Love in a Day
Next weekend, I’ll be in another Los Angeles production. Love In A Day is a stageplay by writer, director, and producer Darryl James of Tenacious Productions. In Love In a Day, three couples go on a retreat to rebuild their relationships. The couples are dealing with specific difficulty that is easy for the others to see, yet not so much for each other. The couples work through their difficulties to find love as they are guided by a relationship coach and his assistant, who, in turn, address unspoken love within themselves. The atmosphere and discussions spark chemistry as each person falls in “love in a day.” A new millennium love story, Love In a Day tackles some of the most salient issues affecting relationships, including stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS, classism, homophobia, and racism.
I’m excited about Love In A Day, and it’s spawned some conversations. In Love In A Day, I play the less affluent boyfriend to a successful female attorney; our story line explores this dynamic. Many times what makes a love story “modern,” is it’s spin on traditionalism. It’s the unlikely stories that make for entertainment. And, of course, I cannot address traditionalism without addressing stereotypes. This made me think about myself.
Each of us belongs to groups that have certain stereotypical traits. And many of us are members of subgroups within these groups which have their own stereotypes. Again, this made me think of myself. What elements of me are stereotypical? Which are not?
Sometimes the generalities are funny, like all people from the South say “y’all.” Some are meaningless, as in Black men are all good at basketball. But then some stereotypes truly come from a place of ignorance. I once read that “we open hate in others the things we despise in ourselves.” Moreover, I read “we demonize those things we cannot comprehend.”
Things we don’t know about, most times we can’t talk about. On the converse, those things we buck up over too much usually means we need to work through some of our own issues.
All this to say, you don’t always know what you think you know…especially when it comes to love. The love of your life may be in an unlikely package.
Be open to a nontraditional love story.
JustDream
