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= BLKS: (play by Aziza Barnes) =

==== Originally produced by Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2017 Chicago, Barnes’s playwriting debut, BLKS, "marks the arrival of a truly original contemporary American voice. ====

Summary
When shit goes down, your girls show up. As sharply funny as it is poignant, BLKS introduces us to Octavia, Imani, and June--three twenty-somethings in New York City hunting for intimacy and purpose in a city that doesn’t seem to care. They drink a lot. They smoke a lot. They try to have sex. A lot. In the wake of a serious health scare, Octavia recruits her besties June and Imani to join her for one last epic night on the town. But as the evening unfolds, a string of increasingly wild adventures tests their friendship in this “riotous comedy swirling with hip-hop, Maker’s Mark and a lot of love.” This six-scened play only follows the lives of these characters for a span of two days, but not for a lack of action. Poet Aziza Barnes makes zir playwriting debut which signifies the arrival of a wholly original voice.

Character List
Octavia – Is a deeply awkward, weird, introvert, super dork blk girl. Queer. Blk. Mixed blk. 1/2 blk. Whatever. Blk with a white dad from Cornwall, England, who don't get it. 22. Aspiring writer of movies. Dates Ry. Drinks too much and can't hold it as well as Imani. No filter. Speaks thoughts as they exist in her head because the world is her head. Nerdy white boys build shrines to her for her genuine love of Japanese anime, Harry Potter, and Octavia Butler, the woman after whom she is named. Her adoration of Star Trek is astounding and she can quote Blaxploitation movies offhand. She loves other worlds, would rather live in them than this one. She's beautiful and makeup confuses her. Her uniform is sweatpants paired with large chunky heels or boots, for her love of comfort and hatred of being short. She hasn't told her parents that she's queer.

Imani – Haitian. Very Haitian. Matter fact, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone more Haitian. No accent, but can turn it on when she wants for emphasis. 23. A budding alcoholic by American standards. Does a first-rate impression of Eddie Murphy from his RAW stand-up/ movie and is always striving to perfect it. Single. Constantly gets fired from the same job at Nuyorican Poets Cafe on E. 3rd Street between Avenue A and B for jumping on the mike in the middle of her bartending shift and doing her Eddie Murphy impression. Her dad passed away three months ago. Pancreatic cancer. RAW is what they watched on repeat together when he was in the hospital. The last days.

June – Dates a dude named Jamal, has dated a dude named Jamal for five years, since she and Octavia were in high school together in Los Angeles, their city of birth. Octavia is June's ace boon and roll dogg. Don't leave the house without her. 22. June is the only responsible drinker among the three roommates. Knows how to hack into databases of collegiate universities to access free JSTOR accounts. Plays a lot of Call Of Duty. Is most at home in front of a screen. She is studying to be an accountant. She sells weed and is very professional about it. She comes from bougie blk folks who have had money in the family for two generations. Did Jack and fill, LINKS, the whole nine. Jamal was her date to cotillion. Light skin blk girl. Hair always straight and long without weave. She is very proud of this. A prude, in a way. Cold, sometimes. Nah. Cold often. Usually unemotional, repressing. Makes pancakes for her roommates" hangovers.

Ry - An employee at Blink Fitness. Errs on the side of butch femme, landing in a mostly androgynous aesthetic. Loves to laugh and tells a good joke. Occasionally insensitive, but this is a product of her strict boundaries and clear communication. WIldly mature, for her age, for all ages. From the Bronx. Says ‘breh’ at the end of most thoughts and/or sentences. 25. Has been trying to land an internship with Terence Nance for two years. Doesn’t really drink. Some OCD tendencies. Goes to pride every year. A fantastic chess player. Dominican. Whole family Catholic. Only queer woman in her family that she knows of. Part-time film student at Brooklyn College. Overwatches Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks until the April 21st, 2014, hijacking of the show from the Aaron McGruder, which broke her heart completely.

Justin - A lovesick. Watched Shakespeare in Love too often as a child through his parents’ divorce. Says things like “I want to make love to you,” and “I want to rub your feet,” and means them. You’d think he’d get all the ladies. He doesn’t and hasn’t for quite some time. Plays upright bass in a jazz band and acoustic guitar in his apartment. His favorite song is Barry White’s “I've Got So Much to Give.” 23. He believes in love and fate and whiskey, always with love as the first and most important, the other two changing depending on the day. Possesses some stalker tendencies: overcalling, overtexting, etc. He would call himself “passionate.” Talks to his mom on the phone every morning. Works at the Sunshine Cinema (RIP) and sees a lot of couples on dates. From Trinidad and Tobago. His parents are extremely reserved. He is the family oddity, even from his brother, who is his polar opposite, even from his brother, who is his polar opposite in all things.

That Bitch On The Couch- Is the only white person in this play. She’s from Westchester, New York. Incredibly wealthy, like old money white folk WASP and all that. 23. Incredibly white. Went to Exeter Academy for high school type shit. Did cotillion and founded her boarding school’s Blk Student Union. It was confusing.

Drunk White Woman

Ethnically Ambiguous Dude

Sosa

Notes:

1. Whoever plays Justin should also play Sosa and Ethnically Ambiguous Dude.

2. Whoever plays That Bitch on the Couch should also play Drunk White Woman.

Content Warnings
BLKS includes coarse language, sexualized violence, nudity, frank depictions of consensual sex, and conversations around police brutality.

Scene 1
The play opens on Ry giving Octavia head. When Octavia gets up to pee she notices a mole on her clit and shrieks in terror, to which Imani immediately rushes to aid, but Ry laughs off and responds with "ew." Ry refuses to look at the mole and claims she doesn't want to be late to work, Octavia then reveals she has been recently fired and decides she is so disrespected by Ry's unwillingness to take her mole seriously, she kicks Ry out. Imani returns with bandaids for Octavia and they sit and chat and day drink. Imani shares that she is almost done memorizing the whole of Eddie Murphy's RAW stand-up set. They are abruptly interrupted when June enters the apartment and announces she has been cheated on (again) by her high-school boyfriend of five years. They all decide there is only "one reasonable thing" for them to do, which is to get extremely day drunk, get extremely "night fly," and shake their "god-given asses" at the club.

Scene 2
The scene opens with Imani, Octavia, and June walking up the steps at the train station. They discuss Octavia's mole. She tells the girls she spoke with her Aunt, who said it could be cancerous, so she is going to go to get it "cut" at 9 AM the following morning. Then enters Ethnically Ambiguous Dude with Drunk White Woman, she clearly is unable to give any kind of consent and Ethnically Ambiguous Dude is looking suspect. June yells at the Drunk White Woman and asks if she knows the guy. Ethnically Ambiguous Dude shrugs them off and continues to try to continue on with Drunk White Woman, but June doesn't stop. Drunk White Woman stumbles away from Ethnically Ambiguous Dude. He becomes incredibly angry and goes to start grabbing June. The girls all prepare to defend each other when he motions to grab what looks like a gun. June calls his bluff. He grabs June's face and kisses her, she spits on him and he hits her. Ethnically Ambiguous Dude darts. Octavia starts to chase him but he runs out of view. Imani calls the police but is told all cops are already dispatched. They sit outside a storefront for some time and ultimately decide they still need a drink, now more than ever, and agree to still go to the club.

Scene 3
Imani, Octavia, and June are in the club. They go to take another round of shots when Octavia spots Ry sitting with That Bitch On The Couch. Octavia confronts the two, and June follows. That Bitch On The Couch labels Octavia's reaction and calls her angry. June leaves to go to the bathroom and Ry gets up to leave the club. As Imani enters with their drinks, Octavia chases after Ry. Trying to understand the situation, That Bitch On The Couch tries to talk it through with Imani, who she mistakes for June. This is embarrassing. Imani teases That Bitch On The Couch and That Bitch On The Couch offers to buy Imani a drink. Outside Octavia catches up with Ry. Ry explains her frustration with being unlabeled in their "relationship" and Octavia listens. They reach a tender moment and kiss. Octavia apologizes and Ry leaves to go home. Back inside the club, June comes out of the bathroom and her heel breaks immediately. Justin sees her and rushes to aid her and fix the heel with Krazy glue. He asks her why her face is bruised and, once the glue dries, asks to dance with her. Imani is now at Nuyo comedy club and goes to recite RAW when That Bitch On The Couch rushes the stage with a rose and the crowd begins heckling. Imani rushes off the stage and grabs That Bitch On The Couch to get her off as well. They stand on the street and That Bitch On The Couch asks for Imani's number. Throughout their following conversation, Imani keeps repeating for That Bitch On The Couch to chill. That Bitch On The Couch mentions her Father and Imani opens up about the recent loss of her Dad. They kiss. Back at the club, in the men's bathroom, Octavia finds a random dude named Sosa to hook up with. He declares he is going to rip Octavia's panties, which she is not into, and once he does, he reveals he doesn't "give head," which is all she wanted. She voices her frustration and Sosa leaves and takes her panties with him. She runs after him. Back on the street, Imani and That Bitch On The Couch are making out. That Bitch On The Couch starts putting her hands in Imani's hair in what feels like a "scientific" way. Imani leaves, but before she is far, That Bitch On The Couch asks for her venmo, and sends her $50 dollars (the asking stupid questions fee Imani mentioned earlier in the night.) That Bitch On The Couch asks if she can touch Imani's hair now, Imani asks her why she even came to follow her. That Bitch On The Couch leaves pissed.

Scene 4
4 AM in June's room. She is decked out in full cotillion-gown regalia playing Call of Duty. Her phone rings and she doesn't answer. Suddenly Justin is in her window banging against the glass. This scares June. He says he wasn't stalking her, but that he did follow her home to make sure she was safe. He reveals the reason he came over was motivated because June said "I love you" when they were dancing at the club, which is not something he takes lightly. She explains it meant nothing, Justin feels used and hurt by this and asks to stay the night. He agrees to sleep on the couch so she lets him in. As he settles in the living room Octavia enters and scares him. They argue and Octavia starts talking about her rough night and her mole. She asks him to look at the mole, for his medical opinion. With a little convincing he agrees and takes her seriously. She then asks him to eat her out. He is weirded out and states that he is trying to go after June, but Octavia explains it won't mean anything, but it is instead just a last hoorah in case (when the mole gets removed) her clitoris becomes numb. He agrees and sleeps next to Octavia in her bed

Scene 5
It's the next morning and there is a knocking at the door. June begrudgingly answers and it is Ry with coffee for Octavia. Ry walks into Octavia's room without knocking and sees her with Justin. Ry throws down the coffee. June then walks in and also sees Octavia and Justin. June and Ry are pissed. June argues with Justin and Ry with Octavia. Octavia and Justin both try to explain it was meaningless and more medical than anything. Ry is about to leave Octavia, for what seems like "for good," when Octavia softens and begs Ry to stay till after her surgery and promises to talk and work everything out. Ry says ok. Octavia gets up to leave when June steps in to fight her for sleeping with "her man." June punches Octavia and they start fighting "hard." Justin goes to break them up but Ry stops him. Octavia and June stop and start laughing. Justin is thoroughly weirded out and leaves. Octavia realizes she's running late for her appointment and leaves. June and Ry talk about love, and why they keep loving people that hurt them. Imani enters the apartment and goes straight for her RAW DVD, but it is not there. Ry exits. June tries to help Imani look for the DVD to no avail. Imani opens up a little about her dad to June and tells her about the night she had. June looks down at her phone and deflates, she sees yet a news article about a black body being shot and killed at the hands of police, this time while he was sitting in his car. They take a beat and then roll a joint.

Scene 6
It's two hours later, June, Imani, and Octavia (who is back from her appointment) sit in the living room. Octavia talks through the procedure, how they stuck a needle into her clit and how it has been numbed with medicine. She asks what June and Imani are up to and they explain that they are doing the "great smoke-out of twenty-fifteen" because everyone is dead. They talk about life. Imani mentions her new, impressive job (which she has told Octavia and June about previously, but are only now acknowledging) and the girls congratulate her. Suddenly Octavia cuts herself off- pain. She feels pain. The numbing medicine has worn off and June and Imani quickly jump to grab her medicine. Octavia screams, "I FEEL IT. I FEEL IT ALL."

Credits
=== Steppenwolf Theatre: December 2017 - January 28th, 2018 ===

Reviews
"Poignant blast of a comedy... laugh-out-loud funny, all night long" – Chicago Tribune

"Raw, blistering, hilarious and enraging"– Chicago Sun-Times

"Brilliant new play"– New City Stage

"Charged with immediate nostalgia" – Stage and Cinema

"Must see" – Let's Play

Awards

 * Won [ Aziza Barnes: producer and playwright] Antonyo Award for Best Play for BLKS
 * Nominated [ Aziza Barnes: producer, playwright] 2020 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Play
 * Nominated [Dede M. Ayite: costume designer] 2020 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Costume Design
 * Nominated [Robert O'Hara: director] 2020 Antonyo Award, Best Director
 * Nominated [Dede M. Ayite: costume designer] 2020 Antonyo Award, Best Costumes