You can watch the video above or read the transcript below. Please note: I used AI to add punctuation and remove filler words to the YouTube-generated transcript, but all views and ideas are my own.

Opening

I don’t want to get to the end of my life and be like, “What did it all mean?” I want to know in the here and now, “What am I doing? What am I trying to do?”

Introduction

Hey, Black Stars. Today, I am reviewing Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance, which was written by and stars Dael Orlandersmith.

Dedication

So today’s episode is in honor of and dedicated to Duke Ellington. We’re going to pour some water for the Duke and leave that right here for him. Let’s talk about Duke Ellington for a second.

He was born Edward Kennedy Ellington in East Harlem. He’s known for all the music he made. There’s a quote from him that was actually used in the show towards the beginning, and it says, “Music is how I live, why I live, and how I will be remembered.” He said that when he was alive, and he was right. He ended up [having] one of the largest bodies of work of any jazz musician.

He has a statue at the northeast corner of Central Park on the Harlem side—East 110th Street. The statue shows him with a piano. What could be more musical than having a bronze instrument as part of your statue?

He also won a Pulitzer Prize in music. They didn’t give it to him until after he died, but I think about how Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize for his DAMN. album in 2018, following in Duke Ellington’s footsteps. Imagine Duke Ellington and Kendrick Lamar—there are musical similarities, but I can’t delineate them right now.

The point is, we want to give it up to Duke for his contributions to music, culture, excellence, and the way he inspired parts of the show I’m reviewing today. Thank you, Duke.

Context

So how did I hear about this show? For those of you who live in New York, I think you’ll understand this. For those out of town, let me explain. I’ll be on the bus or subway, and I’ll see a sign for things like “Restaurant Week” or “Hotel Week.” For the most part, I just tune that stuff out. I did Restaurant Week when I first moved here and spent too much money on restaurants that weren’t all that. It’s not that I didn’t like the restaurants—I won’t go so far as to say they were bad—but when you do the Restaurant Week menu, they don’t give you the things that made them popular in the first place. Some places I’ve gone back to, but some I haven’t.

Recently, I saw a sign for New York City Off-Broadway Week—two-for-one tickets. Now, I spend a lot of money on tickets because I go to a lot of shows. So, when I see a sale, I think, “Okay, I’ll check it out.”

I got on my phone and started scrolling through the shows, trying to see if there was anything by or for Black people, anything I wanted to see. But I couldn’t get a good sense of it on my phone. I figured I’d go home, get on my computer, and do a deeper dive.

I want to tell you that I really did try. I went through all the Off-Broadway shows listed for Off-Broadway Week and Googled the names of the people who were starring, writing, or directing the shows. There wasn’t a lot of representation for the Black community. But because I know how it works, I knew that wasn’t the full picture. Those were just the highlighted shows.

So, I went to TodayTix, scrolled past the Broadway shows, and lo and behold, I found some Off-Broadway shows with Black casts, written by Black people. They weren’t part of the two-for-one special, but that’s fine because the tickets were still under $50, which is much appreciated.

When you’re looking for something to see and can’t find it, don’t be discouraged. Keep looking. It’s out there. If I had just trusted what Off-Broadway Week said, I would’ve thought, “Oh, I guess Black people don’t do Off-Broadway.” Obviously, that’s not true, and that’s why I’m here trying to tell you about it.

The show is at the Rattlestick Theater, not Rattlesnake, Rattlestick. It’s in the West Village. You can take the train to 14th Street, and boom, you’re right there.

I recently learned that the distinction between “Off-Broadway” and “Off-Off-Broadway” isn’t about location but about the size of the theater. There’s some conflicting information about how many seats are in the Rattlestick Theater, but it’s definitely less than 99—either 99 or 79. If you have fewer than 100 seats, you’re considered “Off-Off-Broadway.”

So this theater, with fewer than 100 seats, is indeed Off-Off-Broadway. The Rattlestick Theater is so small that the bathrooms are on the stage. They say there’s no late seating, but the show might not start on time because they need to give people time to use the restroom. Once the show starts, no one can leave, because that would make it an immersive experience. It’s a fun fact about the Rattlestick Theater.

After I found the show, I learned that it’s well-reviewed. It’s toured some theaters, mostly in the Northeast. It premiered at a theater festival in 2023. What intrigued me when I found it was that it was written by and starred the playwright, Dael Orlandersmith. This is a one-person show, and I’m very curious about one-person shows. This was probably my first one, and I’ve been hesitant in the past. I wondered, “You’re just going to stand there and talk for an hour? What are you going to do, switch costumes? Are you going to be like Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor—going backstage, coming out as different characters?” I had my doubts, but I figured, why not give it a try?

Another question I had was: when you’re a playwright and write a one-person show, what makes you decide that you, the playwright, should star in it rather than casting an actor? Dael Orlandersmith did an amazing job performing in the show she wrote. If I could sit down with her, one of my first questions would be, “When you were writing the show, did you know you wanted to star in it?” I think that would be a juicy question. I’m sure she’d have some interesting things to say.

Let’s talk about Dael for a second because she’s really that girl. She’s won an Obie Award, which is the Tony Award for Off-Broadway shows. If you’re unfamiliar, the Grammys are for music, the Tonys are for Broadway, and the Obies are for Off-Broadway. Think of it as the smaller theater equivalent of the Tony.

Dael also was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. I had to mention that because we’re out here taking home these Pulitzer Prizes. Kendrick Lamar did it in 2018 for DAMN, and Dael is right there, too, on the short list. So how did I hear about the show? I did my deep research. No one made it easy for me, but I’m so pleased I was able to find it. Sometimes you just have to get on your Googles. When you know what you’re looking for, you’ve got to get on your Googles.

My Thoughts

What did I think about this show, right? Like, what are my thoughts? Uh, first, I just want to talk about the title for a second. So, Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance. I did not know what this meant when I decided to go to the show. But I’m adventurous. I’m a Sagittarius, so I just like to take chances and see what’s going to happen. Like, you don’t have to prep me. I’m gonna find out. I like to watch things unfold.

But, um, Spiritus, and I had been mispronouncing it – I was like SpirTOOs because I thought it sounded fancier – but it’s Latin for “breath.” And Virgil’s Dance is a reference to Virgil, who is a character in a work by Dante. But we’ll get to that in a second. That’s less important.

What I like about art is the way it digs into what you’re already experiencing. For those of you who go to church, sometimes you go to church, and the pastor will be giving a sermon, and they’ll say something that really connects to what you were thinking about, right? They’re like, “You need to get right. If there’s anybody you need to apologize to, go ahead and do it now.” But you were already thinking about the fact that you had a falling out with your best friend, right?

I feel similar about horoscopes. Like, sometimes I’m like, “I feel like I’m really on the brink of something. I feel like I’m about to launch this, or I’m about to birth this,” and then I’ll read my horoscope, and it will say something exciting is coming, and I’ll be like, “Wow, that horoscope is so on point.” So, I think everything can affirm what you’re already thinking and feeling. It gives you an opportunity to go deeper into that.

And what this show brought up for me was the fact that, like, I’m in a period where I’m thinking about life – not necessarily my life, but just thinking about life. Like, how I spend my time, how I used to spend my time, how I want to spend my time, how I’m working towards becoming the person that I want to be, right?

And I have to remind myself, because I can be a perfectionist, I have to remind myself often that there’s no bad choice and there is no good choice. There is just choice, and then another choice, and another choice, and another choice, right? Like, you can get so paralyzed by indecision, or worse, you can allow other people to choose for you, and then you’ll look back and be like, “I made a bad choice.” No, you didn’t. You made a choice, and now you get to make a different choice, or you can double down on the choice that you made. But, like, every day you get to make a choice. Some things you don’t get to choose, but I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the stuff that you can choose, right?

So, while I was waiting for the show to start, while everybody was using the bathroom, I was reading the pre-show guide, which was helpful and posted on the website. And there was a quote that I love, love, love. This is my show notebook. This is what I take with me. I wrote it down: “When you’re young, you’re anxious about whether you will become something, but then at some point you will have become, and then you will have to decide if what you have become suits you.”

And I think about that in the context of good and bad choice, right? Like, you will be what you are, and if you like that, you can keep being that. And if you don’t like that, you don’t have to be that anymore. And I just find that so freeing. That, like, just ‘cause you went to college for something, you don’t have to do that. Just ‘cause you work somewhere doesn’t mean you have to stay in that career field, right? Just ‘cause your hair is a certain way doesn’t mean you can’t change it. You can cut it. You can grow it. You can get some extensions while you wait, right? Like, you can change the color of it. You have so many choices. If you want your body to change, right? Again, so many choices.

But I think about, um, like, for me, COVID and the pandemic gave me an opportunity to think about the preciousness of life, right? Like, people were dying. People are still dying from coronavirus. Like, your time could be today, could be tomorrow, could be right now. And, like, will you feel like you spent it in a good way?

And there was another moment in the show where they talked about how, like, I’ve become that person at the family reunion. He was like, “I remember when you were a baby. Wow, you’re so tall!” And like, I remember when they used to do that to me, and I hated it. Like, “Yes, I know you knew me when I was a baby, ’cause you’re older than me. Like, that’s how it works. You were around when I showed up. I’m still around. You are still around. Yes, you’ve seen me grow.”

But then when I saw one of my little cousins grow up, I was like, “Wow!” And the show talks about how we look at young people, and it reminds us that time is passing. ‘Cause once you hit a certain age, the stuff about you doesn’t change that much. Right? I’m not losing no teeth, thank God. Like, I’m not getting taller. I’m not getting shorter. I just am. And so, year to year, month to month, you might not feel like anything’s changing. And then you see somebody who was little get big, and you realize eight years really have passed, right? Which is sacred, which is beautiful about life. But it can also be scary if you feel like, “Wow, eight years have passed, they grew three feet, and I’m still doing the same thing I was doing when they were this big.”

And I think, like, in terms of the Black canon, I connect the themes in the show about life and living, like being fully alive in the moment, to Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Really, the whole, like, trio of books that she wrote, like Temple of My Familiar, along with The Color Purple. But I think about Celie and Mister and the way they are reborn in the show. In the movie and the book and the play, they have done this piece so many times. But Celie, when she makes the pants shop, when she decides—well, when she gets free and she inherits from her family a shop, she decides, “I’m going to make pants.” Right? And she’s literally wearing the pants. It’s symbolic. It’s a powerful moment.

But she is reborn as an entrepreneur, as a woman who’s in charge of her own life, as a single woman doing her thing. Don’t need no man, right? And even Mister is reborn because, after she curses him, he’s like, “I’ve got to get right. I’ve got to do good, right? I have to do the right thing. I have to do the things that I could sleep with that night, so I’m not waking up in fields, burnt-out, empty fields, fruitless fields, with my face in the mud.”

Right? So, I think about this show as connected to that because Celie and Mister were not young when they decided to take these detours in their lives. So there’s never an age where you’re like, “Damn, I’m 60. I’m just locked in to what it is.” No, you don’t have to be. You don’t have to be if you don’t want to be.

So, I think this show is a beautiful exploration of life and the choices you get to make at every stage of life.

Summary

So, I’m going to give you all a quick rundown of the Dante work that is connected to this piece, and I don’t want y’all to at me because I just did a cursory glance at the work, so please—if you have questions about this show, Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance, I can answer those, but if you have questions about Divine Comedy, I suggest you visit your local library, find a YouTuber who is reviewing Italian classic literature, or call your English teacher because I’m not her or him or them—I’m me, and here’s what I have to say.

So, Virgil is the main character and the narrator of the show Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance. But Virgil is also a key character in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Now, Dante… I just want to talk about the fact that Dante has two names, but we only ever call him Dante. And I just want to get to that point in my life where, when people say “Anastazia” y’all know who it is, right? They don’t have to be like, “Oh, which one?” You know which one. And we’ll get there, but you know, we’re taking baby steps.

So, Dante wrote this piece called Divine Comedy, which is classic literature, highly esteemed. A lot of people have read it—they read it in school because they had to, not because they wanted to—but it’s an important piece of literature. Now, did I read it in high school? I did not. And that is because, after they had me read Beowulf, I said, “No more. I’m not reading. I’m not reading any more of this.” They had me read Beowulf, and they had me read The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter, I was into. I said, “Ooh, sexuality, putting women down—let’s talk about it. Let’s get into it. Misogynoir, right? She was white, but same idea—shaming. Not here for it.” But Beowulf, I said, “I can’t get into this. I don’t like it.”

And I had a little bit of a mini protest. I said, “I’m not reading any of this.” So, nobody ever asked me to read Divine Comedy, and it’s okay because, thanks to the powers of the internet, I could find out what it’s about. So, I did a quick SparkNotes, and what’s interesting about Divine Comedy is it’s described as a soul’s journey toward God. And I just want to say, I think that’s a beautiful idea, right? Like, we come here from the universe, and we go on our journey toward a higher power, perfection, the embrace of the celestial… whatever you believe.

So, a soul’s journey toward God is actually split into three parts. The first is the recognition and rejection of sin. So, that’s that moment where you’re like, “I shouldn’t be doing this. I’ve got to stop doing this.” And then you actually make the choice, like, “I don’t do that anymore. Don’t call me. Don’t ask me to do that. That’s old me. New me—sin-free.” The next section is a penitent Christian life, and this play is steeped in Christianity. But to give you an allegory, it’s the idea of, like, “Now, right now, I am—I’m devout. I’m a new gal.” Then, the third one is the soul’s ascent toward God. So, you go from, “No, I’m not sinning anymore” to, “I am a godly being” to, “I’m going up. I’m going up, y’all. I’m going up to the top.”

And so, in the book Divine Comedy, Dante is taking this soul’s journey. His soul is taking this journey, and his guide through the first two parts is Virgil, a character named Virgil. So, Virgil takes him through Inferno (that’s the recognition and rejection of sin) and into Purgatorio (which is Purgatory—that’s the Christian life). Then, he passes him off to someone else. But the show combines these themes in the sense that it’s still about a soul’s journey toward God.

And I really want to give it up to Ms. Orlandersmith because her ability to take on multiple characters in this one-person show was really impressive. Because on this journey, there are other people that Virgil meets, right? So, Dael plays a mother, she plays a father, she plays a nurse, she plays a mortician—masterfully. It was unclear to me the entire time what Virgil’s gender and race were. So, there’s a Black woman playing this part, but it’s unclear whether or not Virgil the character is Black or a woman or white or a man. Maybe it was just unclear to me, but maybe it was intentionally left unclear. Another question I have for Ms. Orlandersmith. But the time period was clear. It starts in the late ’70s, early ’80s.

But in this exploration of these themes from Divine Comedy, it’s like, “Am I living a life that I love? Did I do it right?” There’s a lot of discussion about people who are dead before they’re even in the grave. Like, they’re dead, and they’re not even in the grave. One of my favorite parts of the show was when she talks about—well, Virgil, he talks… Virgil talks about the light you have in your eyes when you’re in your 20s. And I think many of us can relate to this, right? Like, I think about my college graduation. We were going to go out; we were going to change the world. My commencement speaker was Cory Booker. At the time, you know, he wasn’t who he is now. He was the mayor of Newark then, so he was, like, on his way up, right? He was hopeful. He talked about how his parents worked at IBM, and he was headed, you know, he was going to be a public servant in the same way that his parents were pillars of the community. And I said, “Wow, me too!” I got out into the real world and like, y’all, I am not complaining. My life is good.

But I got out into the real world, and some things changed for me. My priorities shifted around. I felt like I couldn’t afford—and this is spiritually as well as financially—afford to give all I had to the community. And I realized that I grew up thinking that to get a street named after you, you had to be an activist. Right? I’m good on any MLK Boulevard, but being in New York, which is Money Town USA, riding the bus and seeing the names that are on buildings… You don’t get your name on a building by being an activist. You get your name on a building with bricks of cash.

So, I think when you’re first, you know, you want to make a difference, right? You’re like, “I can make a difference by being a good person,” and the world tells you, “No, you want to make a difference? You better get some money.” And what do you do? You get a job. Right?

So then the show fast-forwards to 33. Like, 20s were very vague. And then we jumped specifically to 33. Now, I’m not 33 yet, so I can’t speak to 33. But at 33, Virgil is realizing that all the things they said about old people when they were in their 20s—like, “Oh, they’re so boring. They’ve given up on life. That’ll never be me.” It’s Virgil. Virgil realizes, “I am the people I did not want to become.” And then we fast forward to 40, and Virgil is fully the people they never wanted to become and hating themselves for it, knowing like, “I need something.” And I’m not 40, right? I’m not even 33, but I’ve been there. I’ve been in those moments, waking up to go to work, brushing my teeth with my eyes still closed, like, “Why am I doing this? I don’t want to do this.” Right? So, I thought that was very relatable.

And Virgil decides, “I’m going to get a bigger apartment. I’m going to get some money. That will make me happy.” It doesn’t. It doesn’t. I can tell you, tried it. Didn’t work. Didn’t solve the problem. Virgil comes to a realization that what they really want to do is share beauty and love with the world, and Virgil’s job is to figure out how to do that. Right? What is Virgil’s way of sharing beauty? What is Virgil’s way of sharing love?

And I think that moment of awakening—that is the show, right? That is the lesson. The closing lines… because in the context of a soul’s journey toward God, that moment when you realize, “I want to share beauty and love,” I think that is the point at which you’re in that third stage of the soul’s ascent. Because now, I’m not focusing on sin, and I’m not focusing on following all the rules. I’m focusing on my higher calling. I’m focusing on sharing beauty and love. And the last lines in the show were: “I hope we all ascend to meet God and be embraced by the stars.”

I don’t have much to say that hasn’t been said in those lines. I mean, I hope we do, too.

Review

All right, all right, it’s time for my review. I’ve said all of this, and it’s time to close the folder on Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance.

First things first: the show is in previews until February 14th, so if you see it while it’s in previews over these next few days, you can save $10 off the regular ticket price. But the regular ticket price is still under $50, which again, I don’t think you could beat in New York City. The show is up until March 9th, so you have until March 9th to see it. And I hope you all are grateful that I’m doing this review early and not the day before the show closes, so you actually have a chance to see it if it sounds like it appeals to you.

So, who would I take to the show? I’m so glad you asked. I would take—I’m going to get somber for a second, but don’t worry, I’ll bring it back around—I would take people who are dying. Like, anybody who has a terminal illness and is afraid of death, I would take them to the show. And I would love to have a conversation with them about how did this feel for you? I think death is scary for all of us. The closer you get to it, the more scary it might become. But things are really scary when you feel like you’re going through them alone and that you can’t talk about them. So, if I knew somebody who was sick, I would take them to the show.

I would also take people who are dead—what do you mean, Anastazia, you can’t take people who are dead? What I mean is spiritually dead, and again, I’m not talking about religion. I’m talking about the people who have no light in their eyes. You look in their eyes and you see nothing. I would take those people to the show, if you could get them out of the house. I dated a person like that—regrets. I would take people who love living—people who are the opposite of “no light in the eyes,” people who love to experience everything, because I think they would find this show affirming in the way that I did.

I would take people who have recently lost a loved one, because the way the show talks about death and explores the aftermath for the people who are left behind, I think it could be cathartic. They might be mad at you at first, but maybe they’ll come around. Just give them a heads-up that there’s death in the show, so that they know.

People who had a child, right? So, lost life, gained life. Anyone who’s on that precipice of really understanding and experiencing for themselves how precious life is.

I would also take people who are hesitant to change—anybody who, like, I think everybody has a friend who’s been a little stagnant. They’re like, “Oh, I wish I could get that job. I should apply. I’ve been supposed to apply for 14 years. I probably couldn’t get it. I don’t know.” Right? And every time you see this person, they talk about this job they’ve been talking about for 14 years and they haven’t even applied. And they have a lot of reasons: “It’s not the right time in my life. I don’t want to uproot my family. I don’t know if I’m qualified,” yada, yada, yada. But the thing is, you only have today. You only have now. How would you feel in the casket realizing, “Damn, I probably could’ve had that job. All I had to do was apply,” or at least find out if it was going to be for me or not? So, anybody who’s hesitant to change, I would take them to this show.

At the same time, I would take people who love taking on new adventures or who are about to begin a new adventure, because I think for them it could be very encouraging that it’s never too late to try something new. It’s always the right time for change. It’s always the right time for adventure and reinvention.

Those are the people that I would take, and I think that encompasses a big group of people, honestly.

In terms of the review, I would give this show two stars for its contribution to the Black canon. And I have to put an asterisk next to the two stars because I haven’t seen a ton of one-person shows. So, I need to do some work around what my expectations are for a one-person show. Actually, Lawrence Fishburne has a one-person show coming up next month at the Perelman Performing Arts Center (Perelman, Per, Per the PAC NYC is what they call it). And I already have tickets to go see that, so I’m very much looking forward to figuring out how I feel about one-person shows. I may amend that number of stars.

But I should also say, the same way I said in episode one that one star does not mean “hated it” and five stars means “loved it,” if I’m reviewing the show, it’s because I support it. I think you all should support it. So, two stars is a very respectable number of stars, and I am very grateful to Dael Orlandersmith for taking the time to write this down and share this story with us, as well as all the people at Rattlestick Theater for putting together that pre-show guide and all the cool stuff.

Also, I love this little square program. I thought this was cute and very nice.

Where would I go after the show? 14th Street, Greenwich Village. I don’t know a ton of Black-owned places down there—I need to get on my Googles for that. But one of the things they talk about in the show is taking those moments to have a pastry, have a coffee, and just sit—not be on your way nowhere, just in the moment. Now, you go to a 7 o’clock show, it’s not a lot of coffee shops open, but I found one. Had myself a little matcha and an olive oil cake. You can actually see me eating the cake on TikTok, because I’m doing mini reviews on TikTok now. Some shows just don’t lend themselves to a full exploration, but I hope that you’ll subscribe to this channel and also go follow me on TikTok so you can see a little bit of both. And like I said, you want to see me chomping on an olive oil cake? It’s there on TikTok.

But thank you so much for watching this review. Shoutout to Dael Orlandersmith. Shoutout to Neil Keller, who was the director of Dael’s show. Go see it before March 9th. And in the meantime, I am sending y’all Black love and starlight. I love you all.