Boulevard of Bold Dreams
Orlando Shakes, Orlando, Florida
by Ladarrion Williams, directed by Felichia Chivaughn
starring Yvette Monique Clark, Lauren Muller, Brent Jordan
by Carl F. Gauze
How best to repel your oppressors? Capitulate and be submerged? Fight to the death, even if it’s your death? Or go along, get along, and subvert them, even if it takes lifetimes? Those are the options represented in this story of Black folks working to become accepted in the world of White folks.
Arthur (Brent Jordan) bartends and cleans up for the Roosevelt Hotel, home of the early Oscar Awards. He cleans and polishes and dreams of producing his own screenplay. He’s friends with the hard drinking housemaid Dottie (Lauren Muller), who rails about being stuck as a Black woman in a segregated Hollywood hotel. It’s not as bad as Selma, but still, she feels like a used tissue from the abuses of her White employer. Dropping in for a drink and some sympathy, Hattie McDaniel (Yvette Monique Clark) is up for an Oscar, even if it’s just a supporting role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind. But we know there are no small roles, just small actors, and it’s time for her to step up. The debate wavers and wanders around the block, raising the question: “Is this a real award, or just tokenism from the guilt-ridden White folks who run this show?”
Boulevard of Bold Dreams takes a thought-provoking spin around nearly every side of the debate of how Black people should treat honors from their oppressors and employers. The more unstable and least happy of all is Dottie. She trades sexual harassment and alcoholism for crummy tips and low wages. Arthur shows the best attitude, but that’s juts a step on his ladder to success. He’s sharp and witty, and his strategy is to write and produce his own film, which would be a major step for anyone.
Will any of them make it out of the racial rat race? I want to believe they will, but that may be optimism. What we are left with is a Big Question, and only Little Answers to respond with.
Boulevard of Bold Dreams runs through October 29, 2023, at Orlando Shakes.
