Speaker 1: What's up, everybody. I'm Gammy and this is positively gam
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for today's guests because we're talking about
Speaker 1: the hit television show on Stars P Valley. I mean,
Speaker 1: I love that show like it was so innovative. I
Speaker 1: was like, what is happening? Oh my god? We love Yeah.
Speaker 1: The series is an adaptation of Katri halls play Pussy
Speaker 1: Valley and follow several people who work at a strip
Speaker 1: club in the Mississippi Delta. The critically acclaimed and record
Speaker 1: breaking series returned for its second season on June the three,
Speaker 1: So if you haven't already, you gotta get to it.
Speaker 1: Joining me today is my guest Katri Hall. She is
Speaker 1: a Pulitzer Prize, Olivier Award winning and Tony nominated playwright
Speaker 1: from Memphis, Tennessee. The play that I love so much
Speaker 1: that you wrote was Mountain Top, which was the fictionalized
Speaker 1: version of the Last Night of Martin Luther King's Life.
Speaker 1: I love that play. I didn't even know you had seen. Oh,
Speaker 1: of course, absolutely absolutely. I saw it in Baltimore. She
Speaker 1: is the showrunner and executive producer of the hit Stars
Speaker 1: drama series P Valley. So welcome, Kuturi to positively gam
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to be here. And like I said,
Speaker 1: I'm such a such a fan, but we are a
Speaker 1: fan of yours and definitely a fan of P Valley.
Speaker 1: So tell me what made you decide to write a
Speaker 1: play number one about strippers and then to then turn
Speaker 1: it into a television series like what Sparred that? So
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just a home girl from the South
Speaker 1: and I grew up going to trip last Okay, so
Speaker 1: I knew that it was this strong, vibrant culture. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, when most people think about a shrip club,
Speaker 1: they think, you know, it's a full of sad, struggling women.
Speaker 1: And and I would go to strip clubs, I would
Speaker 1: see athletes, I would see like do so latesque performers
Speaker 1: whipping around the pole and so fast forward. I was
Speaker 1: living in New York and I started taking pole dancing
Speaker 1: classes myself, and yeah, that's right, that's right. Yeah took
Speaker 1: pole dancing classes. Like. I didn't do it for very long, though,
Speaker 1: I have to say that I did not keep up
Speaker 1: with it. I only took it. I only took three classes.
Speaker 1: But it was very liberating. It really was absolutely and
Speaker 1: what you said right there liberating, and when I took
Speaker 1: those classes, I felt so sexually empowered. I felt limba,
Speaker 1: you know, I was just like such a beautiful art form,
Speaker 1: and so I really wanted to delve into the lives
Speaker 1: of the women who created this art form. And I
Speaker 1: knew that obviously, you know, it comes out of you know,
Speaker 1: the exotic dancing and the South, and so I just
Speaker 1: really wanted to do this fusion of my love for
Speaker 1: the South, my love for dancing, and my love for
Speaker 1: just you know, women who are about their hustle. So
Speaker 1: I ended up researching it for six years. I visited
Speaker 1: over forty clubs, interviewed over forty dancers. I remember I
Speaker 1: celebrated my thirtieth birthday in the locker room of Sin
Speaker 1: City in New York City. I was just really in
Speaker 1: love with the strength of the women and how resilient
Speaker 1: they were, even though, as we all know, the choice
Speaker 1: is hard. It can be hard when it comes to
Speaker 1: deciding to be a part of that life. And so
Speaker 1: you know, Pussy Valley just ended up being this excavation
Speaker 1: of the hardships, the struggles, but also the dreams, Like
Speaker 1: these women are dreamers, their hustlers, and so I was
Speaker 1: just so grateful that I was able to research for
Speaker 1: so long so I can get all these details. And
Speaker 1: so I ended up doing this play, which ended up
Speaker 1: being produced at Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. And and
Speaker 1: when I saw the play, I was like, oh, Ship,
Speaker 1: this is the wrong medium. This is supposed to be
Speaker 1: a TV show. Ah, So you saw that as soon
Speaker 1: as you saw the thought as soon as I saw
Speaker 1: the plays, like, there's so much going on, and I
Speaker 1: wanted people to have Uncle Clifford and Mercedes and Miss
Speaker 1: Mississippi in their living rooms, not just in the theater.
Speaker 1: I didn't want people to have to travel to a
Speaker 1: space to be in the same room with them. I
Speaker 1: wanted to bring those characters inside of people's houses. And
Speaker 1: so that's why I decided to flip it into a
Speaker 1: TV show, because TV is just such an accessible medium
Speaker 1: and quite frankly my favorite medium. Yeah, it's so interesting
Speaker 1: because I took that class, but I've never been to
Speaker 1: a strip Closs. Know what we gotta get you to
Speaker 1: the Closs. I know. Now I'm feeling like I've done
Speaker 1: myself and injustice, like I probably need to actually experience
Speaker 1: it live and see what it's really like. If I
Speaker 1: were to do that, Katri, where do you think I
Speaker 1: should go for that experience? You have to get down
Speaker 1: to Magic City and they lay on them. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: I was so inspired by that place. We actually have
Speaker 1: more than a few dancers who are our core dancers
Speaker 1: who actually work at Magic City Kingdom Diamonds down in
Speaker 1: Miami and in Atlanta. That got an Atlanta spot now
Speaker 1: is a really great place to go, just because it's
Speaker 1: a theatrical experience. It is, it's spectacle, its show. You know,
Speaker 1: there's new to the Yes that it's kind of the
Speaker 1: requirement being a stripper, but like I said, these women
Speaker 1: are athletes what they can do on the pole with
Speaker 1: their bodies and also together. Like I get blown away
Speaker 1: when I see two women on the pole together because
Speaker 1: they're literally holding each other up and the figure around
Speaker 1: like the wind. So those are the two places that
Speaker 1: I think, you know you should go. You gotta get
Speaker 1: down South because the other strip club culture is different. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I actually am trying to plan a trip to Atlanta
Speaker 1: and this year for a different event. So I might
Speaker 1: have to include a trip to what was the name
Speaker 1: of it, magic Magic City City? Okay, I might have
Speaker 1: to do that. So when you were in the room
Speaker 1: pitching p Valley to the TV executives, you know what
Speaker 1: was their response? They're like, is this woman insane? Or
Speaker 1: was it well received? Did they jump on it right away?
Speaker 1: There was a lot of collection of pearls. I remember
Speaker 1: I brought this sizzle reel and it had that song
Speaker 1: as the background, like cut off together, and they were
Speaker 1: just like, whoa, this is a lot and you don't.
Speaker 1: It's understandable, but also frustrating, right, you know, I knew
Speaker 1: that the strip club culture was something to be celebrated
Speaker 1: and understood, and you know they were just looking at
Speaker 1: it with you know, something of their noses. Me I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, it could be exploited. It could you know,
Speaker 1: it could. It could have easily gone in the complete
Speaker 1: wrong direction, in the wrong hands. I totally get that,
Speaker 1: totally got it. There are some places that wouldn't even
Speaker 1: let me come in and pitch. They were like, no,
Speaker 1: we're not stepping on that cultural land mind. But stars.
Speaker 1: I remember it was the last place I pitched, and
Speaker 1: I remember I was late, you know, the l A traffic,
Speaker 1: and I remember getting in there and I just poured out,
Speaker 1: you know, the why of why I wanted to do
Speaker 1: this series and tell this story. And I think at
Speaker 1: the core of it, you know, this is about celebrating
Speaker 1: the hard work and black women and black women who
Speaker 1: are survivors. Yes, you know, this particular profession is very
Speaker 1: complicated and not everyone understands it. It's very misunderstood. But
Speaker 1: they saw past the kind of lastidiousness. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: some people came to the pitch with in their mind
Speaker 1: and they really saw the truth of what I was
Speaker 1: trying to do, which was to humanize this world and
Speaker 1: these women. And I think the way that you do that,
Speaker 1: the way that you humanize the character is by making
Speaker 1: them so three dimensional, like we actually get into their
Speaker 1: lives so that we can relate to them. Is that right? Absolutely? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: You know that I was so blessed to have been
Speaker 1: able to sit in not only the locker room with
Speaker 1: a lot of these women, but also going to their homes,
Speaker 1: meeting their sons, meeting their husbands, you know, really just
Speaker 1: integrating myself into their lives like a fly on the wall.
Speaker 1: And so I really created that almost journalistic approach when
Speaker 1: it came to the research in helping me, you know,
Speaker 1: create this fictionalized world where everyone felt so human. Everyone
Speaker 1: feels like a sister or a cousin or a mama.
Speaker 1: You know, we know all of these women and all
Speaker 1: of these men. We've crossed paths with them many times,
Speaker 1: and I'm just so glad that our audience not only
Speaker 1: they see, you know, their family members, but oftentimes they
Speaker 1: see themselves when they watch the value. Now, I want
Speaker 1: to talk a bit about the casting too, because I'm
Speaker 1: assuming the women and that are cast in the series
Speaker 1: are real strippers. Is that correct or no? Then how
Speaker 1: the hell did you so? How in the hell did
Speaker 1: they learn to day? It was a process? Listen, because
Speaker 1: what I have done is watch a pole dancing contest
Speaker 1: on YouTube and you have to be strong and powerful
Speaker 1: and it's no joke. It was crazy. What's so cool
Speaker 1: is that we have very long casting process because for me,
Speaker 1: as a writer, I'm very adamant that the soul matches
Speaker 1: the soul of the character that I've created. Quite frankly,
Speaker 1: the acting and who that person is, what they're going
Speaker 1: to bring to the role in terms of essence, it's
Speaker 1: the most important thing I left out in that. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about Brandy Evans, for example, she used to be
Speaker 1: a background dancer. She's danced for Snoop Dogg, She's danced
Speaker 1: for Katie Perry. She just she was a dancer. She
Speaker 1: had never you know, tripped, but you know she knows
Speaker 1: about a muscle memory and getting routines down and so,
Speaker 1: you know, for her, in terms of her particular trajectory,
Speaker 1: we just threw her in all dancing classes. She followed
Speaker 1: dancers like she studied and learned the art of it,
Speaker 1: just like she learned the art of hip hop dance.
Speaker 1: Then you had other people like Shannon Thornton, who has
Speaker 1: never been off the pole in our lives. Let's step
Speaker 1: back for a minute, because Brandy Evans plays Mercedes, so
Speaker 1: she's the main character. So who is this Shenon Thornton
Speaker 1: plays Miss Mississippi, right, yes, and so that's her thing.
Speaker 1: But now she trained so hard, gotten so sore. You know,
Speaker 1: we put them like in a boot camp, so if
Speaker 1: they were where of the city that they were living in.
Speaker 1: Once they got cast, we put them on a pole
Speaker 1: dancing program and so they learned, you know, from level
Speaker 1: one the way as far as they could go in
Speaker 1: terms of cultivating their skill set, so that when they
Speaker 1: got to set, they could do something, but of course
Speaker 1: we have these amazing dance doubles who step in and
Speaker 1: step up and do the way more complicated tricks. But
Speaker 1: let me tell you something, our ladies they sell it
Speaker 1: like you could. You cannot think that it's knocked them
Speaker 1: up on the pole, just because the way that it's
Speaker 1: edited and just how hard they work, Like we can
Speaker 1: really overlap a lot of their the dancing between them
Speaker 1: and the doubles when people are watching the show. So
Speaker 1: it's been a hard road, but they're hard workers. And
Speaker 1: so in terms of casting, you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: it's all about are they really good actors? They feel
Speaker 1: like the character that comes first, and you know, the
Speaker 1: skill set of pole dancing, it's something that they've all
Speaker 1: kind of trained together. Now, the first season of the
Speaker 1: show was entirely directed by women. I'm sure that was intentional,
Speaker 1: and why it's interesting. I was open men directing, I
Speaker 1: really was, but you know, I have a very tough
Speaker 1: interview process. So I remember during the interview process, I
Speaker 1: would be like, so what's your idea of the female gays?
Speaker 1: And also interesting was that the male directors that I
Speaker 1: you know, asked this question too. They never really have
Speaker 1: thought about it. They had never really done it in
Speaker 1: their work. They felt like it was necessary. And for me,
Speaker 1: the Female Gays is about centering the female experience looking
Speaker 1: through a woman's eyes. And it just so you know,
Speaker 1: every time a woman director, you know, stepped up to
Speaker 1: the play, they had already been dealing with it within
Speaker 1: their own work. And they also understood that, you know,
Speaker 1: historically women have not been framed so particularly women like
Speaker 1: strippers or or prostitute sex workers, and so you can
Speaker 1: very easily just center on the sexiness of a woman
Speaker 1: instead of who a woman is, who that character is.
Speaker 1: And so because this show is so much it's filtered
Speaker 1: through the female games, it's you know, those women, those
Speaker 1: female directors, they just answered that question so well that
Speaker 1: it was just obvious that those were the women who
Speaker 1: were the right folks for the job. Yeah, and like
Speaker 1: you said, it is a topic and how it's portrayed,
Speaker 1: you know, is extremely important because it can go left
Speaker 1: and they can go straight to the sex and the
Speaker 1: sibiousness that tends to come along when you think about
Speaker 1: strip clubs. For example, I remember asking a guy if
Speaker 1: you were, you know, lensing a beautiful dance, what would
Speaker 1: your focus on. And the guy was like, yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: travel the camera will travel down her body and we
Speaker 1: will see her shape and then we'll go behind her
Speaker 1: and to see how plump she is. And it was
Speaker 1: just like, nah, dog, that's what we need. So what
Speaker 1: were the kinds of comments and that you've gotten from
Speaker 1: fans of the show, Like when you're walking down the street,
Speaker 1: I don't really be walking down the street too much.
Speaker 1: I'm like I'd been holed up in the house trying
Speaker 1: to finish these scripts. But you know, when I have
Speaker 1: been able to, like it's usually like my you know,
Speaker 1: my family like it like gatherings, you know. Unfortunately, hitter
Speaker 1: or whatever, they're just like, oh my god, look cause
Speaker 1: listen you did. That's like my life. That's my uncle,
Speaker 1: that's actually me. You know, there's a lot of, like
Speaker 1: I said, people feeling reflective that you know, sometimes people
Speaker 1: are like, okay, episode two, there was too much. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of lou y'all went there. Now. I saw
Speaker 1: an interview when you said that like Uncle Clifford was
Speaker 1: based on some members of your family or people that
Speaker 1: you know. Is that true? Absolutely true? So Uncle Clifford
Speaker 1: is a fusion of my real uncle Clifford, and my
Speaker 1: mom and my dad. I wanted this character to feel
Speaker 1: very feminine and masculine and equal measure, and so I
Speaker 1: just pulled the best and the worst attributes from those
Speaker 1: three people and like put it in a pot, mix
Speaker 1: it together, and then out pop the fiction of Uncle Clifford.
Speaker 1: And something that I like to do in my work
Speaker 1: is I always love to name a really great character
Speaker 1: after a family member. It's a way to you know,
Speaker 1: pay homage to my living ancestors, the people who are
Speaker 1: with me, who raised me, who you know, make me
Speaker 1: right the way that I do, which is you know,
Speaker 1: steeped in Southern nous and just those kind of like
Speaker 1: quick witty things that Uncle Clifford says and the rules.
Speaker 1: So it's the way that people talk in the show
Speaker 1: is how I grew up speaking. And the people who
Speaker 1: you know, my closest family members, they just really poured
Speaker 1: that sound into me, and so it comes out of
Speaker 1: my fingertips every time that I write. Now for the listeners,
Speaker 1: in case you don't know, Uncle Clifford runs the Pink.
Speaker 1: The Pink is the club and un Clifford is the
Speaker 1: one who runs the club. Are there any other characters
Speaker 1: that were plucked from your life. Really feel like every
Speaker 1: single character feels like someone I've known, or there's a
Speaker 1: sliver of me inside of all of the characters, yes,
Speaker 1: in terms of their personalities. And I grew up with
Speaker 1: all sisters, and so the sisterhood that happens in the
Speaker 1: locker room and on stage and on the main floor
Speaker 1: is something that I know very well, having grown up
Speaker 1: with a lot of women and a lot of extrogens
Speaker 1: in the house, you know, for good or or bad.
Speaker 1: It's inspired by everything that I've experienced in my life,
Speaker 1: in addition to all of the research that I've done
Speaker 1: over the years. When it comes to strip club and strippers. Okay,
Speaker 1: then let's talk a little bit about the relationship between
Speaker 1: Uncle Clifford and Little Murder the rapper on there. I
Speaker 1: was surprised by that. Why were you surprised? It just
Speaker 1: seemed like a hook up to me. I just it's like,
Speaker 1: he's a rapper, Like, okay, so what was that about.
Speaker 1: So that's exactly because I wanted people to be like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, what is this? They feel like a
Speaker 1: very odd couple. And yet yeah, and all the undercover
Speaker 1: you know, because that's real it is some folks out
Speaker 1: here any streets and they're trying to figure out who
Speaker 1: they are, who they're attracted to. And it was very surprising,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, in in that first episode to
Speaker 1: Uncle Clifford for a homeboy, Little Murder played by j
Speaker 1: Alfons Nicholson to be like, you know, all just like
Speaker 1: lovey dovey, like just looking Uncle Clifford up and down.
Speaker 1: And so we really wanted to center a black queer
Speaker 1: relationship in the show's still very undercover, undercover, particularly in
Speaker 1: season one, and you know, Uncle Clifford being much older
Speaker 1: than the Murder, having gone through a lifegown south where
Speaker 1: the home of be it just extremely ranked to the
Speaker 1: point where you know, you know, you can get killed
Speaker 1: for being who you are, still can be killed for
Speaker 1: being who you are, right And so really did not
Speaker 1: want to put their relationship out on front Street, and
Speaker 1: the Little Murder was all trying to you know, take
Speaker 1: care out on dates and whatnot. And so if anyone
Speaker 1: has seen you know, the first season, at the end,
Speaker 1: Lt Murder actually shuts her after all that kind of
Speaker 1: you know, rolling up on her, and that really is
Speaker 1: a slap in the face to the character of Uncle
Speaker 1: Clifford because it's just, oh my gosh, my my worst
Speaker 1: fear of not being recognized and embraced by someone that
Speaker 1: I could potentially love. You know, it's traumatizing. And so
Speaker 1: we spent the first season really looking into that, that
Speaker 1: down lowness and how it's very hurtful on an emotional level. Um,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna pull that thread into season two, and
Speaker 1: I hope people are ready for the roller coaster that
Speaker 1: we're about to take them off. In regards to those
Speaker 1: two write there, Yeah, I'm ready. Now I want to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about Mercedes and her mom because
Speaker 1: I was sick of her. I was sick to her
Speaker 1: mom at the end of Look girl, what church lady. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's poor Mercedes. Is she ever gonna be without I
Speaker 1: guess you can't really give everything away, But is she
Speaker 1: ever be able to recoup from that? Because I'm like,
Speaker 1: that was everything. It was all her money. But for
Speaker 1: all y'all who don't know, like Mercedes, who was our handline,
Speaker 1: our best dancer at the club, you know, she had
Speaker 1: been trying to retire for years in order to you know,
Speaker 1: cultivate a relationship with her daughter and to get this
Speaker 1: gym for these major retes. You know, she was a
Speaker 1: coach for a major scene, and so she had say
Speaker 1: to all her scuirrell, all her money and her hypocritical bible,
Speaker 1: something relot of a mama, her trees would find deals,
Speaker 1: all of her money for the dance studio. And so
Speaker 1: her dream wiped out by her mother is trauma like
Speaker 1: like on on twenty five, like it just up ended
Speaker 1: everything that she'd have been working for. And so the audience,
Speaker 1: which totally made sense, hates her truths were by included,
Speaker 1: you know, And I think it's because you know, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of mother daughter relationships that are very
Speaker 1: traumatic and they're toxic, right, and I think that storyline,
Speaker 1: in particular, those two characters really allow us to see
Speaker 1: our own relationships with our mother's and them and beyond
Speaker 1: the relationship with the mother. For me, what was so
Speaker 1: off putting was the hypocritical nature of her of the
Speaker 1: mother with the church, the whole church thing, and you know,
Speaker 1: the thing of being down south where there's these respectability
Speaker 1: of politics at play, where you know, I ran into
Speaker 1: that when I was even pitching the series, right in
Speaker 1: these rooms where people were thumbing their nose I don't
Speaker 1: know if we should do a know about strippers there,
Speaker 1: you know, are these women who have family members who
Speaker 1: they'll take the money that they're making, you know, shaking
Speaker 1: it because right, they'll talk about them the next second,
Speaker 1: because it's not seen as something that's moral. Um. And
Speaker 1: I really wanted to highlight that because I just think
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of judgment in our community, in
Speaker 1: every community, real talk, and so I think this particular
Speaker 1: relationship allows us to really deconstruct those feelings and those
Speaker 1: tensions when it comes to how religion oftentimes plays a
Speaker 1: very unfortunate role when it comes to how there's divides
Speaker 1: and like moral judgment communities and our families. To lastly,
Speaker 1: but not least, I love the relationship between Mississippi and Diamond.
Speaker 1: Is that right? Yeah? Because I think Diamond is so sweet.
Speaker 1: Are we gonna see that blossom more? We're gonna see something.
Speaker 1: We're gonna see something. Okay, We're not gonna give it away.
Speaker 1: I understand, I totally understanding. Before we wrap up, Cotri,
Speaker 1: I want to focus a little bit just on your
Speaker 1: own career, and I wanted to know if there was
Speaker 1: anyone growing up as you were coming and navigating your
Speaker 1: career that you emulated. I actually had a conversation with
Speaker 1: some folks and entertainment directors, and I was saying how
Speaker 1: important writing is, and I just feel like we need
Speaker 1: more writers, We need more Black writers, because I think
Speaker 1: there's just such an array. We have, this an abundance
Speaker 1: of stories that we could be telling about our lives.
Speaker 1: And it's not all just about slavery. It's all just
Speaker 1: about you know, drugs and gangs. We live full lives
Speaker 1: as a culture, just like anybody else, but the stories
Speaker 1: aren't being told. So I just think writing is so
Speaker 1: important because can't you gotta start from somewhere, and it
Speaker 1: starts with the writing. To me, I love this question
Speaker 1: because as a Black writer, I am stepping into such
Speaker 1: a beautiful tradition. There's so many amazing Black writers that
Speaker 1: have come before me, whether it's Tony Morrison, Augus Wilson.
Speaker 1: I would say, growing up, I thought I was going
Speaker 1: to be a novelist. I didn't think that I was
Speaker 1: going to step into the world of drama just because
Speaker 1: you know, I'd like to be by myself. But then
Speaker 1: as I grew up, I love the idea of community
Speaker 1: and that's what drew me to theater. So I think
Speaker 1: one of the writers that probably has influenced me the
Speaker 1: most is August Willson. August Wilson absolutely giants of the
Speaker 1: American theater, you know, just everything that he's written and
Speaker 1: everything that he stood for. I used to remember I
Speaker 1: met him one day and I was like, I want
Speaker 1: to be like you when I grow up. Obviously he
Speaker 1: laughed at me, but eventually I got to a u
Speaker 1: is where I wanted to be more like me when
Speaker 1: I grew up, and it was seeing August Wilson, you know,
Speaker 1: write his world like the people around him that I
Speaker 1: think made me feel as though that I could do that.
Speaker 1: And so I would say August Wilson is probably one
Speaker 1: of my greatest influences, particularly stepping into the world of
Speaker 1: dramatic right. Yeah, I think I've seen every one of
Speaker 1: his plays. I absolutely love him. What advice would you
Speaker 1: have for any up and coming play rights out there?
Speaker 1: Keep your eyes on your own paper. What I mean
Speaker 1: by that is, oftentimes we get swept up into what
Speaker 1: the trend is and what the industry says it's the
Speaker 1: thing to do, and we want what other people got,
Speaker 1: who they got their deal or they've getting their play
Speaker 1: done at that place. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: you have to write what makes you special, what makes
Speaker 1: you unique. It's your voice. Try not to replicate somebody else.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be inspired influenced by another writer. But the
Speaker 1: more you write the stories that only you can write,
Speaker 1: I think the more successful you'll be. Good advice, Good advice.
Speaker 1: Now what do you have coming up next? What can
Speaker 1: we look forward to? So? I have this play called
Speaker 1: The Hot Wing King that won the Pulitzer last year.
Speaker 1: It is going up at the Alliance Theater down in
Speaker 1: Atlanta and early and I'm directing it, so it'll be
Speaker 1: my theater directorial debut. I actually got a chance to
Speaker 1: direct the season finale of The Valley season two, okay
Speaker 1: this past earlier this year, which I was super proud of.
Speaker 1: So I'm definitely stepping into my little directing lane, which
Speaker 1: I really love. Like we need more directors of color,
Speaker 1: female directors. This season was directed by all women as well,
Speaker 1: so I just really excited to become part of the
Speaker 1: directing family when it comes to artists. Congratulations, I'm excited
Speaker 1: for you. Thank you, You're very welcome. I look forward
Speaker 1: to seeing that play as well. Yeah, come on down
Speaker 1: to Atlanta. We got to get you there, and I
Speaker 1: know I gotta be that way. Now it's time for
Speaker 1: a segment. Wouldn't you like to know? I have a
Speaker 1: couple of rapid fire questions I'd like you to answer. Okay,
Speaker 1: what book are you currently reading? It's interesting, I'm actually
Speaker 1: rereading The Piano Lesson by August Wilson. It's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite plays and it's about to be on Broadway
Speaker 1: with Senor Jack. Yes, okay, what is one thing you
Speaker 1: want to get off your chest that people need to
Speaker 1: stop being racist? It's heartbreaking the other day the young
Speaker 1: white kid going to Buffalo and shooting up you know,
Speaker 1: black folks, just because of all this hatred. It's just
Speaker 1: something that obviously is They talk about COVID being a virus,
Speaker 1: but that's a virus. Just you know, I want everybody
Speaker 1: to figure out a way to not just be Oh
Speaker 1: I'm not racist. People have to be ti racist. So
Speaker 1: that's you know, I'm always on my soapbox about that
Speaker 1: is a lot of people are. Yeah, that's a really
Speaker 1: good conversation to have. And I was on Instagram and
Speaker 1: was looking at a comment that Amanda Seals made and
Speaker 1: my response to that was like, yeah, how do we
Speaker 1: because because it is something that we can't continue to ignore, um,
Speaker 1: the hate of white supremacy. But it's also like, how
Speaker 1: do you fight that exactly? You know, how do you
Speaker 1: fight that? It's something to really think about and it's
Speaker 1: a really important conversation that I think we need to
Speaker 1: start having. So thank you for that. And what's the
Speaker 1: model that you live by? That's a good one. Um.
Speaker 1: Uncle Clifford has a new rule this season, and it
Speaker 1: goes like this, don't try to be everybody a cup
Speaker 1: of tea because you have nothing left to sit on
Speaker 1: for yourself. That's the rule, as that thing of you
Speaker 1: know you, you really gotta protect yourself, be yourself, don't
Speaker 1: try and just be out there. Make sure you keep
Speaker 1: something special for for you at the end of the day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: got you. That sounds like a good one. Where can
Speaker 1: we find you on social media? You can find me
Speaker 1: at Atuatory Hall, Instagram, and Twittle. I was able. I
Speaker 1: was of that generation. I was actually able to get
Speaker 1: my name. I got it early, alight, I got my name.
Speaker 1: So that's how you can find me. That where y'all
Speaker 1: can get me a inquator Hall dot com. Awesome, thank
Speaker 1: you so much, Thank you for stopping by Positivity Gamp
Speaker 1: and everyone go watch p Valley. New season is out now,
Speaker 1: come on down to the pank. My first takeaway after
Speaker 1: this conversation, it's really just acknowledging the importance of black writers.
Speaker 1: We have so many stories to tell and no one
Speaker 1: is gonna tell them better than we will. Secondly, every
Speaker 1: show isn't for everybody, but I hope you guys will
Speaker 1: check out pe Valley and not dismiss it because of
Speaker 1: some preconceived idea that you've cooked up in your head.
Speaker 1: It's really a good show. It's out on Stars right now,
Speaker 1: so check it out and that's our show. You can
Speaker 1: follow me online at Gammy. Naris also help us out
Speaker 1: by leaving a five star review on Apple Podcasts and
Speaker 1: by hitting the follow up button on I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Stay grateful, y'all, See you at the peak Positively. Gam
Speaker 1: is produced by Red Table Talk Podcast and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Adrian Banfield, Naris Balin, Jethro and Jada
Speaker 1: Pinkett Smith. Our audio engineer is Calvin Bailiff, and our
Speaker 1: associate producer is Irene Bischoff Burger. Our theme song is
Speaker 1: produced by D Beats five