Behind The Salt: WE BACK.
Y’all, I’m finally ready to talk about this experience in writing my new play Salt in the Sugar. IT GOT BUSY!!! BUSY BUSY BUSY okay. Whew. I’m still reocovering. As a new “ima be outside” girly my social battery can only handle so much before I need a 30 day recharge.
Now, where did we stop.
OH YEAH - Casting…Check that out here -
A Black Playwright’s Guide to a Stage Reading
So picture this: a room full of actors, scripts in hand, and me—lowkey/high key SHY but smiling through it. This was the staged reading of my play Salt in the Sugar.
If you don’t know, this story means a lot to me. It’s about legacy, family, and the unspoken things we pass down through generations. So handing it over to a group of artists and saying, “Okay, now bring this to life,” felt like handing over a piece of my soul.
Rehearsals were equal parts thrilling and terrifying. I’d be in the corner scribbling notes like, “Did that line land?” or “Why did I write a monologue this long?” But then, something amazing happened the actors started finding the rhythm of the play.
The Process Wasn’t Easy
From switching actors midway through the show.
From doing rewrites.
From having high emotions but trying to stay calm.
From running on no sleep.
And from those late nights just praying, “God, help me steward this well.”
This show didn’t come without its obstacles. But somehow, it all made sense in the end.
Because in the middle of all that chaos, something divine happened — the team found the humor, the heart, the tiny moments that even I forgot were there.
That’s when it hit me: this story doesn’t just belong to me anymore. It belongs to everyone who touched it. Everyone who felt it.
Learning to Let Go
The “letting go and letting God handle the rest” part? Whew. That was hard.
As a playwright, you have to trust that once you hand your script over, the directors and actors will see your work through their lens. And that’s no small thing. There will be MANY questions — the how, why, when, cut, define, review moments that make you want to grab your script and say, “Wait, let me explain!”
In the midst of all that, my quiet prayer became, “I trust You, Lord.” But I won’t lie — that trust had my faith in shambles some days. I had to remind myself that if I truly believed this story was given to me for a reason, then I also had to believe that God would carry it the rest of the way.
And He did.
But that’s for tomorrows…read.
BUT. I won’t leave you hanging just yet. Here’s a peek of the cast.
