A ctress Karen Aldridge can’t exactly describe what she loves about 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks — how she writes like jazz or the way the characters speak so honestly. When Aldridge tries to explain it, she squirms in her seat, hugs her knees and hides her dark face like an excited child.
“She writes exactly how people talk — the way people inside really do feel — and brings out the ugliness in all of us,” Aldridge said. “She writes the truth. There’s no hiding behind it.”
Starting today, Aldridge will be living out one of her dreams: starring in Parks’ “In the Blood” at Next Theatre, 927 Noyes St.
“In the Blood,” which opens tonight and runs through March 2, is a modern, daring adaptation of “The Scarlet Letter” in which most of the main characters are black. It’s the type of material for the socially conscious Next Theatre.
“(‘In The Blood’) asks us to really question our basic understanding of poverty, of class, of motherhood,” said director Lisa Portes. “You’re very aware of the choices that every character could have made.”
“In The Blood” is the story of Hester La Negrita, played by Aldridge. Hester is a homeless mother of five, seeking love from acquaintances who ultimately prioritize ambition, power and money over her.
Moral dilemmas abound. In one scene, Hester must choose whether to eat or to give her egg salad sandwich dinner to one of her children. In another, she must decide between earning $10 by sewing a dress or $100 by selling the fabric.
“It’s a contemporary piece with the weight of a Greek tragedy,” said actress Cassandra Bissell, who plays a white prostitute in the play.
Actors had less than four weeks to rehearse, and Aldridge said she finds a new layer to the complex Hester every time she rehearses.
“‘These characters talk to her’ is what (Parks) says,” Aldridge said. “They’re sitting on her shoulder. It’s amazing. … You just want to do so well. You just want everybody to know who (Parks) is.”
Parks, a playwright for 20 years, is the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama for her work “Topdog/Underdog.” Her work, often called experimental, explores a mix of fiction and history while asking audiences to reconsider race relations in the United States.
“‘In the Blood’ is one of the most challenging scripts I’ve ever worked on,” actor Steve Haggard said. “Trying to figure out a script for me is like trying to figure out a puzzle.”
Creative use of line breaks, punctuation and rhythms also are major aspects of Parks’ scripts, said Bissell, who performed Shakespeare for a year before working on “In the Blood.”
“This has to be much more real for me (than performing Shakespeare) because the script is so in-depth and there’s such heavy stuff going on,” she said. “You can’t fake it, you just can’t fake it, because it’ll be obvious.”
The racial dynamic in Parks’ plays has been a challenge for actors. Bissell said she is very conscious of playing a white character in a play dominated by blacks. But the play’s universal themes temper this potential problem, actors said.
“If there’s one thing that this play is, it’s horribly human,” Haggard said. “This play has a great capacity to remind us of ourselves.”
“This story is one of the most powerful pieces of theater that’s happening in the city,” said artistic director Jason Loewith. “If you live and breathe, you’d be interested.”
Tickets are available for $18 to $29 by calling 847-475-1875. Student discounts are available.
