Meaning accrues as the three timelines unfold and characters coexist and intersect in shared theatrical space.
Vogue: Congratulations onThe Fires!
What made this story need to be a play?
Photo: Alex Kikis
Raja Feather Kelly:Words have always been deeply important to me.
Words are actually where I began and are often a part of my choreography.
It wanted to focus on literature and on words.
Phillip James Brannon (as Jay), Ronald Peet (as George), Sheldon Best (as Sam), and Beau Badu (as Eli) inThe Fires.
Had I been prepared to do that?
Can you say more about that?
Theres certainly a hook to these three works.
Michelle Wilson (as Leslie) inThe Fires.
Because Id read them back-to-back-to-back, I was really confronted.
I was like, Where do I go for that?
And with a deeper study of the play, youd see those women in there as well.
Sheldon Best (as Sam), Beau Badu (as Eli), and Phillip James Brannon (as Jay) inThe Fires.
And I was like, What about love?
Going back to the hook, in each of these three books there are warnings to younger people.
If its too late forme, where do I sendthem?
Sheldon Best (as Sam) inThe Fires.
All the characters in the play seem to have different operating instructions for love.
For Jay and Sam, it has something to do with being seen or understood.
For George, its maybe more about the experience of love or, as you said, romance.
Phillip James Brannon (as Jay) inThe Fires.
For Eli, its almost something to be withstood.
And in all of this, the character of Leslie, Georges wife and Sams mother, is fascinating.
Is she in denial?
This is something I kept talking about with the actors: Its so easy to pin denial on Leslie.
But I said to the cast over and over: Its important that we believe what Leslie says.
She means what she says.
And thats a lot of what we ask for when were engaged in romance and partnerships.
Shes asking, What good it would do me to go back and believe that he was gay?
It wouldnt change anything for her.
Because thats ultimately the more important thing.
Michelle Wilson (as Leslie) inThe Fires.
How do you love in the face of this imaginative void?
Its only by choice, and choice, and choice that you start to uncover whats there.
Not whats to come, or whatwasthere, but whatisthere as youre experiencing it and living it.
That seems connected to what Maurice is asking Eli to do, to take this leap.
Be a fucking fool!
You may die, but you may not!
You just have to do it, you just have to see!
And Im like, No hes not!
Which we learn as the play goes on.
It doesnt have to be familial, its still just as real.
That idea is highlighted so beautifully on stage in those moments of intersection between characters in their different timelines.
Its like theyre all trying to decipher texts that have been left behind.
On one level, theres the physical notebooks left by Jay and George.
I didnt go to an elder until much later in life, when I found mentors.
At times I truly did treat Anne Sextons poetry like a tarot.
And speaking of parents, you mentioned you were preparing to have a child.
Have you gone through with that?
I had a daughter nine months ago.
I finished the play draft the night before she was born in the hospital.
Two births at once.
Has becoming a parent changed how you think about your work?
I havent seen the change in my work just yet.
Its more so thinking about what shell think of my work if she encounters it as she gets older.
And that might be very fun for her, or challenging, or scary.
Your dramaturg, Dominique Rider, describes the play as a kind of an impossible ghost story.
Is love something that haunts us?
If this is the goddess of love, then what does she have to say about it?
And my experience, without doing any research, was sex and love and abundance.
I think thats why its haunting.
Weve created something thats not real and so nothing can ever fulfill it.
Sheldon Best (as Sam) inThe Fires.
Youve talked about there being a clear intersection between pop culture and empathy.
Can you say more about that?
What does empathy mean to you?
So much of my work is looking at pop culture to understand the state of our union.
I get fascinated with songs like Carly Rae Jepsens I Really Like You.
Its such a candy-coated song, its so fun, its so poppy and boppy.
But then you realize that everyones experienced that.
Pop culture does this thing where it can bring an idea to its essence.
And that connection or understanding without explanation is, for me, empathy.
It seems like that without explanation part is key.
In that scene when Reggie confronts him, George immediately says, Nothing.
And then he tries to correct himself, and he says, love, I get love.
We keep saying that.
But what makes it real, and how do you know if its real for both people?
Which is the same thing Maurice is asking Eli: Is this real?
Were back to the leap!
You just kinda have to.
And its really hard.
I was married before, Im not married anymore.
That was something that I grappled with as well.
I think about how many times I sayI love youto people in a day.
It encompasses so much.
How can it hold what I mean for you and also what I mean for my daughter?
Language fails us and its not enough.
Is love a force for renewal?
Emily and I have such a great love for one another.
Something about the experience of Eli is that we never hear his writing.
We get to know Eli by what people tell him about himself, and through his playlists.
Whenever he cant handle silence, he puts on a playlist.
He doesnt have the language, so he uses music to say things for him.
That, to me, is renewal.
Its a weight shift.
Ive heard you speak about the idea that behavior is choreography and choreography is behavior.
Movement seems to be a key part of storytelling inThe Fires.
For me, when I run out of words, I move.
And when I run out of movement, I use words.
Maurice and Eli certainly get to a point where theres nothing more to say.
Everything has been said.
They have four kisses, and those four kisses are all doing very different things.
That behavior and that gesture is what allows them to feel differently.
And its interesting, because Im a choreographer, people see the choreography in this play.
Choreographically those are two very different scenes.
Phillip James Brannon (as Jay) inThe Fires.
There seems to be a gesture of hope at the end, between Eli and Maurice.
Would you say thats an accurate reading of that moment?
Its certainly not resolved.
Theyre at the very beginning of their relationship by the time the play ends.
When they get into bed, its only just begun.
Its all fun and games until someone falls in love, as Jay says.
And that, to me, is a sense of hope.
The hope is in the unanswered question, in not knowing.
Like, its not gonna show up and then you place your foot.
And, to me, thats the hope.
Trust in what is unknown.
Whats giving you hope?
I have two answers.
My hope is in giving my daughter life, and my hope for her.
Before that, I really didnt know what was going on, I was just observing.
And I hope that Ive made a contribution to society, to literature, to theater, to people.
Whats giving me hope is possibility and contribution and perspective.
I hope its all worth it, I hope everything is worth it.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
