ABSTRACT
Suddenly, we actors feel a tension in the audience. It seems that some of the folks from the community are beginning to vocalize their appreciation, in the way that black folks in the community do: laughing loudly, saying “uh huh” in approval to a lesson being taught on stage, even “Amening” here and there. The community makes up about half of the audience in this intimate 200-seat theater. The other half of the audience is composed of Johnson’s newer fans, folks from Pacific Heights, Noe Valley, and recent gentrifiers from the Mission District. They are primarily white with means, and love Johnson and his work, and claim him as their own. When the community folks began vocalizing their approval like a congregation, these newer fans begin to take offense. First with the staring and eye rolling, next with the “shhh, would you pleeeease be quiet” in barely concealed hushed tones that says much more than “would you please be quiet.” Usually, this would silence folks from our community if they were in a theater downtown, since the assumption would be that this is not their home and they are guests and should be thankful that they were even invited to the party. However the Western Addition Cultural Center is a flagship, dare I say iconic institution in the Fillmore, and outside of the church and a few other local places, the center is claimed by the community as home base. So community members push back,
“You be quiet!” “This is our center,” and so forth. Now the performers on stage get nervous. Johnson is trying to speak to two communities, and values them both, and frankly needs them both to continue his work as an artist. The rumbling and verbal spats between members of the audience grows and intensifies-and begs the question-who does this artist belong to? And more to the point, whose theater is this anyway?
