This showbiz veteran listened to her mom’s audition advice: Wear fake eyelashes

When it came to auditioning for a role, Jodi Long’s mother, a showbiz pro, always gave her the same advice: Wear false eyelashes. “I said, `Mom, nobody wears false eyelashes anymore except Carol Channing,’ ” Long said with a laugh.

Lessons from our parents. Lessons to our children — it’s all wrapped up at the Bucks County Playhouse in American Jade, written by and starring film and theater actor Long. In 2021, Long became the first Asian American actor to win a Daytime Emmy Award, for a supporting role as Mrs. Basil E. in the Netflix series Dash & Lily.

American Jade “is about imprints,” Long explained. “It’s about the emotional imprints we get from our parents, and our surrounding environs, and the imprints we get from society, whether you are a woman or a man or a person of color.”

True for everyone, but what makes American Jade unique is the specific set of imprints. Long’s parents were both in vaudeville — her parents met backstage. She was a showgirl; he was a tap dancer. Popular on the New York’s Chinatown nightclub circuit, they landed an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show as the singing, dancing, and comedy act, Larry and Trudie Leung. Long made a documentary about her parents — Long Story Short, released last year.

At the age of 7 and wanting a part in Sidney Lumet’s 1962 Broadway show, Nowhere to Go But Up, Long followed her mother’s advice — false eyelashes, and chopsticks securing a bun in her hair, a stereotypical hairstyle for female Asian actors at the time, Long said. She got the part.

Her father, she said, had performed in the Broadway hit Flower Drum Song. Decades later, she landed a role in Flower Drum Song’s 2002 revival on Broadway.

“I came full circle,” she said. “I was determined to get that part. Flower Drum Song is set in a nightclub — the same kind of nightclub my parents performed in. I grew up backstage. I saw that through the lens of a child as I was growing up. That’s why it was important for me to get Flower Drum Song. I grew up in it and I understood it.”

Vaudeville, Long explains, was killed off by television, and the children of vaudevillians are growing older. Even so, she said, they recognize each other in how they approach their work.

But American Jade isn’t just about theater, Long said. It’s also about the immigrant experience — particularly in the Depression when jobs were scarce and when people with talent, like her parents, turned to the stage to feed their families.

For Asian actors, Long said, sometimes the only possible roles were stereotypical ones — the ones you had to audition for with chopsticks in your hair.

“There was a certain amount of characters that you play, and you play them over and over until you outgrow them, or you die,” she said. Knowing that, her father urged to skip showbiz in favor of being a newscaster. Ironically, Long frequently landed roles as a newscaster. “I can’t believe how many newscasters I played,” she said.

“I think things are changing, and that’s a good thing,” she said. “There are so many more opportunities for this newer generation.”

May 20-June 11, Bucks County Playhouse, 70 S. Main St., New Hope, 215-862-2121 or bcptheater.org

Activist Bayard Rustin, a believer in nonviolent struggles against racism, went to jail about 20 times for his beliefs. In 1947, Rustin spent time in jail for helping to organize the first Freedom Rides. As an adviser to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rustin influenced King’s strongly held beliefs in nonviolence.

Where did Rustin get those beliefs? Right here. He was raised in West Chester by his grandparents — his grandfather was a prosperous caterer and a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His grandmother was a Quaker and a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Rustin was later trained in activism by the American Friends Service Committee. Despite his many contributions, he was persecuted and ostracized for being gay. In 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded him the Medal of Freedom.

All this forms the backdrop for Bayard Rustin Inside Ashland, which will have its world premiere at People’s Light in Malvern. People’s developed it through its New Play Frontiers residency and commission program.

“I am thrilled to be developing and premiering Bayard Rustin Inside Ashland at People’s Light, so near to where Rustin grew up and was educated,” playwright and director Steve H. Broadnax 3d said in a statement.

“Giving homage to an iconic gay man of color who paved the way for civil rights is invaluable and exciting. I look forward to sharing this story at People’s Light as part of our exploring the breadth and vitality of Pennsylvania’s rich cultural heritage,” he said.

Rustin also had a talent for singing — enough to win him musical scholarships to colleges and enough for it to be an important part of Broadnax’s work. Bayard Rustin Inside Ashland is rich in music with composer and lyricist Jason Michael Webb, who worked on Broadway productions of The Color Purple and Choir Boy, serving as music director for the People’s Light production. Reggie D. White plays Rustin.

Broadnax’s play is not all we are going to hear about the activist from West Chester. Higher Ground Productions, founded by Barack and Michelle Obama, is in the process of producing a film, Rustin, for Netflix. Colman Domingo will play the lead. In another connection, Domingo’s play Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole, cowritten with Patricia McGregor, came through People’s New Plays Frontiers program and had its world premiere at People’s Light during its 2017-2018 season.

June 12, People’s Light, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, 610-644-3500 or peopleslight.org

Remembrance, a multidisciplinary, multiyear memorial to those who died in the HIV/AIDS crisis in Philadelphia, will come to an end next month. Among the last events is a world premiere of These Don’t Easily Scatter, an original theater piece written and directed by three-time Obie Award-winning playwright Ain Gordon and presented by his theater company, Pick Up Performance Company. The play is based on interviews and community listening sessions conducted here through the Remembrance project from January 2020 to December 2021. Commissioned by Philadelphia’s William Way LGBT Community Center, Gordon’s play amalgamates these interviews about the early years of the Philly AIDS crisis into stories told by three actors.

May 20-22, William Way LGBT Community Center, 1315 Spruce St., Philadelphia, 215-732-2220. Tickets on sale via an Eventbrite link on waygay.org/remembrance.

Theatre Horizon’s Athena, about two 17-year-old sparring partners in the National Fencing Championships, takes a pointed look at friendship, ferocity, and competition. Athena (played by Kira Player) and Mary Wallace (Campbell O’Hare) are both friends and competitors who spend their lives together as they prepare for national matches.

The back-and-forth is epic — not just swordplay, but quick-witted parlays as well. Athena had originally been set for Theatre Horizon’s 2019-2020 season, but the pandemic had other plans.

Written by Gracie Gardner and directed by Kathryn MacMillan. J. Alex Cordaro directs the fights and Satchell Williams, as Jamie, rounds out the cast.

May 19-June 5, Theatre Horizon, 401 DeKalb St. Norristown, 610-283-2230 or theatrehorizon.org

On Oct. 2, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts 4th walked into a one-room schoolhouse in the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, and shot 10 girls, killing five before killing himself. The Amish community’s willingness to forgive Roberts and reach out to his family captured the attention of the nation.

That’s the factual backdrop for Boundless, a musical by Mary Fishburne, with its world premiere performed by Music Theatre Philly students from grades 5 through 12. Set 10 years after the tragedy, Boundless is a heartfelt but entirely fictional account. In Boundless, the sister of one of the girls who was shot begins a relationship with the daughter of the killer. Their friendship surprises them both.

“The story takes place ten years after this event, as the survivors still navigate forgiveness, joy, and forward movement,” Fishburne, a Philadelphia-based actor and playwright, said in a statement. “The power of this theme is most strongly told by young voices.”

May 21, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. The Arts Bank, 601 S. Broad St., Philadelphia

Many of us learned hard lessons about loneliness over the pandemic. The Loneliness Project by Lauren Earline Leonard, founder of Earlie Bird Productions, explores some of those lessons in a series of abstract vignettes by actors, dancers, movers, and vocalists. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund.

May 19-21, Philly PACK, 233 Federal St., Philadelphia, earliebirdproductions.com

It figures that comedian Steve Martin would set his off-Broadway play in a French nightclub with a name that translates to “Intelligent Rabbit.” The Lapin Agile still exists in Paris as it did in 1904. That’s when Martin invited his characters, artist Pablo Picasso and scientist Albert Einstein, to converse in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, presented by Fever Dream Repertory Inc. Picasso painted the interior of the club in 1905, titling it Au Lapin Agile.

Through May 28 by Fever Dream Repertory at Skinner Studio at Plays & Players, 1714 Delancey Place, Philadelphia. Feverdreamrep.com

Because COVID-19 mask and vaccination rules are changing so rapidly and vary significantly by location, please check your theater venue for protocols close to the performance date.