For the last seven years, Darius V. Daughtry, poet, author, director, educator, and playwright has been working on “Seeking.” Now, as part of the Broward Center’s initiative Arts for Action: Black Voice, Daughtry’s play is getting a full production.
Performances are 7 p.m. Friday, July 26 and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, July 27 in the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
“I would call it a little semi-autobiographical,” says Daughtry. He explains that the play is about a young man who is an aspiring musician. “He lives with his mother and grandmother, both of whom are variations of spiritual and religious and he is pulled in directions that would be safer and more secure than being a musician. Many artists have the same story,” he says.
In 2022, Daughtry presented the play as a staged reading at the Broward Center. “It’s almost two years to the date when we did (the staged reading),” he says. “It was living in my head and on my computer for so long. To hear what it sounded like and what it felt like in the mouths and bodies of actors and getting audiences reaction.”
After the readings, there would be talkbacks between the writer, the actors and the audience. “It was very interesting to hear some of the great responses and feedback and even questions that the audience members had,” he says. Daughtry took that feedback to heart. “I was able to go back and make some tweaks and edits, cut a little bit here, embellish a little bit there, and do some different things.”
Now, the playwright feels it’s ready for the stage. He says that a few of the eight actors in the cast were part of the readings. “It’s been a beautiful journey.” There are also two musicians who play an “important role” in the show. “It’s about musicians, so there’s live music.”
He describes the play as “a combination of ‘A Raisin the Sun’ and ‘Death of a Salesman.’ Because there are some elements that take you into different places and make you try to understand – is this realism? Or is this a fantasy world? What’s happening here? It harkens back to a lot of some of the ancestral connections that the character has.”
The main character in “Seeking” is a 21-year-old Black man, but Daughtry remembers how important it was to him at one of the play readings during the talkback when a man stood up and said something that struck a chord.
“He said, ‘that’s my story up there and I’m a 65-year-old white man’ and he said it with tears in his eyes and he was thanking us for sharing his story on the stage. For me, that’s what it is all about. Just being able to tell authentic stories and to be able to have the space and the platform to explore and really challenge paradigms and thoughts.”
Jan Goodheart, vice president of external affairs at the Broward Center, says that Daughtry has been an important part of the center’s Arts for Action: Black Voices initiative.
“He has not only brought a lot of great programming to our theater and to our audiences, but he’s also been a great partner and collaborator in helping us to shape what the program looks like now and into the future.”
The initiative, according to Goodheart, aims to use the arts as a tool or catalyst to heighten awareness, deepen knowledge and mobilize action on social justice issues.
Daughtry partnered with the Broward Center on this initiative in the past with a play he wrote that was commissioned by the African American Research Library and Cultural Center Goodheart entitled “Head Above Water: The Life of Esther Rolle.” It was during Broward Center’s Rhythm by the River, a festival to celebrate Black voices in Broward County.
“So much of his storytelling is truly relatable to all audiences, young and old. He really writes from such an honest and personal perspective,” she says.
As part of his Art Prevails Project, he partnered with the Broward Center to present “The Happening: A Theatrical Mixtape, Volume III,” which celebrated and highlighted women.
“There’s a return of the mixtape coming back to the Broward Center in November,” she says. “And he continues to help us identify other artists to be part of the initiative overall.”
The admiration is mutual. “When I think about Broward Center’s Black Voices and them giving opportunities for stories like this to be told on their stages, it isn’t necessarily like someone will say, ‘Oh, I watched this and now I’m inspired to start a revolution. It’s more about humanity.”
Daughtry says his show “Seeking” is meant to do just that. “That’s what this show does – it explores the deepest parts of our human experience and the more we are able to do that and revel in the humanity of everyone – of all diverse backgrounds – that is where I believe we have the opportunity to really gain what we call some social justice and equity in places of the heart. Because you begin to develop empathy and understanding and see that their experience isn’t so different from your experience. So, therefore, this person is not so different than I am.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Darius Daughtry’s “Seeking”
WHERE: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday, July 26 and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, July 27
TICKETS: $30, $20 for students
INFORMATION: 954-462-0222 or BrowardCenter.org
