Playwright Katori Hall on August Wilson, Her Grandmother’s Quilts, and Her Rousing New Lincoln Center Theater Play

It’s interesting that you bring up the state of American theater post-COVID. In an interview with American Theatre magazine, during the early days of the pandemic, you said: “I fear the theatres that will be left standing are the ones who have not taken an interest in our community and in writers that are diverse because, for the longest time, they have chased the dollar instead of building community.”

I think people had an awakening. You can’t live through what we saw during COVID—the protests, George Floyd—and not be impacted. Some people may try to keep their heads in the sand, but I do believe I have seen some forward movement when it comes to being more inclusive in the theater space. We’re seeing changes, like new artistic directors being appointed—it’s even happening at places like Lincoln Center; now there will be a woman at the helm. Of course, it’s never as much change as we would want, but it does feel like progress is happening. I’m very happy to see that playwrights of color continue to get produced in our “post-pandemic” world. There are communities that are still dealing with the pandemic, whether it is the virus or the fact that racism is a virus. We’re witnessing the rise of the extreme right before our very eyes.

What is it like working with director Lileana Blain-Cruz on Blood Quilt?

Right before the pandemic, I had emailed Lileana and said, “Hey, I want to meet with you.” People had been telling me that we felt like kinfolk in terms of our aesthetics. So we ended up having a coffee and we connected. I had seen so much of her work and really loved what she was doing. I appreciate the diversity of her theatrical approach—she can do naturalistic plays, she can do something that’s more surreal, she can do things in a black box, she can do things in a proscenium. She’s just really dope as an artist and a great human being.

During the strikes last summer, I came up to Lincoln Center and we did a reading together. I really loved her curiosity. She’s an elevated artist—very precise, great with actors—and she’s really the whole package. She’s the resident director at Lincoln Center Theater, and it was like one of those things where we had been kind of dating for a while, and then finally, we were like, “Okay, let’s do it.” Because I was so busy with P-Valley, I really wasn’t a part of the rehearsal process, but I’m so grateful we had an artist-to-artist connection. And because we did that reading together, she really knew what I was interested in and how I wanted things to be seen. She is such a grown-up—she can take the baby and not drop it. The production is truly stunning. I got a chance to go up during previews, and there were some notes I shared with her, in terms of rhythm. Her blocking is brilliant. She more than took care of the baby. The baby is now in college.