The Fisherman's Players of Cape Cod and The Black Messiah

Richard Pyatt interviews Reverend Richard D. Waters, the Director of the Fishman's Players of Cape Cod, and actor Willie Woods to discuss, "The Black Messiah," a play written by Waters and starring Woods. They discuss the reception to the show, recently performed in New York City for one night on a regional tour of north eastern states, and how it traces the history of discrimination of black people in America from slavery to the assassination of Malcolm X. The conversation includes a wider discussion of systemic racism in America and the issues of ignorance and guilt in the white community.

According to Waters, "We're concerned with communicating human need, we're concerned with the interpretation of human value with regard to social issues. I don't think there's any such thing as 'art for art's sake.' I think that whenever an artist records something or goes to the, through the painful process of putting it down, one man creates that another man might experience. And so our main concern is that of communication - the communication of value or perhaps the encountering of the confusing issues of our times to try to determine what is value, so we have something to say in every play we do."

Waters directs the Fishman's Players of Cape Cod, an integrated repertory theatre, operating out of Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 151798
Municipal archives id: T6095