I Ain't Yo Uncle

A Note from Bill

The premise is irresistible in Robert Alexander’s epic theatrical agitprop masterpiece: the characters from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel step out of the book and put Harriet herself on trial for misrepresentation. I love this play.

I first encountered the play as Reggie Montgomery’s assistant director on its first regional production at Hartford Stage, following its world premiere at the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Reggie was one of my first great professional mentors, and I carry his lessons with me to this day.

Years later, when I was looking for my MFA thesis project at UCSD, I wanted something even more audacious than what I had explored with Brecht’s Edward II. I had a lot to say about America, and I wanted to unleash as much theatricality as possible on the stage at La Jolla Playhouse.

My interest in American dream mythology has long been an organizing principle in my work. I was curious about how American theater co-opted the characters from Stowe’s novel and then enshrined them in popular culture as archetypal stereotypes. I wanted to look at how popular culture has leveraged, and at times profited from, these painful images.

The production became an explosive pageant of musical numbers, melodrama, minstrel show, puppetry, mask work, silent movie, multimedia video design, tap dancing, and rap concerts, all reaching for a reckoning with America’s great original sin.