BY VICTOR A. PATTON
CV Journalism Collaborative
A kaleidoscope of historic figures gather to break bread at a transcendental crossroads, in a new theatrical work titled “Black Heaven” by local playwright Kim McMillon.
A Merced native, McMillon began writing the play over a decade ago, while working on her doctorate in interdisciplinary humanities at UC Merced.
She describes it as a “theatrical experiment” where deceased figures like groundbreaking thinker W.E.B. Du Bois and “A Raisin in the Sun” writer Lorraine Hansberry converse with the living about times past, present and future.
In honor of Black History Month, a theatrical reading of Black Heaven is set to take place Saturday, Feb. 28 and Sunday, March 1 at Unity of Merced Church. The event is one of several Black History Month events scheduled to take place locally.
“At its core, Black Heaven is a visionary experience about understanding our own humanity — recognizing that each of us is shaped by the circumstances we’ve lived through, yet still capable of compassion, imagination, and connection,” McMillon wrote in an email.”
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“The play affirms that we are part of a larger human family, and that healing begins when we see one another not as threats or strangers, but as fellow travelers on a shared journey toward truth and wholeness.”
The central theme of Black Heaven is the impressions the historic figures have not only about their own lives and prior experiences as terrestrial beings – but how they view current events from the perspective of spirits in the afterlife who continue dialogue with the living.
“You hear their feelings about the United States now and the (nation) when they lived,” McMillon explained during an interview with The FOCUS.
Although the play is titled Black Heaven, the characters include figures from a variety of ethnicities. For example, German dramatist Bertolt Brecht makes an appearance to talk about his blacklisting from the American entertainment industry and being unjustly targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy era.
To bring Black Heaven to life, McMillon has assembled a dream team of local actors and performers to read the dialogue from the script.
Participants include Fresno’s current poet laureate Aideed Medina, who is reading the role of English novelist Virginia Woolf.
Popular local singers and actresses Cheryl Lockett and Michelle Allison are set to play several roles. Lockett is set to play iconic singer and pianist Nina Simone and “Their Eyes Were Watching God” novelist Zora Neale Hurston. Allison will play “The Color Purple” novelist Alice Walker, Nobel Peace Prize in Literature winner Toni Morrison and acclaimed writer Maya Angelou.
Merced Shakespearefest founder Heike Hambley will play poet and author Sylvia Plath and Brecht. Local actor Dennis Brown will play Du Bois and LA Critics Award winner Carle Atwater will play “Fences” playwright August Wilson.
The upcoming show at Unity Church will be the first time Black Heaven is performed in front of an audience.
Over the years McMillon has been making a name for herself as a writer and playwright. She was a contributor to the anthology “Some Other Blues: New Perspectives on Amiri Baraka” and the editor of Willow Books’ anthology “Black Fire—This Time.”
In 2014 she co-produced the “UC Merced Black Arts Movement Conference: Fifty Years On.” In addition, she produced, wrote and starred in her one-woman show, “Confessions of a Thespian: When Spirit & Theatre Collide,” which was staged at the Julia Morgan Theatre in Berkeley.
Black Heaven is scheduled to be performed at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 28 and 1:30 p.m. March 1. Admission is $15 per person or $12 per person in a group of five people or more. Unity of Merced Church is located at 305 W. 26th St. in Merced.
