By Kirk Lang, Correspondent-at-large, The Inner-City News
The women of the Bible are often not talked about, as they often played second
fiddle to the men of the Holy book. However, thirty-year-old West Haven resident Trenee
McGee is looking to change that.
Her play, Call Forth A Woman, is getting an encore performance at the Shubert
Theater on Saturday, April 26 after a near sellout show last May.
McGee has since been adding characters, adding scenes, fine-tuning dialogue
and getting the best out of her actors in recent rehearsals at Abba’s House International
Fellowship in North Branford, which is run by her parents, both of whom are pastors.
“New Haven needs this,” said McGee in the middle of a rehearsal last month.
She subsequently told Inner City News, “The stories of women can truly impact
anyone’s life. A story written, directed and produced by a New Haven magnet school
graduate is what the city can continue to benefit from. There are so many of us who are
creating, and it is what inspires the younger generations to create.”
She added, “One of the newest scenes in the show is The Wailing Women.
These women were grieved and sent by God to weep over the destruction of their land.
This includes violence, selfish ambition, their land being uprooted and in complete
disarray. Every single time I hear these women cry out, it almost sounds as if they were
the voices of mothers and grandmothers in New Haven. Truly timely.”
McGee, besides working full-time and perfecting her play, is also Connecticut’s
youngest State Representative. She said the play was a year-and-a-half in the making
“but I wrote the full script in about two weeks.” The first time around, “It was a huge leap
of faith and courage,” said McGee. “I didn’t necessarily feel prepared. I just had passion,
passion and pursuit, really more than anything.”
McGee earned a BFA in acting from Marymount Manhattan College, but while
pursuing her degree, she realized she wanted to direct as well.
“And I just knew I would want to produce,” she said, “So I established a
production company and knew that in order to see the art I wanted to see I had to
create it.”
As for the encore performance of Call Forth A Woman, McGee said she feels “a
little more prepared because we’ve done it already.”
She added, “It is a little bit more pressure because it’s more of an expectation.
People know what to expect but we feel very prepared and excited. We sort of know
what to do now. The first time was kind of a whim but now we know what to do, we feel
more prepared to do it. The more experience you get the better you get at it.”
Call Forth A Woman has also brought her mother, Denya McGee, a social
worker, out of acting retirement.
“I was in the last production, so this time, coming back, it’s like I have to dig my
heels in deeper, because I’m learning more about my daughter [in the play], Naomi,
than I did before. It’s been a journey, almost like starting over again.”
Denya McGee added, “Part of our scene is having that chemistry, so it takes
bonding with one another, spending time with one another outside of here [the rehearsal
space]. In the play, she’s my daughter and I’m her mom, and so there’s a connection
and a chemistry that we need to be able to have on stage to make it believable, so we
spend time with each other in that way.”
Victoria Gordon, who is in the scene of Ruth and Naomi, also announces Ruth
and Boaz, and celebrates their union, said, “We’re like a family.” Gordon, playwright
herself, loves directing and writing and getting points across, and Call Forth A Woman is
in her wheelhouse.
“A lot of my plays were Biblical plays, but a lot of them relate to things going on in
the world today,” she said.
The youngest actor in Call Forth A Woman is 11-year-old Jeremiah Brabhaam,
who portrays Jehoash, who was the eight king of Judah, and the sole surviving son of
Ahaziah, after the massacre of the royal family, ordered by his grandmother, Athaliah.
Later in his reign as king, he led the men of the Kingdom of Israel in the defeat of King
Amaziah of Judah.
Brabhaam has been in three plays so far, all under Trenee McGee productions.
“Acting is very fun,” he said. “What I like most about this play is the religious
aspect, because I’m Christian, and it’s truly an honor to be in the play. It’s resembling
God and we’re resembling the characters that were in the Bible of Christ and for me,
this is really a big deal.”
McGee graduated from downtown New Haven’s Cooperative Arts and
Humanities High School in 2012. She’s proud of how far she’s come and what she’s
doing because as she noted, there’s no other play like Call Forth A Woman.
“There really isn’t any story on stage about women in the Bible. It takes you on a
journey of the powerfully dynamic women of the Bible, often forgotten but notably
heroic.”” said McGee.” “Women like midwife Shaiphrah, who stood against Pharaoh for
future generations to come, and Queen Esther, whose bravery and humility claimed the
highest seat in Persia as she fought against the destruction of her Jewish heritage.”
McGee added there were also figures such as, “Battle heroine Jael, whose
hands rendered the defeat of Sisera’s army with Deborah’s sharp battle strategy, and
Biblical scholar Huldah, whose academic excellency educated and prepared young
prophets to enlighten and lead. These women reflected the life and times of women who
are called by God into different stratospheres today.”
The encore performance is scheduled for April 26 at 7 p.m. To purchase tickets,
log onto www.shubert.com There are two acts separated by a 20-minute intermission.
“We have this idea that women did not exist in these times, and that they weren’t effective,” said McGee. “But this woman right here [at rehearsal] is portraying Huldah ,
who was a professor, in 60 B.C., so it [the idea for the play] mainly came from a desire
to really show people that women were really powerful and effective in Biblical
times.”
McGee said after the encore, the next goal “is to take it around the country and
hopefully get it to Broadway.”
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