Steppenwolfâs latest tells the story of the first black drag-queen presidential candidate
Longtime collaborators Tina Landau and Tarell Alvin McCraney wanted to make a new show together, but they werenât sure what it was going to be. Then, Landau, a director and playwright, came upon the story of queer African-American activist Terence Smith and his drag alter ego, Joan Jett Blakk, who ran for president of the United States in 1992. (Blakkâs slogan: âLick Bush in â92!â)
âI started pointing at the book and jumping up and down and saying, âThatâs it! Thatâs it!âââ Landau recalls. Together, she and McCraney wrote Ms. Blakk for President, based loosely on the night Blakk declared her candidacy. Itâs a play that is also a party, a happening and a political gathering, Landau says.
âThis is queer form,â she notes. âIt resists the binary. Itâs not just that or thisâitâs this and that.â The showâs in-your-face approach echoes Smithâs work with ACT UP, Queer Nation and other activist groups. (The stage design features a zigzagging fashion runway surrounded by âparty zoneâ seating, a first for Steppenwolf Theatre Company.) âWe are introducing a voice in Terence, and a set of characters around him, that are not often depicted onstage and who have very out-there waysâsometimes flamboyant, sometimes politically aggressiveâof approaching life,â she adds.
Landau is directing, and McCraney is moving outside his usual boxes, starring in the production as Blakk. Although he acted in a few Chicago shows after graduating from DePaul, including in Landauâs 2004 Steppenwolf piece, Theat