Split personalities in one-man play 'How Blak
Dr. Jeff Obafemi Carr admits he has multiple personalities, but rather than considering it a problem, he uses it to help others, to entertain and to keep himself sane.
Carr, who calls himself The Media Scientist, is a musician, actor, director, playwright, comedian, educator, coach and juggler of activities who brings all those talents together with multimedia, observation and experimentation to fascinate audiences, but also make them think.
He will present his one-man play “How Blak Kin Eye Bee?” at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 23 at East Tennessee State University’s VA Memorial Theatre. The event is sponsored by the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts.
In his play, Carr embodies seven alter egos in a 90-minute performance that includes music and multimedia to draw insights — ranging from funny to touching to serious — into what it is like to grow up black in a changing America.
Joining Carr will be his seven “friends,” concocted from his own life experiences. The show starts with The Senseb, a “mystical, magical guy,” says Carr, who lives in Nashville but hails from East Tennessee, near Cookeville.
“He represents mystical, magical guys all the way,” Carr says. “You could call him a Pope-being, the Medicine Man, the Shaman, the Fortune Teller, the High Priest. That’s what he represents. He has this concoction of truth serum that all the characters come in contact with and start to speak the truth.”
The audience will also meet and interact with The Pass-Tah, a popular, prosperous minister; The Head Doctor, who “fixes people’s heads” in his barbershop; The Professor, a lecturer in urban anthropology, studying the five types of African-Americans he has discovered; Big Mama, an elderly lady in a nursing home; The Black Act-Tore, a Juilliardtrained classical actor backstage before a debut; and Jessie D. Blues, a blind street singer who has a fascination with the different kinds of sleep.
“Stuff like this comes from your amalgamation of experiences,” says Carr, who holds a doctorate in divinity and an undergraduate degree from Tennessee State University. “Things came to me and I would think, ‘This is so funny but I never heard anybody talk about this on stage before.’ … It may be the first time you’ve heard some of these topics discussed, but they will be familiar.”
In addition to “How Blak,” Carr has also written nine other plays, including a children’s choreo-poem, “Before The People Came,” which played to numerous sold-out audiences in Nashville and was featured at the prestigious Provincetown Festival of New Works for Young People in New York and as a Mainstage Production at the National Black Theatre Festival.
ETSU assistant professor of theatre and dance Herb Parker met Carr in 2004 during the collaboration between Carr’s Amun Ra Theatre and Nashville Children’s Theatre, which Carr directed and Parker performed in. Parker recommended the Nashville performer/director/ producer and his “How Blak” show to Mary B. Martin School of the Arts Director Anita DeAngelis.
“I thought it would be a nice opportunity for an actor of color to come to the ETSU campus to hopefully spark an interest in our students of color,” said Parker, who frequently performs professionally in Nashville.
Having performed in film and more than 30 professional stage productions, Carr is also the founding artistic director of Amun Ra Theatre, a not-for-profit, professional theatre company. A former commentator on the nationally syndicated “The Tavis Smiley Show,” he was a regular roundtable member on the National Public Radio program “News and Notes” with Ed Gordon and co-founded “Freestyle,” a weekly media talk show in Nashville.
To find out more about Carr, visit http://jeffobafemicarr.com? . For more information about his performance at ETSU, call (423) 439-8587 or visit www.et? su.edu/cas/arts/ ? or www.Face? b ? o o k . c o m / E T S U . M B M S O TA
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