Smart People (2021)
Written by Lydia R. Diamond
Rutgers Theatre Company

As Barack Obama runs for the office of President, Harvard Professor and Researcher Brian White is on the cusp of proving racism as biological fact. Brian navigates the complications of his study alongside three Cantabs of color. Smart People asks the question “What’s the price of being the smartest person in the room?”

Cast:
Jamal Guye (Jackson Moore), Matthew Hekking (Brian White), Karma Price (Valerie Johnston), Eileen Xue (Ginny Yang)

Design Team:
Zoe Selesnick (Costume), Ashley M. Frye (Lighting), Izzy Mingino (Scenic), Andrew Rovner (Sound/Composition), Will Elphingstone (Projections)

Director’s Note:
As brain cells communicate they produce waves of electricity. An electroencephalogram (EEG for short) machine measures that electrical activity. The design in the production was inspired by the EEG Machine that is central to Brian’s study of racism. We thought of the play as a brain and each scene as an electrical impulse denoting a change in the brain. Our back wall was EEG paper. Capturing those changes was a 5 x 5 grid of bare bulbs meant to represent the electrode nodes attached to a subject. The grid also served the purpose of outlining the location of each scene.