Spotlight on Dorian Baucum: ‘In the Red and Brown Water’ Actor, Singer and Everyday Warrior

Dorian Baucum and Diarra Kilpatrick and company in “In the Red and Brown Water”

If you’ve had the unforgettable experience of seeing the Fountain Theatre’s critically-acclaimed Los Angeles Premiere of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s In the Red and Brown Water, you can see  by his heartfelt performance of Ogun Size that Dorian Baucum is a talented actor. What you may not know is that he is also a gifted singer/songwriter.

Where are you from? How long have you lived in Los Angeles?

I grew up in Washington, D.C.  I came to Los Angeles in 2008 after taking a risk and leaving Boston, Massachusetts.  I decided to get my MFA in Acting from UC San Diego and came on up to LA to begin working in film and television.

Dorian Baucum

What was it like auditioning for Red/Brown? 

By the time I auditioned, I’d been in L.A. for four years.  After hundreds of auditions, and landing some great guest star roles on television, by that time I’d made the decision that I wasn’t going to pretend I was somebody else to try to impress the Director or Producers like I did when I first came to L.A. I was going to just show what my instincts were for the role and if they liked what I brought into the room, great. If they didn’t? Well, I’d have to figure out a way to be okay with that. This art thing is sensitive.  So, in being true to myself and my actor instincts, I can just let them decide if I’m right or wrong for the piece.

I celebrated when I got the role in Red/Brown. Then panic set in. Who am I fooling?  I’m no actor! I’m going to ruin the whole show! (laughs)  That’s the cycle I go through.

How would you describe your character of Ogun?  

Ogun is a man that comes from the heart center.  He’s a warrior of love.  To walk through the world with an open heart can be frightening.  It’s like when you’re a little kid and all you want to do is love and then somebody comes along and shakes you into the harsh realities of life.  I think this is why he stutters as a young man: he is so open and vulnerable.  As an older man, he turns his open heart into his strength, when he realizes that love is his gift.  He realizes that his love can save people.  His love is so strong that it pulls Oya from the depths of depression, for a while.

Playing him is terrifying. Vulnerability, extreme sensitivity, insecurity.  All the parts of myself I’d like to pretend aren’t there were necessary to play him.  It’s also taught me that it’s okay to be a peaceful warrior.  It’s okay to live from the heart.  People like Ogun are warriors, but they are warriors in a different way.  Their gift is to bring love to the planet.  It’s hard to do that when you are living on a planet with so much turmoil.  You have to protect yourself, too.  I think he realizes this in the end.  It’s a tough balance.  I think he sees that in giving his greatest gift, love, to Oya, he has to also remember that loving himself is the most important thing that he will ever do.  Most people think that loving others first is the way it works, but I think it starts within, first and radiates outward.

What has the Red/Brown experience been like for you? 

Challenging. In order to play Ogun, I had to open up my heart center and that meant dealing with all of the experiences in my life that made me close it off to the world in the first place.  Director Shirley Jo Finney made it even harder because she was relentless in insisting that I go there.  She is kind of a vortex, an oracle for the ancestors in the way that she works.  When she gives directions, it’s not just coming from her. It’s coming directly from the ancestors and their mission is to open you up so that you can become who you were meant to be on your journey.

Tell us about your music career.

I’ve been singing since I was a kid. But, as an adult, music saved my life.  I started creating lyrics and melodies and singing them as therapy to get me through the day.   Now I volunteer at  Cedars Sinai Hospital and sing to patients at bedside as a part of their music for healing program.

The influences of the all the artists I listened to growing up like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Earth, Wind and Fire comes through my music in a powerful way.  India Arie, Mos Def, Erykah Badu and Michael Franti are all great influences.

I write acoustic and neo soul.  But the lyrics – conscious lyrics meant to uplift, inspire and heal me when I need it – are really what makes my music something that the world needs to hear right now. It is very encouraging when you create a piece of art and there are people out there who say, “Yeah, I feel you!”

I’m doing it all myself as an indie artist. Connecting with as many people as possible who like my music to help me build a strong support-base. I’ve made sales in little pockets throughout the U.S., Japan, South Africa, South America, Italy and Germany. (laughs)  Somebody in Japan is grooving to my music, right now! Blows my mind!

And getting a chance to work with a living legend like Brenda Lee Eager on this show opened my voice in ways that blow my mind, too.  She knows where music comes from and where it needs to go. To the HEART!

What are the rewards of being an actor versus being a singer/musician? What do you get from each, as an artist?

That’s a tough one.  With music, it comes straight from the heart and I get to connect with people as me, totally and completely.  In acting, I connect with people, too, but it’s me playing within the confines of the realty being created, so it’s not all of me full force like it would be in music, you know?  I think that there is freedom in acting, but I think there is even more freedom in music.

You have a new CD out, “Everyday Warrior”. How would you describe it?

My debut album, EVERYDAY WARRIOR: ACOUSTIC – NEO SOUL FOR YOUR SOUL is conscious uplifting music that you can kick-back and groove to, but it is also meant to help folks get through the day in a better way.  I’m a music healer, urban yogi and a strong believer in the fact that music can change people’s lives for the better.  So, that kind of energetic intention is behind my music.

My producer a – multi-instrumentalist San Francisco born sister,  Joy Julks – is a baaaaaaaaad ass – she’s played with many of the greats like Pharoah Sanders, Angela Bofil, Marcus Miller, Sheila E., Macy Gray and many others.

What are your plans after Red/Brown closes?

I’m going to really get my music to as many hearts as possible and as always…find my next great acting project to work on. Or, let it find me!

In the Red and Brown Water   Final Weeks!   Must End Feb 24!            (323) 663-1525   More Info

Proceeds from Dorian’s CD go to Run For Her 2013, an annual run and friendship run/walk to benefit Women’s Ovarian Cancer Research and Awareness. 

Diarra Kilpatrick is a natural as a force of nature

The actress has been called ‘superb’ in her role in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s ‘In the Red and Brown Water,’ a play that exists in two conceptual dimensions.

by Reed Johnson

Before Diarra Kilpatrick was cast in August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson,” at age 12, she already knew what she wanted to do with her life: anything but acting.

So when her hometown Detroit newspaper interviewed her about the production at a suburban theater, Kilpatrick told the reporter she wanted to be a lawyer or maybe the president of a public relations firm. But definitely not “a struggling actor,” she said.

Recounting that anecdote recently at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood, where she’s playing the lead role in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s mytho-poetic drama “In the Red and Brown Water,” Kilpatrick laughed at the memory of her precocious pre-adolescent self.

Because by the time the article went to press, Kilpatrick knew what she absolutely had to do with her life: Be an actor.

“It was the quality of the actors that I got a chance to work with and see them up close,” she said, explaining her overnight career conversion during “The Piano Lesson.” “And the production, the material — it was August Wilson.”

Startling transformations are the stuff of theatrical magic, and they’re central to McCraney’s play, which opened at the Fountain in October and has been extended through Feb. 24. “In the Red and Brown Water” is the first of McCraney’s trilogy “The Brother/Sister Plays,” produced off-Broadway at the Public Theater in 2009.

Set during the “distant present” at a mythical housing project in a make-believe Louisiana bayou town, “In the Red and Brown Water” exists simultaneously in two conceptual dimensions.

There’s the 21st century world of Oya (Kilpatrick), a high school track star torn between her college ambitions and the need to care for her ailing Mama Mojo (Peggy A. Blow) and between her affection for the stammering, sweetly devoted Ogun (Dorian Christian Baucum) and the dangerous erotic heat she feels whenever Shango (Gilbert Glenn Brown) comes around her door.

Diarra Kilpatrick and Gilbert Glenn Brown in “In the Red and Brown Water”

But in another dimension — parallel, yet inseparable — the play is a spiritual struggle that draws on the stories, cosmologies and archetypal gods of the Yoruba people of West Africa, whose legends were transported by slaves to the New World. Virtually all of the play’s 10 characters are named for traditional Yoruba orishas, or spirits: Elegba, the shape-shifting trickster; Shango, god of fire and lightning; Ogun, the deity of iron-working and war.

And Oya, goddess of the Niger River, wind, storms and, as Kilpatrick puts it, “revolutionary transformation.”

“It’s not like ‘Let’s redecorate the house,’ it’s like ‘Let’s tear this [stuff] down! Let’s knock the walls out!'” Kilpatrick explained. “So when Oya comes into your life, people fear her because it means your life is about to change.”

For Kilpatrick, the task was to simultaneously, plausibly portray Oya as a contemporary young woman as well as a force of nature. “This is a girl who listens to Nicki Minaj and Rihanna,” Kilpatrick said. “This is the texture of right now. But yeah, we also carry in our DNA these stories from hundreds and hundreds of years ago.”

In his review, Times theater critic Charles McNulty praised the Fountain’s production, directed by Shirley Jo Finney, as “sensational” and Kilpatrick as “superb.”

Growing up in Detroit, Kilpatrick was taken regularly by her mother to plays, art exhibitions and other cultural events. “Let me just say, if there was a play that was done in Detroit I probably saw it, particularly if it was a black play, and let’s say 95% of them are black plays in Detroit.”

Between ages 12 and 16, Kilpatrick took part in Detroit’s Mosaic Youth Theatre, one of the country’s most accomplished youth theater programs. She also acted at her private college prep school, Detroit Country Day, before moving to the theater program at New York University, where she performed in plays like Suzan-Lori Parks’ “In the Blood” and Stephen Adly Guirgis,’ “Our Lady of 121st Street.”

“I was one of the only black girls who had made it that far who could cuss and make it sound real,” Kilpatrick said, laughing. NYU instructors strongly encouraged her to lose the vestigial Southern accent she’d picked up from her South Carolina-migrant forebears.

Given the realities of casting for African American actors, Kilpatrick said, it’s important to be able to switch accents and speech styles depending on the role. “You don’t want the private school to eat up all the richness of … your flavor. Because no matter what that flavor is, that’s going to be your calling card at the end of the day.”

Kilpatrick came to Los Angeles in 2007. She has appeared in the Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble’s version of “Three Sisters,” set in Trinidad, and a half-black, half-Mexican transgender male in the Bootleg Theater’s production of Gary Lennon’s “The Interlopers” last year, among other roles.

But getting to play a role like Oya “is a blessing,” especially with this cast and “Shirley Jo at the helm,” she said.

“There aren’t parts like this for black women very often. It’s like Hamlet, it’s like King Lear, it’s Medea. It’s an opportunity to really go in there.”

In the Red and Brown Water  Extended to Feb 24  (323) 663-1525 More

Emotional Comments from College Students: ‘In the Red and Brown Water’ Transcends with “Not just a voice for all people, but for the ages”

Alan Goodson

College students from Fashion Institute for Design and Merchandising attended a recent performance of In the Red and Brown Water. The students are in their first or second year of college and are mostly 18 to 22 years old. Their teacher is Alan Goodson, who is also an actor who has appeared on our Fountain stage.

“The class is called Seminar in the Arts,” explains Goodson.  “The students are generally visual artists of one kind or another, but have had little or no exposure to other artistic media – so I try to broaden their artistic horizons by taking them to theatre, classical music, and architectural walks. ”

“In the Red and Brown Water”

After seeing In the Red and Brown Water at the Fountain, the students were required to write about their experience. Here are some comments:

“I was extremely moved by ‘In the Red and Brown Water’ and would most definitely recommend this play to others.  I went into this play close-minded because I have never been one to enjoy plays all that much, but this play was very intriguing and captured my attention from the start.”

*

“Tarrell Alvin McCraney (the writer) tells a story of a young girl, Oya (the magnificent Diarra Kilpatrick), who may be able to outrun everyone, but she cannot escape her fate. Oya’s journey, from her promising youth to the complications of womanhood, is a joyous, raw and openly beautiful portrayal. . . . Going into the play with an open mind is essential, most of the audience were FIDM students who had no idea what lay ahead of them; one of them being me. I truthfully did not expect myself to enjoy ‘In the Red and Brown Water’ as much as I truly did. It is not a play with a happy-ever-after ending; this was to show that not everyone leaves the earth pleased. Life is about lessons and hardships that make the person who they are, Oya’s journey showed her heartache, happiness, sorrow, all in one lifetime. She had a beautiful life of joy and despair, and we all were privileged to see this acted out on stage. And while all but one of the characters are people of color, the play’s themes of self-discovery, choices, and destiny transcend race. McCraney is not just a voice for all people, but for the ages.”

*

“I was completely lost in a different world and truly feeling the raw emotions portrayed on stage thanks to an intimate theatre and exquisite actors. . . . ‘In the Red and Brown Water’ leaves the audience questioning and interpreting. Which is the reason why people create or look at art in the first place.”

*

“This production had a talented, enthusiastic cast that made the play very intimate, real and entertaining. This play will indefinitely engrave a sense of passion and inspiration in the hearts and minds of everyone that gets the opportunity to experience it.”

*

“The play allows your emotions to be heightened throughout the cultural, relatable, and life-inspiring performance. It was wonderfully executed, designed, and detailed, allowing the audience to understand the purpose and plot of the wonderful story. Overall, the play allows you to be a part of the emotional rollercoaster that the characters feel.”

*

“The play really spoke to my emotions, making me feel as though I was on the rollercoaster ride with Oya. This was due to the ten brilliant cast members, the set design and the intriguing storyline. It was an honor to attend one of the plays of Tarell Alvin McCraney at the Fountain Theatre in such a small, intimate setting. The play would not have left me feeling the emotions I did if it was in a larger theater. I highly recommend this play to someone who wants to broaden his or her horizons and set foot into the life of someone else.”

*

“The story of Oya and McCraney’s lives came together beautifully to create a story easily relatable for most people. With excellent lighting techniques and subtle props, the message is clearly portrayed and allows the audience to become a part of the scene using imagination. Without the wonderful performances by the actors, actually becoming the characters, the play would not have been as powerful. This play may relate personally to some, but provides a deep message for all.”

*

“I would definitely recommend the play, ‘In the Red and Brown Water”, to my family and friends. The experience watching this method of theatre performance revealed a way to capture scenes, dialogue, settings, and so on, that  I never knew about. I thought this play was amazing. Overall, I highly enjoyed my time at the Fountain Theatre and would love to go back and see other plays.”

*

“Throughout the play, the different aspects of the script and how the performance was carried out truly inspired me and were easily relatable, as everyone goes through the common troubles of life. . . . The theme of this play and performance inspired me in creative ways for current assignments and has positively affected my views of smaller theatres.”

“In the Red and Brown Water”

In the Red and Brown Water has also earned Rave Reviews from critics everywhere, including being highlighted as Critic’s Choice in the Los Angeles Times.

It runs to December 16th.  (323) 663-1525  More

Fountain Spotlight: Actress Diarra Kilpatrick On the Run in ‘In the Red and Brown Water’

Diarra Kilpatrick

Tell us about yourself. Where are you from?

I was born and raised in Detroit, MI.  My mom was always really dedicated to nurturing the artist in me as I was growing up.   She put me in every arts or literature program she could find and I thrived in them, so there was no way I was gonna grow up and become an accountant.   And thank God for that.  And my dad has the best sense of humor of anyone in the whole world. So if my mom gave me the gift of art, my dad gave me the gift of laughter.

How would you describe Oya, the character you play in In the Red and Brown Water?

“The Interlopers” at Bootleg Theater.

At this point in the process its a little hard to delineate where she ends and I begin honestly.  She’s a track star, so she’s alot faster than I am, that’s for sure.  My track and cross country coach from high school would probably chuckle if she saw this play because aside from the horizontally challenged members of the team, I was the worst one.  And I had the longest legs.  But  I went to this painfully conservative college prep school  and the rule was everyone had to  play a sport.  And if you were on scholarship you had to play TWO sports.  I thought that was completely racist because nearly all the scholarship kids were black.  So I think the angry little militant in me didn’t want to excel in sports cause as a black girl on scholarship was expected to.  I was like whatever, somebody point me towards the stage please.   But I regret it now.  I’ve grown up and found that I actually do like to run.  I probably could have been better if I had applied myself.  So I’m getting a chance to feel what that might have been like through Oya.

What themes in the play resonate for you?

The play for me is about Oya’s growth.  She has a hell of a time getting over the hump, from one version of herself to the next.   She’s special and she knows she’s special so there’s quite a bit of frustration that comes in when she has such a difficult time asserting herself in the world.

The language of the play

Yes the language of the piece is poetic. Black folks speak in poems to me anyway.  McCraney definitely highlights the lyricism in the black vernacular.  It informs me as an actress. I know exactly who these people are by the way they speak.  There’s no vagueness in there.  I know who they are.

How does mythology weave its way through the story?

My favorite thing about the piece is the presence of the mythology throughout.  These characters are black and poor and living in the projects.  Seems like the makings of a sad sack 90s movie that we’ve all seen before.  But by reminding us that at the very center, at the core of these characters,  is the spirit of a god or goddess, it somehow more fully reveals their humanity.  The playwright is showing these characters so much respect in that way.  It somehow manages to both elevate the piece and pull us closer to it.

Diarra Kilpatrick (Oya) and Gilbert Glenn Brown (Shango) from ‘In the Red and Brown Water’.

This is your first project at the Fountain. Are you having a good time?

I’m really enjoying working with Shirley Jo and the whole cast.  There’s a closeness that happened pretty organically.  I’m excited to get to rehearsal everyday.  This is the only ensemble I’ve been in  where people balk about taking a day off.  Everyone is very excited by the work.  And everyone is bringing so much of themselves to their performances.

In the Red and Brown Water  Oct 20 – Dec 16 (323) 663-1525  More