REPORTER GETTING A SLANT ON "THE STORY" 
                                              By Georgia Rowe
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area theater, music and dance 
                                                                 Week of March 22-29, 2009
                                                                  Vol. 11, No. 82
            A white couple stops for directions on their way to a restaurant in an inner-city neighborhood, and the husband is shot and killed.  His pregnant widow describes the gunman as black, and soon the entire city is demanding justice.
            In Tracey Scott Wilson’s “The Story,” it’s a newspaper reporter, not the police, who makes a break in the case.  Yvonne Robinson (Ryan Peters), a rookie reporter for the unnamed city’s major daily, uncovers the killer’s identity during an interview with a teenaged gang member.  Or so she claims; on closer examination, there are serious problems with her version of the story.  
            Race, ethics and personal ambition fuel Wilson’s one-act drama, which opened March 21 in a co-production by San Francisco Playhouse and the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre.  The play is loosely based on a real-life journalist, Janet Cooke, who was caught fabricating the news; the Washington Post reporter won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for a story about an 8-year-old heroin addict, and was later forced to admit that much of the story was fictitious.
            Wilson’s play examines the social environment that might prompt such ethical lapses.  Her central character, Yvonne, is young, African-American, smart and very driven.  As a new hire, she’s immediately assigned to the paper’s “Outlook” section, a ghetto for black stories and black writers.  She doesn’t plan to be there long – her sights are set on the Metro, or National, sections – and, at first, it looks like her story on the murder will be her ticket out.
            Yet the political situation for black women writers doesn’t foster mobility.  The “Outlook” editor, Pat (Halili Knox), having worked her way up the hard way, restricts her black reporters – both Yvonne and the more-experienced Neil (Dwight Huntsman) - to providing positive coverage of the black community.  The Metro editor, Jeff (Craig Marker), wants to mentor Yvonne, but he’s also her lover, and he insists on keeping their relationship on the down-low.
            Director Margo Hall gives the action a fast-paced staging on a fluid, open set by Lisa Clark, with lighting by Cy K. Eaton, costumes by Valera Coble and sound by Will McCandless.  On opening night, the cast was still working out the timing of the swiftly overlapping scenes.  Peters is an energetic, but rather unfocused, Yvonne.  Knox is an aptly steely Pat.  Huntsman’s glib Neil, and Marker’s opaque Jeff, make essential contributions.  Kathryn Tkel gives a poised, articulate performance as the gang girl, Latisha, and Rebecca Schweitzer projects both the grief and anger of the widow, Jessica.  Awele Makeba, Afi Ayanna and Allison L. Payne play various reporters, detectives and community people.
            Wilson’s play doesn’t always ring true, particularly for anyone who’s ever worked in a newsroom.  But it offers a thought-provoking, often compelling look at American race relations.  The pressures on Yvonne – both internal and external – seem insurmountable, and even when it turns out that her fabrications extend beyond the case at hand, she’s not unsympathetic.  Still, the truth has a way of coming out, and Wilson leaves the audience to ponder just how much damage can be done before it does.
            “The Story,” a play by Tracey Scott Wilson, continues through April 25 at the S.F. Playhouse, 533 Sutter St., San Francisco.  Running time is 75 minutes without intermission.  Call 415-677-9596, or go online. www.sfplayhouse.org
          ©Georgia Rowe 2009
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            Georgia Rowe has been covering the dance, theater and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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