One-woman show channels Zora Neale Hurston

Sarah Rebell Staff Writer

Famed American author Zora Neale Hurston wrote about the issues facing African-American women at a time when it was difficult for them to find an outlet. This weekend, Vassar students will have the opportunity to see “Zora,” Lawrence Holder’s one-woman play about Hurston’s fascinating life, performed by Kim Brockington.

“Zora” is a memory play. It takes place in a bus station where, as Hurston waits for a bus, she reminisces about her colorful life.

“The play traces her extraordinary life, her rise to literary fame and the challenges she faced as an African-American woman writer in the United States during the first half of the 20th century,” said Chair of the Drama Department Denise Walen. “The production offers a masterful example of storytelling through performance that is energetic and beautifully nuanced.”

Hurston was one of eight children born to a preacher and a schoolteacher in 1891. At a young age, she moved to the all-black town of Eatonville, Fla., a city that influenced and appears in her writing.
Hurston received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Barnard College and started a career as an anthropologist. This profession aided her writing, as she used her anthropological skills to understand other cultures.

Hurston was also active in the Harlem Renaissance movement of the ’20s and ’30s, when African American artistic and intellectual culture soared. Her colleagues included prominent figures such as Booker T. Washington and Langston Hughes. Hurston wrote 15 books, the most famous of which is Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Hurston fell into obscurity by the end of her life, and her grave was unmarked for a long time. It wasn’t until prominent writer Alice Walker wrote an essay about Hurston’s work in the ’70s that people including Holder, began to take interest in her story.

The character Zora was originally played by Phylisha Rashad. When Rashad couldn’t do one of the shows, Brockington, who’d been seen in another one-woman play, was asked to step in. Brockington has now been performing “Zora” on and off ever since.

Brockington became aware of Hurston and her work as a teenager, and she continues to read Hurston’s books, as well as those written about her life, as research and insight for the play. Her favorite book is Speak, So You Can Speak Again, written by Hurston’s niece, Lucy Ann Hurston.

“It’s like a family photo album,” Brockington said. “I had to change some things I was doing in the play because, within that particular book, there were things I’d never heard of before.”

The book also includes a CD of Hurston speaking, which Brockington found to be a helpful way to approach the character.

“I like doing [the play] because I love Hurston,” said Brockington. “She’s so dynamic, so alive. I know her like the back of my hand.”

Brockington explained that the way she gets to know a character so intimately is the same, regardless of whether the character is based on a real or fictional person.

“The process is still the process of acting, of finding the character,” Brockington said. “You can read and research but still not bring the character to life. You have to find the character’s needs, wants, desires, secrets, objectives. That’s what allows that person to live.”

In addition to the Vassar performance, Brockington will also appear as Hurston in an upcoming PBS documentary about her life.

Brockington acknowledged the challenges of working on a one-woman play, as opposed to a television show or theater piece with other actors. To do a one-woman show, “You have to be organized, you have to be independent and you have to like being alone,” she said. “It’s a very interesting process, if you are doing a show like this.”

In preparation for the performance, Brockington takes time to bond with Hurston’s spirit. “One of the last things I do before [going onstage] is ask that we become one,” said Brockington.

“‘I will return from the grave and my truth will be told,’” Brockington said, quoting Hurston. “I believe that is happening through me and through other actresses who do her. I believe her truth is being told, over and over again.”