Six playwrights collaborate on `Wild Brown Islands'

LORAIN — Community can grow everywhere — even in shared struggles. That's the message of "Wild Brown Islands," a unique new play opening this weekend at the Mad Factory Theater. Set against the backdrop of a welfare office waiting room, the play weaves together the stories of six women, all there for different reasons. As their stories unfold, the audience learns of their struggles, their circumstances, but also their perseverance and their growth. The play is unusual because it wasn't written by one playwright — it had six. "Wild Brown Islands" was written by the Wild Brown Collective, and produced by the Outside Circle Theater Project. Last year the OCTP, a nonprofit theater company started in 2023 to support storytelling and diversity through live theater for and by women, girls and underrepresented voices, ran a contest looking for submissions of one-person shows on the theme of "wild islands." The contest was inspired by a phrase Charlita Anderson White, executive director of OCTP, read in a book about a little girl who witnessed a lynching, seeing a patch of brown grass and how it reminded her of wild brown islands. "She realized they were in a formative stage, they were going to be redeemed in the spring. In the winter it's all brown and they're isolated but in the spring it's green and lush and watered and tended," she said. "I said to myself I want to do something with that title. "That title looks like it means one thing, but it means another. It means redemption, survival, being alone and isolated, before eventually joining in with the others," she said. "That is what I wanted to elicit with this work. These women were alone and isolated and they come together in this welfare office. They're scared, they don't expect anything to change. Then they find community with each other, it's solidified in this space. A collective." Once the submissions were in and the six winning playwrights were chosen, Anderson White took their works and spent the summer mulling over an idea that clicked into place last fall. "Finally in October it clicks: It is a collaboration of those collective works. They are all represented in that play," she said. "It's a really good story of struggle, hope and survival but mostly about how community comes together." Many of the playwrights also star in the six-person cast as well. "All the writers have put their particular spins on the characters, they're phenomenal and it all just kind of came together," she said. "And because some of the writers are in the play and active in the process we all directed the play together. I call myself the stage manager. I organize the material, and manage the stage but the actors do a great job of helping me. That is why I call them the Wild Brown Island Collective — all the actors, all the writers, it's such a wonderful collaboration of all these voices. "It's what the Outside Circle Theater Project was formed to do." Contact Rini Jeffers at rinijeffers@gmail.com. IF YOU GOWild Brown Islands, a new play written by the Wild Brown Collective, and will be presented by the Outside Circle Theater Project at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday at Mad Factory Theater, 2655 Broadway, Lorain. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Seats are limited and audiences are encouraged to reserve tickets early at MadFactory.org.