For Clarence Holmes Jr., writing is his “second
life.”
The New Orleans-born playwright, a former
professor of English who spent almost 30 years teaching at historically Black colleges
and universities in Louisiana, first tried his hand at writing when he was in
his 20s. He penned a children’s book and sent it to noted publishing company
Little, Brown.
“I actually got a handwritten note from the
editor, which said, ‘If we hadn’t published something similar, we would have
published your book,’” recalls Holmes. “But instead of being inspired by that,
I took it as a rejection, and what I did, I just launched myself into teaching
rather than continuing to try to write.”
It wasn’t until 2019, after retiring from
teaching and with memories of attempted voter suppression during the 2016
United States presidential election in his head, that Holmes sat down to write
his first play, Bridge in the Distance,
which Shabach Enterprise will open on Thursday, October 31, at the MATCH.
“When I decided to write the play, I started
thinking back to maybe one of the first times Black people started voting in
this country. I thought about ‘Bloody Sunday’ and I thought about Pettus Bridge,
and the play just evolved from that,” explains Holmes.
“Bloody Sunday” refers to March 7, 1965, when civil
rights leader and longtime Congressman John Lewis, a then-25-year-old activist,
led hundreds of peaceful demonstrators in a march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge
in Selma, Alabama. There, they were violently met by state troopers, with the
confrontation filmed by television cameras and aired to some 50 million
Americans that very night.
Holmes says he first envisioned a woman who could
see the top of Pettus Bridge through her living room curtains, a view that would
bring up memories of what happened when her husband Sam left home the day after
Easter to vote in a local election.
“Sam is a minister, and he had never liked the
idea of politics and religion mixing,” says Holmes. “Sam is one of these people
who is just trying to make sure that everyone concentrates on the Bible.”
The play will take audiences on Sam’s journey,
and Holmes says Sam’s perseverance will strike people. “It takes you back to
his house at the end of the day, and he tells you what had been taking place
during the day. And then he sits down and tries to figure out whether or not
what he had done that day made a difference.”
Without giving away too much, Holmes says he
intentionally set the play’s election on the day after Easter because he wanted
to emphasize the change Sam undergoes in the play, from believing politics have
no place in the church to “I’m going to vote, and I’m not letting nobody or
nothing stop me.”
“Now, what happened in that 24, 48 hours that
caused him to have that tremendous change? That’s the change that I’m looking
for among people who watch the play, who are sitting there saying, ‘I’m not
worried about the vote, man. Nobody cares about that,’” says Holmes. “The next
day, the next minute, I want them to say, ‘I’m going out there, and I’m going
vote.’ That’s what I’m after.”
Holmes is clear that he’s not trying to tell
anyone how to vote, but he does want young people, those who aren’t registered,
and anyone who’s not even thinking about voting to consider those who have come
before them.
“I want people to say to themselves, ‘Look at
what people have done in order for some people to have the right to vote and then
look at me. I don’t have these kinds of barriers and conditions, and yet, I’m
just sitting here. I’m not doing anything. Let me get up and let me register
and let me vote,’” says Holmes.
After writing Bridge in the Distance in 2019, Holmes submitted the play to the KC
Melting Pot Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri, which chose it as one of eight
national finalists to receive a staged reading as part of the company’s inaugural
playwrighting competition.
“So, I racked up my frequent flyer miles, and
I flew up to Kansas City,” says Holmes.
Despite coinciding with the hometown Kansas
City Chiefs meeting the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV, the readings
were successful, with Holmes saying that not only did “a lot of people” come
out, “the audience was clapping and applauding.”
“That very first time watching people read the
script was mesmerizing,” recalls Holmes.
The play has since won the 2024 Carol Sutton
Memorial Grant, and Holmes has even adapted it into a screenplay that nabbed
the Best Short Screenplay Award at the New York Screenwriting Competition.
Though Holmes acknowledges that Bridge in the Distance has been “making
some noise,” he still wasn’t sure if the play “had legs” until this September, when
he and his wife traveled from Houston, navigating through the remnants of Hurricane
Helene, to see the play make its premiere at The Bunbury Theatre in Louisville,
Kentucky.
“It wasn’t until five minutes into the play
when people were laughing, and I could hear people talking around me…It wasn’t
until then that I knew,” says Holmes. “My play got rousing applause and cheers
and people coming up to me and congratulating me – and it was just incredible. It
confirmed that what I had written has some merit to it.”
Additionally, Holmes believes the play’s
relevance won’t be lost after November 5 as it goes beyond any single election.
It’s one reason he hopes to see the screenplay produced, sharing that he
officially finished writing the feature-length screenplay the morning he spoke
with the Houston Press.
“This is a play that will always be relevant
as long as there are people who are concerned with disenfranchising people’s
right to vote,” says Holmes.
Performances
of Bridge in the Distance are scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 3 and 8
p.m. Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday through November 3 at the MATCH, 3400 Main. For
more information, call 713-521-4533 or visit fadetoblackfest.com. $30-$40.
The
Sunday, November 3, performance can be paired with a special brunch event
called Honoring the Past: Brunch & Sojourn to Selma, 1966. Tickets, including
brunch and the performance, are $65.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
