This September, Austin\u2019s poet laureate Zell Miller III is presenting the inaugural production from his brand new theater company. Miller named the new company Black Rose Theater ATX, a name inspired by his late mother, Vernell Miller. \u201c[She] had a black rose tattoo on her right ankle,\u201d Miller says.<\/p>\n
The first work from Black Rose, a one act play called And She Was Loved, is a tribute to both Miller\u2019s literal mother and his \u201ctheatrical mom\u201d and mentor Laurie Carlos. \u201cAnd so what better way to introduce our amazing company [than with] this production that is inspired by these two icons who helped me be the person that I am,\u201d Miller says.<\/p>\n
The play is about Miller\u2019s journey in dealing with his grief, but, as is usually the case with his work, he wanted to infuse the story with some hope and optimism despite the heavy themes.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2026 use some of the ethos of Peter Pan,\u201d he says. \u201cSo there is the land called the Land of Never. I am Peter Pan. My daughter is Shadow. Siobhan Alexis is my Tinkerbell. And so it’s kind of a reverse and a more street, hip hop version of the Peter Pan story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller and his daughter Marley both play fictionalized versions of themselves in And She Was Loved, and Marley says that her father\u2019s direction doesn\u2019t end when they leave rehearsal. \u201cWe live in the same house,\u201d she says, \u201cso he is telling me a lot about memorizing my lines, and telling me, like, hey, come here, we have to rehearse, and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alexis, an award-winning a tap dancer, has collaborated with Miller before, but always as a dancer, her obvious comfort zone. For And She Was Loved,\u00a0she\u2019s also an actor, which is new territory for her. \u201cYeah, Zell has a lot more confidence in myself than I do when it comes to acting,\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/p>\n
With her director\u2019s full confidence, Alexis is playing \u2018G,\u2019 this play\u2019s equivalent of Tinkerbell. Her transition from dancer to dancer\/actor is eased a bit by the way her character is written \u2013 she communicates not with words but with movement. \u201cI see my character as the hope that flitters through the darkness,\u201d she says, \u201cregardless of where we’re at on the journey of grief. The joy that we find in those dark moments. We get to still groove to nostalgic music, we still get to play children’s games together. We still get to laugh about not funny things. There’s a jovial playfulness in the Land of Never that G tries to remind Shadow and Pan of.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s dealing with some very heavy issues,\u201d Miller says, \u201cbut it is a celebration at the end of the journey that you go through, and how\u2026 healing is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n