Members of the Comfort family in a new narrative film created by Atlanta’s Out of Hand Theater are on edge as surviving relatives gather for a reunion that also serves as a memorial to loved ones lost to the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Comfort, a half-hour film now available for free viewing online, they bicker constantly, some clearly showing survivor’s guilt, and struggle to decide if unvaccinated family members should even be allowed to attend. What’s remarkable, in a film created with funding from a CDC Foundation grant that seeks to build Covid vaccine confidence, is that it’s nuanced enough to not make any member of the Comforts, vaxxed or not, a villain.
Written by Amina S. McIntyre and starring veteran Atlanta stage and screen actors Rob Cleveland and Cynthia D. Barker, leading a cast of largely local talent, Comfort dramatizes the challenging conversations that many families have had during the pandemic while going out of its way not to be judgmental.
“We wanted to present a relatable story that would realistically portray the differing viewpoints, fears and concerns that a lot of people have experienced in dealing with Covid,” the film’s director, Thomas Brazzle, says.
Also serving as project director of the theater troupe’s overarching Time Has Chosen Us health initiative team, Brazzle says an even-handed approach seemed the best direction for the film, based on extensive interviewing that the project team conducted in North Central and Southwest Georgia as well as in Eastern Alabama. Many Blacks in these communities expressed a strong distrust of public health initiatives dating to the Tuskegee Experiment, the infamous syphilis study begun in 1932 by the U.S. Public Health Service in Macon County, Alabama.
“If you lean too hard into your perspective on being vaccinated or not being vaccinated, we want audiences to know that this will potentially alienate those around you and isolate you from the opportunity to connect and have conversation with others to find common ground and a way forward,” Brazzle says. “We ultimately want audiences to understand that we can’t let this pandemic be the thing that divides us.”
In addition to making the film available online, the Time Has Chosen Us team has taken the drama on the road, including, in June, twice to Macon-Bibb County and once to Tift County. In Tifton, Out of Hand partnered with Dad’s Garage, the other Atlanta performing arts group that received a CDC Foundation grant. Dad’s kicked off the event with a live performance of its improv show A Dose of Comedy.
The two theater troupes were among 30 groups nationwide selected for the program, funded at $2.5 million by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to educate local communities about vaccine safety and effectiveness.
With the support of a second grant, from the Georgia Department of Public Health, Comfort will be the focal point of at least four events a month throughout Georgia for two years starting in September. Presented at churches, community centers and at public gatherings such as festivals, the Time Has Chosen Us events feature Comfort as well as a four-minute informational film, plus fun family activities and games, with vaccines provided by community partners such as the Georgia Department of Public Health and CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort).
“We can’t guilt someone into wanting to get a vaccine,” Brazzle says, “but we can help them understand the importance for the sake of not only themselves but those around them.”
Meanwhile, Out of Hand, whose strong social justice mission is reflected in all of its programming and community outreach, hopes to develop more films. The goal is to produce work, Brazzle says, “with relevant storylines inspired by conversations from other communities and racial demographics to help bring more people together, to get information and feel more confident in public health in general as well as in the Covid vaccines.”
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Free performances of poet laureate’s work
The Palefsky Collision Project, featuring 19 students from across metro Atlanta and beyond, will give two free performances this weekend of a production based on Joy Harjo’s poetry collection Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings.
The annual Alliance Theatre program provides high-school and rising post-secondary students a platform to tackle timely social issues. Guided by Alliance Distinguished Playwright in Residence Pearl Cleage, director Patrick McColery, associate director Rodney Williams and music director David Kote, participants are encouraged to “collide” with a classic text and make it their own.
In this 21st Palefsky Collision Project, which spans three weeks, the local students have been joined for the first time by national artists, from New Haven, Connecticut, and Boston.
“This summer, at a time of great national turmoil, some will look to politicians and pundits for clarity and guidance,” Cleage said in a release. “At the Palefsky Collision Project, we turn to the poets. Accordingly, we’ve chosen Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings by America’s Poet Laureate Joy Harjo as our shared text. This work shines a light on her uniquely American experience as a member of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation and, also, illuminates our own individual journeys through the prism that only great art can provide.”
Performances are 7 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Woodruff Art Center’s Rich Auditorium. RSVP for free tickets online. Masks are required.
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Tributes to Stuart Culpepper
Social media tributes were many and heartfelt as word spread of the June 26 death of Atlanta actor Stuart Culpepper at age 84. Culpepper was one of Atlanta’s most prominent actors and voiceover talents in a career spanning from the late 1960s to the early 2000s. His dramatic elocution, whether performing Shakespeare or advertising QuikTrip, caused many to refer to him as the “Voice of God.” Theater colleagues made note of his generous talent and spirit, as well.
A family-placed obituary in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that Culpepper embraced his native Atlanta as home, even as opportunities for a more national career unfolded: “After having brief acting forays in New York City and Hollywood, he concluded that he would rather be a big fish in a little pond.”
Fortunately, Atlanta, and especially colleagues, loved him back. On his Facebook page, former Theatrical Outfit artistic director Tom Key called Culpepper “one of Atlanta’s finest actors” and thanked his departed friend for “your wonderful life.”
Other tributes from members of Atlanta’s creative community, some citing shows and playhouses now long gone, in Key’s string included:
- Bart Hansard: “Thank you, Tom, for casting me in Mortal Acts and giving me the opportunity to have the great good fortune to work with you and Stuart for a first time, but not the last. I learned a lot in that process and during the run, both as a performer, a cohort, and a person. He was quite a character, and I have nothing but fond memories of those days and collaborations after. I once walked with giants.”
- Rosemary Newcott: “A legendary Atlanta Artist — I spent many memorable moments with him on the Alliance stage — one of my favorite times was The Seagull.”
- Chris Kayser: “Absolutely a legend. He was always good to me. Yes, that voice!”
- Christopher Ekholm: “I can hear him saying, ‘di-a-mond’ in the way only he could.”
- Bill Murphey: “Very early on in my career he cast me in The Andersonville Trial at Theater in the Square with some of Atlanta’s heavy hitters. What an amazing learning experience. I feel like I should go to QT and toast his life and memory with a delicious ‘cap-you-chino.’”
- Manning Harris: “Years ago I took voiceover lessons from him; and I well remember his brilliant performance in Sam Shepard’s Buried Child at the 14th Street Theatre. For many years, Stuart WAS Atlanta theatre.”
- Scott DePoy: “I remember seeing him and Dana Ivey in Night of the Iguana at the Pocket Theatre. Riveting performance.”
- Spencer Herzog: “Stuart was bigger than life. I had the honor of recording him hundreds of times starting back in the early ’80s up until he retired. One of my favorite Stuart stories from back in the analog days was when he started reading before I hit record, so I stopped him and said, ‘Stuart, you jumped me, can we start again?’ With his classic dry wit, he replied, ‘Spencer, you must record my every word, you never know when I might drop over dead.’ Rest well my friend.”
- Linda Stephens: “Nobody like him.”
