Ben Guillory is an Actor, Director, and Producer he is known for movies like The Color Purple (1985) America’s Dream (1996) TV Shows Mr. Foster (1994), The Jeffersons (1983), and many more. But these days Ben has his focus on bigger things. He is the Co-Founder and Producing Artistic of the Robey Theatre along with his Partner Danny Glover. A Heated Discussion-Revisited is a play about living in these turbulent times of political, social, and racial unrest. It is inspired in part by our recent news headline which is basically a wake-up call to the Black community.

“We are in rehearsals for the play A Heated Discussion-Revisited it’s a commission piece like the commission play in 2019 with Levy Lee Simon play write. Levy Lee Simon and The Robey Theatre Company have over 20 years of collaborative experience. In 1999 Lee wrote a trilogy of plays about the Black Haitian slave revolt of 1793 all historical facts. The Haitian slave revolt was the only successful slave revolt white or black that ended up in the Republic. We all know it’s in bad shape today but, back then it was a French colony that had half a million black slaves on it over a 300-year period.”

Many black people are unaware of what happened during this period that led to the freedom of black slaves. The Haitians suffered unimaginable treatment at the hands of their slave masters. Until they decided too not to be quiet any longer. They revolted, by burning plantations and killing their slave owners. They rather die than be slaves.

“We are collaborating on this play because we produce the play for the first-time last year following the pandemic. We re-opened the theater after two years with the world premiere of the play A Heated Discussion. Things went well for several reasons. Our audiences had been clamoring about when we were going to open the theater. A lot of theaters all over the world did not re-open after the pandemic. The play is about three African deities summoning 12 black iconic figures that have

already died. That’s everybody from Doctor King, Malcolm, Maya Angelou, Tupac, James Baldwin, and so on. Summons those iconic figures to talk about and maybe find a solution to what is going on in the planet.”

It’s a fact that hatred and racism are still alive and well. If the truth be told It will be here until the end of time. We will never stop these enemies but, we can slow them down if we pull together.

“What is going on with the planet are the continued executions, murders, and killing of black people by the authorities with impunity. One of the things that started the idea was George Floyd of course he’s not the first and obviously not the last. We wanted to talk about it. So, the play provided a platform to have all these iconic figures, figuratively speaking in the same room talking about this. We are all working towards the same thing fighting the good fight toward justice.”

The play’s half-priced previews start on May 18 and 19 at 8 pm. Opens Saturday, May 20th at 8 pm. Regular show times are Thursday through Saturday at 8 pm. Sunday at 3 pm and Saturday matinee on June 17th at 2 pm. The location is Los Angeles Theatre Center, in the intimate Theatre Four, 514 S. Springs St. in Los Angeles California.