Airport Beers with the one and only Kamilah Lawson
Kamilah Lawson lives in Woodbridge and teaches in Alexandria. Always entertaining, she recently took on the part of Janet in The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s production of Pearl Cleage’s play The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years. The following is a transcript of a conversation held over Zoom a week before the play by two former co-workers.
Kamilah Lawson: Think I went to bed at midnight. And these nights driving back to Alexandria and then ending rehearsal around 10:15 or 10:30, driving back to Woodbridge, getting up, it’s a grind.
Bryan Harvey: So, I’ll start there cause I was going to ask that question at some point. How do you find the energy to do something like a play where the rehearsals are at night and keeping you out past 10 pm and then you’ve got to be back at the school building at what 7 am?
KL: No, it’s a little later: 8:00.
BH: Okay.
KL: It starts at 8:35.
BH: But, yeah, how do you find the energy to do both those things?
KL: It’s a constant battle. I, you know, I’m so glad that the weather has warmed up cause that makes it better. It’s not like I’m cold and I’ve got to get up at the crack of dawn and stay at rehearsals late at night. But it’s a battle. I don’t think I’ll ever do this again where I take on something this heavy while I’m still working because this is two full time jobs here, and I’m one to be in bed by 9:30 — asleep by 9:30. So it is a challenge.
BH: You know I ask that cause teaching by itself can be all those things. So in the past you’ve done standup comedy and you would do that during the school year. Did that take less energy than being in a play?
KL: It’s less energy because, again, I can control that. You know, I can control what stages I take, but this is an ensemble performance through a theater company. So, when you raise your hand and you sign up, they do their due diligence and ask you do you have any conflicts and you give them to them and they work around and schedule around that. But this isn’t a weekend play. This is the entire month of June, and I think I auditioned in March.
BH: What prompted the decision to go audition?
KL: I have a colleague that is a patron with this theater. Last year she said there ‘s a play coming that I want you to audition for and we laugh cause I didn’t know she was a patron until right before COVID this theater ran Fences — and I love Fences — and they did a phenomenal job. I was like I wanna I wanna just talking I wanna be Rose, you know. She was like there’s an opportunity coming. And I was like yeah whatever. She gave me the script last summer. I looked at it maybe twice, and then you know I hadn’t heard anything. Then, in February, she was like auditions are coming up in two weeks. Whatcha gonna do?
BH: (laughs)
KL: And I was like YOLO! And I just went in and did the first read and was totally uncomfortable, totally outside my comfort zone, but, I mean, it’s not out of my wheelhouse. It’s just all of this stuff takes this constant dance with fear that I have — even for standup — so, you know, I’m going up with people who are actresses, and I’m like, okay, I’m going to give them this. I’m going to give them me, and we’ll see. And two nights later I got a call back, and it was late on Sunday night and I was like, wait, you like me. It felt like It’s Mikey — they like it!
BH: (laughs)
KL: Wow! I got a call back. I know that’s something phenomenal, and the one lady I auditioned with, you know, I tried to make a connection with her: you do this a lot? And she gave me the [raises eyebrows and rolls eyes].
BH: Hm.
KL: And I was like, okay, I guess I want say anything else to you. But then she didn’t come back for the second round. I didn’t see her, but she was good — like they all were actresses — so they must have been looking for somebody fresh, I think. I don’t know what that spark was. I think I made them laugh a couple times in my second read, but in my second read, there were a lot more actresses there. And, you know, I think I was dismissed first, so I was like I guess that means I’m out. So I gave the wave [waves hands]. Thank you! And I was sitting right here at my desk and my phone rang with an unfamiliar number and kids were working, and I was like, Man, let me just —
BH: Oh, you were with your students when you got the call?
KL: I was with my students —
BH: Okay.
KL: And I sat here, and I didn’t full out cry, but I was so happy. And the producer said you didn’t think you would get this call did you. I said, no . . . YOLO! Let’s just see. Why not?
BH: (laughs)
KL: To get a reading part, because there was a part for a maid, and this is how ignorant I was: when I went in for the initial audition I’m looking for Jesse the Maid and I didn’t know Jesse didn’t have any lines but I knew I could make that funny. I don’t have acting experience, but I could make that funny. I’m looking to read the sheets on Jesse, but there are none. So I was like maybe I’ll get that part. I got a reporter part. I got an actual part part. I was like I gotta memorize some lines. I gotta act. So that’s what I’ve been doing for the last two months.
BH: So approximately how many lines do you have?
KL: Oh my gosh, I don’t know, a lot. I’m in the first half of the First Act. Act One, Scene Five. And I’m in Act Two, Scene Four and Five. And they are the longest scenes of the play.
BH: Okay.
KL: Both of them. So like twenty . . . twenty-five minute scenes.
BH: That’s very different going from part with no lines to . . . you know . . . .
KL: Yes, and now that I know my lines for the most part I have to embody those lines, so every night is critique. Janet — that’s my name — Janet, I need you to defend yourself more. I need that to be more believable. I need to pounce on that. I need you to be reporter-mode. Now I need you to be softer, and I’m like . . . and they’re like, you know, upstage, backstage, downstage, dp, opp, I’m like what — I hate acronyms — what does all this stuff mean?
BH: Now you worked — I know you worked at ESPN.
KL: Mmmhmmm.
BH: Um, and you’re a teacher, and teachers ask questions, I don’t know exactly what you did at ESPN, I know you tell a funny story about carrying cameras —
KL: (laughs) Production assistant!
BH: I guess I’m wondering, like, when you’re playing a reporter and talking about Janet having to “pounce” now and stuff like that, um, what things have you done in the past that are helping you with this role or is it just . . . .
KL: I’m flying by the seat of my pants because with my podcast — my personal podcast —
BH: Yeah.
KL: I am very caring, you know, and I’m very careful about what . . . how I question my interviewees . . . so Janet in a lot of senses has to be like that White House reporter, you know, so I understand that you have to . . . and it’s a tone and a lot of my stuff comes off caring and the director understands that. They’re very sweet to me. They know that I am the one that needs a little bit more. You know, I might need the IEP cause I’m not in this — this is not my realm. But I ask questions cause if I hear it — there is no live footage of this play.
BH: Okay.
KL: So I’ll just see how Jasmine Guy played it, you know, but there is no footage of this play. There’s clips.
BH: What’s the play and who wrote it?
KL: Um, Pearl Cleage. It’s a Pearl Cleage play. It’s called The Nacirema Society. Listen for this. This is the longest title you’ll ever hear —
BH: (laughs)
KL: The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One-Hundred Years.
BH: How do you get that on a playbill?
KL: Listen. It’s on there. It’s on there.
BH: Had you heard of the play before this?
KL: Never heard of the play, but it’s centered around the ’60s. This is how things line up, just so you know. Call it kismet or whatever you want to call it. I went on a pilgrimage with my students back in April — back in October — to Alabama, to Selma, Alabama —
BH: I saw that on Facebook, yeah.
KL: Heavy. But it was a bucket list thing. But heavy trip. This play is set in Montgomery, Alabama.
BH: Okay.
KL: We went to Selma, um, this play is set in ’64, so before Dr. King died. So it all lined up, and I was like oh my God I just went to Alabama. I —
BH: Yeah.
KL: I actually have visuals now, but it is a wealthy Black family whose all of the patriarchs have died — they were doctors — but it’s about a cotillion, so debutantes. So I know that world from growing up and being in a sorority and all the things, so I could — I know this world except for the money part. Wealthy Black people that don’t necessarily, um, see themselves as regular Black people, you know, because there is no middle class here. They got drivers, you know, they turn their nose up at regular Black people, and I’m regular Black people. Janet is a reporter from New York who has done a scathing report on this family already, so the matriarch hates her guts. It turns out when she wants to come back for this cotillion she has to stay with this lady. And it is just scandals, and it’s a romantic comedy. And she’s playing everybody, and I’m just there to get the scoop.
BH: Okay.
KL: But it’s funny. It’s so funny.
BH: Man, my parents a couple years ago did a tour where they followed the Freedom Riders. They did a similar . . . and they came back, and it was interesting to hear their perspective on that as well. Um, have you talked to your students about the play? Like, do they ask you questions?
KL: The group where I got the call in they were so supportive, and I ended up giving them all a little card for the show that said come see me. Um, they were just so sweet to me cause they knew — cause I was so shocked when I got the call that I got a part in a play. It didn’t matter if I was the maid —
BH: No —
KL: I would have embodied that. I was so proud of myself. I was like I just took a chance, so it was a teachable moment: take a chance.
BH: That’s why I asked — cause I think you probably — we only overlapped at Freedom High School for one year, but from what I gathered you would very much be the sort of teacher who practices what you preach in the classroom, because we always have to tell students to take chances. Some students you have to tell them to take a chance every assignment.
KL: Mmmhmmmmm.
BH: Some students the chances are different. But, when you sign up for this stuff, do you think about the impact on your students or are you doing it primarily thinking I’ve got to do this?
KL: I’m doing it for me. Um, if they get something positive from it — I wouldn’t normally have shared it, probably wouldn’t have shared it right away with any of my students, and it has been a rough year anyway. It’s not that I’m not close to my kids. It’s, you know, was something that I just took a chance, and it surprised the heck out of me that I got the position.
BH: (laughs)
KL: But, um, it just worked out the lady, the producer, called me during class, and I always keep my phone out cause I’m timing their activities. So I saw it blinking and I was like what’s this New Jersey — what is this happening? And she just was so sweet and I was so overcome with emotions that I can’t believe it. And then I was like, yes! Yes! Because life is about goals and that’s what I teach my kids. When things get overwhelming, crush — and again I need to teach myself this when I’m overwhelmed — is to crush one goal at a time.
BH: Yeah.
KL: Just mark it off. But don’t try to look at the big load and let’s tackle everything, which is a lot of what I do sometimes, which is kind of what I’m doing right now, but just look at one thing. One positive. Boom. Did that. And, before you know it, you good, you know, you got a whole list of things. So I think that’s where I am in my life. You know, why not?
BH: Yeah, that’s cool. Um, how is it being at T.C. Williams, because you were a student there?
KL: I was a student, but we are now Alexandria City High School.
BH: That’ right — apologies.
KL: That’s okay. Um, it’s hard for the old heads to stop saying T.C, but they’re trying really hard to rebrand us, you know, it’s cool. The City. Now we’re the City.
BH: Yeah.
KL: You know, but I don’t know — what was the question? I forgot the question.
BH: I don’t know. It was something about what’s it like going back to a school where you were a student, I guess.
KL: Initially, I came back for my kids, specifically for the Black and Brown kids, because, when I interviewed for this position, I was literally just testing the waters. You know, I knew they made more money up here, but this is home. But Freedom I could write my own ticket, you know, I was comfortable. You know, I loved everybody. I felt like it was reciprocated, the love: how I communicated with the school and with my specific students. But I really saw a need, and, um, I started thinking about my goals, and I was like ehhh maybe it’s time to try something different. And it definitely was challenging, but the good thing was there was no real oh my god I gotta meet new people because I’m from here. It’s a smalltown vibe. Everybody knows everybody.
BH: Yeah.
KL: Um, and a lot of the students are my former friends’ and classmates’.
BH: Classmates? Yeah, that’s interesting.
KL: Wait! Who was your daddy? I just did that the other day.
BH: How many years teaching is it now?
KL: Fifteen.
BH: Fifteen.
KL: Mmmhmmmm. So I’m right in the middle.
BH: Last year was my fifteenth.
KL: Mmmhmmmm. Fifteen.
BH: Did you start at Spotsylvania High School?
KL: I started at Spotsy High. They just got out of school yesterday.
BH: My daughter — we’re in Stafford — but she finished today.
KL: My colleague was just in here, her daughter goes to North Stafford, and she says their last day was yesterday or maybe today.
BH: So that series of schools, and you’ve lived in different places as well between the Spotsylvania-Fredericksburg area all the way up to Alexandria, living and working, do you see it as a region that’s connected, or do you see it as having these local, distinct needs and communities?
KL: Totally disconnected.
BH: Totally disconnected?
KL: I feel so sorry for my friends that are still in Spotsy and just the turmoil and the ridiculousness of their School Board —
BH: Lack of leadership, yeah.
KL: Lack of leadership. Because you’ve got the people there and I’m just like why. Things just don’t make sense. I have a t-shirt that says MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.
BH: Mmmhmmmmm.
KL: It’s just so unfortunate. They aren’t paid well. They, you know, your School Board is racist and, you know, outwardly so. You know, it’s like no secret here. You know, we’re going to do these things to you, so it’s just one of those make it make sense moments. But, leaving Spotsy, the funny thing is being one of the very few Black teachers at Spotsy I loved it. I loved my kids. They taught me about camo. They taught me, you know how you wait too long to ask what something —
BH: The fishhook in the bill of the hat.
KL: I was like I can’t ask them what camo is on the first day or month. I shouldn’t have waited. I should have asked right away. And kids are kids, you know.
BH: I guess you could have, when you called role, pretended you couldn’t see anybody.
KL: (laughs) Exactly. But I loved it. I loved my co-workers. We’re still in touch to this day, moving up the road a little bit to Prince William, you know, I fell in love with Freedom and the community. Everywhere has its issues, like there is no perfect place. But I think for the time that I made the move and what I think I brought to Freedom and what Freedom gave to me that was the right move at the time.
BH: Yeah.
KL: Then, nine years later, you know, moving up the road a little farther and going back to my roots at the time that was the best move for me. (laughs)
BH: Do you find that you have to — I actually have three questions I want to ask right now, but I also know you probably gotta go.
KL: (looks at clock) I’ve got about five to ten minutes.
BH: Alright, um, do you find that you have to make those kinds of moves to help you focus? Does it refocus you or reenergize you? I know you talk about those moves being right at the time. I’m also when I ask that question I’m thinking about the times when I would switch schools and stuff like that as well and why I would do it. I always liked the place I was leaving, but I sometimes needed to do it to sort of just like reenergize or refocus myself when I found myself sort of drifting. I don’t know if that’s why you make the move or —
KL: I think that’s true for me too. Um, I think I could have been a lifer at Freedom. As far as my friendships, I could have been a lifer, but I have other goals and things I want to try. I will always be a teacher, but there are different levels to this, and I think I’m very loyal so I can be at a place for a while and be okay with it. But sometimes things get stale or, you know, something’s got to change for me. This job is going is going to be that job anywhere, but for me, I needed something else. Again, at the time, it was perfect.
BH: Now, before you were Ms. Lawson and you were probably just Kamilah in a classroom as a student, would your teachers have seen you as — well, this is two questions I guess. Did you think other people saw you as a performer or saw you as a future teacher? Did you see yourself that way? Like, when did it register that you were on this path?
KL: I have always had that. I’m a Pisces, so I’m very creative. I’m always thinking. My brain is always going. Um, I think I was always funny. Funny things happen — happen to me — , so, you know, it’s maybe just the way I craft it might be funnier than somebody else or how they craft it. I was always involved in stuff. I was in high school I was homecoming queen and princess the two years before that, and I also went to a high school where my mother was very well known and well liked at the time I was in high school. I went to school with my mother.
BH: Okay.
KL: There was a certain level of decorum I needed to stay with then, um, or suffer the consequences. But, you know, I always tell my mom it is a privilege to be her daughter because she was so great and that’s what I had to live up to. Sometimes it was challenging, and I’m like I’m so not mature enough to be as great as you, but I’ll try. But just to be kind to people. I think I always exhibited that even in high school. But just fun. I didn’t have — I didn’t feel like I made many enemies. I made friends well. Clearly was popular if I was the homecoming queen — that cracks me up every time I say that and I tell my students and see where it got me. Yeah!
BH: (laughs)
KL: You know, I’m glad I grew up in a small town right outside of DC, where you have everything at your fingertips. I have a huge circle of friends and family and teachers who became family, you know, so I wouldn’t — I loved my time as a teenager and growing up in the ’90s in that sweet spot before racism was so overt that it blinds you and where you’re innocent enough to try things that you wouldn’t normally try.
And Alexandria is a town with Richie Riches — top of the top to the lowest of the low — and everybody goes to the same school, so it’s not like you’re looking down on. I might be sitting next to the richest person, some big company’s or actress’ daughter or politician’s kid, but we all gonna vibe together because this is our community.
BH: And you probably don’t have time for this question, but I was going to ask you — because you have a Toni Morrison poster behind you — I was going to ask —
KL: Oh, it’s not a poster. It’s —
BH: Is it a framed picture?
KL: It’s a canvas.
BH: Oh! It is, yeah, I didn’t look closely before. I can see the edge. UM, no, but I was going to ask — I don’t remember that being on your wall at Freedom — but I was going to ask you even if how you decorate your room at [City of Alexandria] was different than say at Spotsylvania?
KL: Oh, man, well . . . (laughs)
BH: Because, when I was at Prince William —
KL: Toni was willed to me from one of my predecessors, who retired. I can’t believe he gave it to me. Um, so this was going on my wall at home., but then I was like oooo this would look good right behind me. It just tells everybody I’m the English teacher.
BH: Yeah.
KL: I got Toni Morrison behind me. It’s very apropos in these times when her books are being banned.
BH: Her books are being banned.
KL: In case you weren’t clear what side I’m on — check her out, you know!
BH: When I was at Patriot, um, I had — there was a church that met in our building on Sundays — and I would come back into my classroom and they would have covered up certain posters.
KL: Woooowwwwww.
BH: And that was like 2012, I mean, and also while I was there we had been told, or it had kind of been suggested maybe y’all shouldn’t teach Bluest Eye this year.
KL: Wow.
BH: And I would be like how can we be told not to teach certain books! and I would get all fired up, and I would just burn useless energy, but it was like, looking back on it, I’m like, oh, there were all these signs of what was coming —
KL: Yep.
BH: — but at the time, it didn’t, yeah, I never saw it being, yeah, but it’s going to kick us out anyway — I don’t have the upgraded Zoom.
KL: Well, I appreciate you.
BH: Same. And, as they say in your new world, break a leg.
The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s production of Pearl Cleage’s The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years opens on June 3rd.
Airport Beers is an interview series. Past sessions include:
- Mike Nagel (April)
- Craig Graziano (May)
