City Theatre’s ‘Black Santa’ A Lesson in Christmas Tradition

Rita Cole as Patrice Patterson and Niki Fridh as Principal Ward in City Theater’s premiere of Aaron Mays’ “Black Santa” opening Thursday, Dec. 5 through Sunday, Dec. 22 in the Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami. (Photo courtesy of Morgan Sophia Photography)

Playwright Aaron Mays offers insight to those directing and acting in his play “Black Santa.”

He writes in the beginning of the script:

For the actors: “…Push too hard and the play falls apart so find the heart of the play, not the joke.”

For the director: “The tone of this play is not total hysteria or complete absurdity. There is almost always a sense of plausibility in each statement.”

The time period of “Black Santa,” which is getting its southeastern premiere by City Theatre at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center, opening Thursday, Dec. 5 and running through Sunday, Dec. 22, is revealed to the audience immediately. We hear a portion of President Barack Obama’s victory speech in 2008.

Rita Cole plays Patrice Patterson in City Theatre’s “Black Santa” opening on Thursday, Dec. 5 through Sunday, Dec. 22 at the Carnival Studio Theater in the Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami. (Photo courtesy of Morgan Sophia Photography)

Lights up and Patrice Patterson is reading to her students from the traditional Christmas tale ” ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.” When she’s finished, she asks her students to share “one thing you want people to know for this holiday season?”

The lights go down, and we’re not sure what those answers were. That is until the principal calls a meeting with teachers at Dartmouth Day School in Buffalo, N.Y., to alert them that there is a “serious matter” and that, although it is a small fire, it must be taken care of before it turns into a “full-fledged inferno.”

A flash mob in the lunchroom? More fallout about the kid who brought a plastic blowup pool to school, filled it with milk, took a bath in it, and then posted it to YouTube? No. It’s a more “pressing event,” says Principal Ward. Sharifa, a third grader, proclaimed that the one thing she wanted people to know for the holiday season was that Santa Claus is a Black man and he is from Detroit.

The principal tells those in the faculty lounge that it took 30 minutes to stop the children in the class from crying and screaming and a teacher’s aide fainted.

“In the play, there are many touch points within the story that are from real life or inspired by my life,” says Mays. “My parents were teachers. I went to a private school and some of the names in the script are actual friends of mine. There is a real Sharifa in the world,” he says.

Chicago playwright Aaron Mays wrote the comedy “Black Santa” somewhat based on an interaction he had with a friend in high school. (Photo courtesy of Mark Duggan/Nickel City Headshot)

The Chicago playwright grew up in Buffalo, which he says is a “steel mill town” and racially segregated. “I grew up on the east side of Buffalo, a predominantly Black neighborhood.”

There was an impetus for the play, he explains. “My mother had a tradition of giving out Christmas cards. I followed suit in high school, and I gave a card to a friend of mine. When she opened it, she just looked at it. I have yet to find the word to define or describe her expression – a sneer, a smirk. Anyway, it seemed as if she was uncomfortable with the image,” says Mays. The image was of a Black angel. And the friend was not Black.

Years later when Mays started thinking about the play he wanted to write, he recalled the incident.

“The play is more relevant now.” He recalls that at the first rehearsal in Miami, he had a different reaction than in the past. “We played the opening, Obama’s speech, and I got emotional hearing it now because there’s a contrast. What we have now is not the idea of hoping for a post-racial society . . . of that we are moving forward . . . but now, at least politically, we have now gone so far back.”

It isn’t lost on him nor should it be on the audience, he says, that the setting is a school . . .  “What could be at stake, like cutting the U.S. Department of Education,” says Mays.

When a third grader tells her teacher played by Rita Cole, right, that Santa is a Black man, the school’s principal, played by Niki Fridh, wants to set things right in City Theatre’s “Black Santa” opening at the Carnival Studio Theater in the Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami. (Photo courtesy of Morgan Sophia Photography)

The playwright doesn’t want to give the idea that his play is political or preachy. He says he’s accustomed to writing drama — “that’s usually where I land.” But he discovered that with comedy he could still tackle tough topics. “You know, with satire, it softens the blow of those realities when we can look at them through the lens of something that may be satirical. I’m hoping and believe that people will walk out of the play laughing.”

Margaret M. Ledford, City Theatre’s artistic director and the director of the play, says “Black Santa” is a “heartwarming story that embraces the idea of pluralism in America . .. that we can still be the great American melting pot. And it does embody the true mean of Christmas in terms of compassion – empathy and goodwill to all.”

She says what the audience will see in her direction and in the cast is that everyone has been given “the license to have fun.” She did, however, take her job seriously: A white woman directing a primarily Black story.

Ledford explains: “In our first day of rehearsal we addressed that ‘elephant in the room,’ so to speak. We had very candid conversations and workshops about how I may ‘present in the world’ is not how everyone else in my cast does. So, there were agreements made – how to approach misunderstandings that inevitably happen, and how, for all of us to grant everyone grace.”

The main character, Patrice, the school’s only Black teacher, is asked to create an ad campaign within the school to make Santa white again; at the same time, she’s hoping to get an assistant principal job that’s open at the school. “So how much does she need to assume code-switching to be in that white space?,” says Ledford. Code-switching is changing behaviors or presenting yourself to fit in and often used to play down racial differences to be accepted in a certain space.

Rita Cole, who plays Patrice, says everyone at different points in their life code switches. “For instance, how you speak on the job versus how you speak with your kids or your spouse or your partner. And I am not sure if people realize that they do it but when they watch this play, it is my hope that they do see that — that they see that a little bit in themselves.”

The battle over Santa’s race is a touchpoint in the play “Black Santa” with Rita Cole, left, as Patrice Patterson and Niki Fridh as Principal Ward in City Theatre’s production. (Photo courtesy of Morgan Sophia Photography)

Cole says that she’s been working on the struggle within her character – the complexity that Patrice has from being “super professional and putting on a smile even when her core values are being challenged. How do I bring that onto the stage – her having to navigate both of those worlds?”

Joining Cole in the cast are Niki Fridh, Jeff Burleson, Robert L. Strain, Kimmie Harvey, and Phillip Andrew Santiago.

City Theatre is known for its short play festivals and Ledford says there’s an advantage to the shorts – to be able to tell so many stories in one night, but she welcomes the opportunity to present full plays like “Black Santa.” “There are topics that just take longer to talk about.”

Ledford says this is also the chance to give South Florida audiences a different Christmas play.

“Christmas Carol has been done. We know Scrooge’s heart can change but how about other people’s hearts?,” says Ledford.

WHAT: “Black Santa” by Aaron Mays

 WHERE: Carnival Studio Theater in the Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

WHEN: Opens Thursday, Dec. 5. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday;  2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Through Sunday, Dec. 22.

COST: $56 and $61; VIP experience for an additional $30 includes a drink, up-front seating and a gift bag; a portion of the proceeds benefit City Theatre’s arts education initiatives.

INFORMATION:  305-949-6722 or arshtcenter.org

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