What a way to kick off Year 3 of writing the Beyond Broadway column! This column has fed my theatrical soul and my artist community has grown and keeps growing. This all started because I believe in artists. Everyone has a voice. Each person has a vehicle to share their story, their message, their passion. The truth is each month I have a feeling about something and then the artist presents themselves to me. Sometimes I just have a fleeting thought. A cloud that passes through my mind. Last month I thought it would be cool to have a show in Los Angeles. 
And then this happened. I wasn’t expecting Meshaun Labrone to send me his media kit about his solo show. He wrote a one man show called Power! Stokely Carmichael that will be in the Hollywood Fringe, the Capital Fringe, and the NY International Fringe. He asked me to be a part of his team. Meshaun is a passionate artist, the project is unique and he devoted his summer to telling this story of a powerful man. I could not say no. He shares with me his why.
Malini: The founders of the Black Power Movement (and the Black Panthers) include Stokely Carmichael, Willie Ricks, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale as well as others. Why Stokely?
Meshaun: I chose Stokely because he is the foundation of this movement. It is Stokely who inspired Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton to name their organization The Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Once Seale and Newton heard that The Lowndes County Freedom Organization and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) workers helped the county’s residents set up to the ability to vote for their own candidates as well as hearing that the emblem was a black cat, Seale and Newton asked Carmichael if they can use it. But it was Carmichael that demanded Black Power first. Everyone except Willie Ricks but it was Ricks who put it on Carmichael to say it. Why? Because he knew that Carmichael had the people’s ear. And Ricks knew that Carmichael embodied the philosophy of Black Power.
Malini: Why did you submit this amazing piece to these three fringe festivals?
Meshaun: In my opinion, these three festivals are the best. If you can succeed in the Los Angeles, DC and NYC theatre festivals, you have a good chance of really making a huge splash in the theatre community.
Malini: This isn’t your first solo show. You also wrote and performed a piece called Tupac Shakur. What inspired that piece?
Meshaun: While working as a correctional officer, I saw how the mind of inmates would begin to deteriorate to the point where they begin to talk to themselves or invisible beings in the cell with them. They begin to create a world for themselves right there. Also, knowing Tupac had spent some time in solitary confinement inspired me to write this play and ask the question, “What questions did he ask himself while in that condition? What angels and demons did he come in contact with? I remember when he got out of prison and he really seemed to be different once out. And not in a good way.
Malini: What’s next for you after all the performances this summer?
Meshaun: After resting we are looking to tour the show in the U.S and in Europe. The new solo show after this one is called, SPOOK. It’s about an ex cop that is one death row for murdering four officers during their morning roll call. The play is his exclusive interview on live tv before his execution.
Meshaun Labrone was a repertory theatre member of the Miami Theatre Center (2005-2007) and has been in such plays as Two Trains Running (M Ensemble), Body and Sold (The Kennedy Center) and The Tin Soldier under the direction of former Moscow Art Theatre Director, Slava Dolgochev. He earned his BFA from Florida International University in Miami, 2005, a TEFL certificate in Prague, Czech Republic, 2006.In 2011, Mr. Meshaun received international recognition for his critically acclaimed One-Man show, Right to Remain…Tupac Shakur; performed at the Tara Theatre, Off-West End, London. In the play, Labrone explores Shakur’s love of William Shakespeare and highlights the parallels between The Young Black Male and Richard III. With his performance Labrone brought the classical theatre community and hip-hop community together to witness a truly groundbreaking production. Stokely Carmichael was known for becoming the driving force behind the philosophy of “Black Power”. Labrone will explore this philosophy, movement and man with elements of the the theatre of the Absurd.
