Negotiating the details of retirement can be hard for anyone, but when Eddie Lee’s wife joins him, that’s when he feels the need to get out of the house.
So he meets with other retired friends — all male — and they play chess and talk about their lives over coffee at local restaurants. It’s when a new woman moves into a nearby abandoned house along with her enticing coconut cake, that the men’s worlds threaten to be upended.
Troy Hogan plays Marty in the play written by Melda Beaty and directed by Eileen J. Morris. And it’s a stretch for him as a 58-year-old playing an 85 year old man. “It’s interesting; it’s made me look at my own history in life. It made me look at a lot of things about elder Black men, what they had to go through. Korea, Viet Nam. I had a chance to go back and look at the time in which these wars were fought. “
Hogan, a cast member of Friday Night Lights for two years and is finishing up with The Righteous Gemstones, decided he wanted to get back to theater. Others in the five-member cast include Jason E. Carmichael, Alex Morris, Kevin Daughtery and James West.
“Marty is a grounded married man who’s a deacon in the church. He’s the mediator for all these gentlemen until something happens that takes him on a journey in his own life. He had to get grounded in his religion or his spiritual side.”
Being in this play also changed his perspective on marriage, Hogan says.
Asked what the main thing this play is about, Hogan responds: “Male, Black life. And all the intricacies of it, especially our relationships to our mates, our relationships to our daughters, to our church and church family, relationships to our community. And Black friendship.”
This is a two-act play with a lot of text to it, Hogan says. “Every Monday, here I am. Ready to meet my friends.”
As a child, when he first went to theater it was children’s plays like Hansel and Gretel, he says. He grew up in South Park and attended Robert E. Lee graduating in 1985.Later, as a theater student at Prairie View A&M, he would come back to see plays at The Ensemble Theatre. He calls Ensemble Artistic Director Eileen J. Morris, who is directing, “a national treasure.”
Asked why anyone should come see Coconut Cake, Hogan responds: “They need to come see their uncle, their granddad, their dad. They need to bring their uncle, their granddad, their dad. Wives need to come see their husbands. Aunts need to come see uncles. Come see your family. Come see the elder men of your family and celebrate them.”
Performances are scheduled for May 9 through June 1 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays at Ensemble Theatre, 3535 Main. For more information, call 713=520-0055 or visit ensemblehouston.com. $40-$50.
