these characters and the trials and absurdities that they go through?

For myself, as a Black woman who’s leading a process—and I’ve been an educator myself, and I come from a long line of educators—as I look at the academia in this play, I hear conversations at my dinner table when I was 10 years old. It feels so present and familiar. Looking at the way that Dominique crafts characters, they’re all flawed in some ways. They all make mistakes, but they’re all human. They’re not completely naturalistic, but they are familiar. And the way she turns a phrase or turns a moment that illuminates something for the character for the first time is really beautiful. She just allows us to dig into the complexities of human beings. The resilience of these characters, especially Sara and Sandra, under microaggressions and blatant misogynoir is really a testament to that. We see how she chooses to have her lead characters respond to that. What can you do? What can’t you do? How are you gonna massage this? But she also is really fun, and sometimes she just lays it right out there in the open and raw, but then there’s also these nuanced moments. It’s really delicious. And I think the flipping back and forth between time is just brilliant. It gets messier and it gets more ramped up as the play moves forward, and she leaves us in a place that’s going to keep us thinking. 

What do you hope that audiences take away from Confederates? 

I hope that they walk away understanding the weight of what they’re asking of Black women leaders and just Black women in general—what the expectation is and what we have to navigate. But really, I also just hope that they see a little bit of themselves in these characters…I always feel like theater is a mirror, right? We get to look at it and we get to choose. We can choose to sit back and be like, “It’s just entertainment.” That’s a choice. We can also lean in and say, “Wait, I know that person. Is that someone I know? Is that me?” I’m hoping that the audience will use it as a bit of reflection and reevaluation that will allow them to be better humans as we walk out into the world. I’m really about how we liberate not only the actors, but also liberate the audience. I want Black women in the audience to say, “I know that. I know that I feel that.” And I want other folks in the audience to say, “I see you. What is my part in it? Where do I fit into this? How can I shift that? How can I change that?” Because art is activism.

On February 24, folks will have the opportunity to hear from Dr. Keisha Ross during RepresentSTL Confederates Community Night. Can you tell us about that event what you think it’ll add for those heading to the show after?

I think it’s exciting for there to be some framework and conversation beforehand. I think that it’s an opportunity to get some framing from somebody who’s in academia, who lives this life and is an expert in this field. I feel like that’s a really great opportunity. I think people should take advantage. I think, when theaters do extra programming around shows, it’s always worthwhile. So I’m really hoping that people will show up early for that conversation.

The Rep has partnered with The Black Rep, which is performing Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew later this spring, to offer one ticket price for both of these shows. Could you speak to how you think the two shows complement each other for people considering heading to both?

I think it’s really wonderful that you get an opportunity to see a playwright’s work in two different theater companies. With The Black Rep being a premier Black theater company in the country, I think that seeing their work on Skeleton Crew is going to be a complement in seeing the breadth of Dominique’s work. [In Confederates,] we’re dealing with academia and the legacy of slavery and how it is really the foundation of our country, right? Then you look at Skeleton Crew and you see how these things play out with working-class folks in factories. We’re seeing different angles on the same thing, because, you know, you write what you know. I think you’re getting the best of both worlds [with these two shows.] You’re seeing Dominique pushing herself to play with different structures in Confederates, and then seeing something that is really grounded and rooted in a place and a home that is really important and special to her. Also, you’re seeing these women in both plays, because Dominic always writes really fantastic women who are really grappling with what’s coming at them and making hard decisions based on circumstances. I think you’d be lucky to be able to go see both. I love how these two theater companies are partnering with each other. I think that that’s a really special thing.

I’ve gotten to speak to both Hana Sharif and Ron Himes about their goal to partner and collaborate with other members of the arts community, and it’s really exciting to see that come together. 

It’s good stuff. I’m sad I have to leave before I can see the production of Skeleton Crew. It’s funny, I have also been an actor for a long time, and I don’t know if Ron knows this, but I actually went and auditioned for him maybe 15 years ago…it’s really wonderful to be back in this area and be here to direct. And then to see that collaboration, it makes me want to come back and involve myself more in the St. Louis art scene if I have the opportunity.

Is there anything else that you’d really like folks to know about this production?

I guess just how important it is. I know a lot of Black women who are in leadership right now—some of them are newly in leadership because the doors have finally either been busted open or cracked open a little bit. And people are looking to Black women like, Yes, come be part of this organization. Help us move forward. We want you. People think that putting a Black woman in power is going to shift all the structures that were already set up for hundreds of years and they forget that those women need support. What I’m also interested in is how we can see what has and what has not changed over time. I’m curious about how people sit with that. But I’m really excited just to have some bodies in the house. I’m anxious to have new eyes, fresh eyes, and people who are experiencing it for the first time, because I’ve been living with it for a long time now.