‘Bright Half Life’ @ Teatro Dallas (New Directors Festival)

Photos courtesy of Teatro Dallas

—Teresa Marrero

On February 21 and 22, Teatro Dallas presented Bright Half Life, the second of three plays of “Nuevo Mundo,” a New Directors Festival, performed in the intimate Black Box space of the Latino Cultural Center.

This play blew me away.

First the script. Written by Tanya Barfield, it premiered Off-Broadway in 2015 with the Women´s Theatre Project. It is an ambitious play that switches emotional registers and timelines without beats or interruptions, thus requiring tremendous emotional agility on the part of the actors. And Carrisa Jade Olsen as Erika and Zariyah Perry as Vicky deliver. Without a doubt, the two performers onstage—under the direction of Lauren Secrest and mentored by Sasha Maya Ada—created a most memorable and haunting experience.

The play compresses four decades of a love relationship between Erica (a soft White butch lesbian, according to the script) and Vicky, who can be played by an African-American, Latina, or Asian actor (again, according to the script). With little or no set to limit the transitions between moments, the minimalist approach of blocking the space with large, grey structures lent itself to becoming a bed, an elevator, and an airplane from which to parachute. Sometimes those transitions occurred one after the other with no evident changes, except for those provided by the emotional and vocal timbre of the actors, and some shifting effects in the lighting (by designer Dean Coburn). There were no projections or sound effects, and very little music, in keeping with the script´s stage directions.

With the virtuosity of Barfield´s writing as its foundation, the play is an actor's dream. It entirely depends upon the two women who carry the 90-minute piece along, with never a dull or predictable moment. And for this alone, I can unequivocally say Bright Half Life was an outstanding piece of theater.

Olsen´s Erika—lanky, dressed in a masculine-style suit, with short hair and no make-up—won my heart with her bright-eyed optimism and love of Vicky. When she loses herself (after several sacrifices she chooses to make in order to stay in the same city as Vicky), her vulnerability breaks our hearts. I found a charismatic quality in this actor´s stage persona. She wasn´t “acting.” She was being.

Perry´s Vicky, a successful and practical African American business woman, matched Olsen´s intensity. While Erika identifies herself as gay from the beginning, Vicky falls in love with Erica, the person. Vicky does not label herself as lesbian. The story carries us along as new discoveries and conflicts move Vicky toward recognition of her sexual identity. The discussion they have on challenges faced by gay women and women of color hits the mark. While Erica claims discrimination for her gayness, Vicky comes back with a triple header: she is Black first, then a woman, then in a lesbian relationship.

This play takes us on a roller coaster ride of emotions and topics, from family-related issues (Vicky´s Black parents do not accept Erica) to Vicky and Erica´s dynamic, which seems to revolve around their careers and the choices each makes to ensure the relationship works. When Erica finally declares that she no longer knows who she is—after years of sacrificing her dream of becoming a university literature professor (rather than a boring textbook writer)—we know this relationship is broken, despite their love for one another.

The full depth and extent of their relationship includes bringing up Vicky´s two biological daughters, and ends with the tragic announcement of an illness.

The beautiful thing about this woman-centered love story is that the conflicts ring true, and their love is evident beyond the breakup. They are there for each other in the end.

Whether this love story is “major and not minor” (i.e. enduring or fleeting) is up to the audience to decide. Sometimes a major relationship morphs into something else, which is not entirely minor.

Hats off to Teatro Dallas for diversifying the stories they bring us, and to artistic producer Mac Welch for re-envisioning and organizing the New Directors Festival.

Teresa Marrero is a Professor of Latin American and Latiné theater and cultures in the Spanish Department at the University of North Texas.
WHEN: February 21-22, 2025
WHERE: Latino Cultural Center, Dallas
WEB: teatrodallas.org