THE WORLD OF “THE NATIVITY STARRING KEISHA TAYLOR”
Yesterday marked our first of only two rehearsals for our next salon series reading. For the first time, our cast gathered around screens and speakers for a remote read-through over Zoom.
It’s always a gift to witness a new work being voiced aloud for the first time: inevitably, new shapes develop within the text, different themes find new emphasis, fresh kernels of universal truth emerge, clumsy bravery and brave vulnerability deepen the material, and a community of actors and creators bonds like family, united in the telling of a story. The sheer act of doing yields a harvest of inspiration.
Every 30 pages or so, we would pause to “spy back” on what we had read. Sometimes a first reflection can be tentative or vague, but this combination—an expressive, thoughtful cast, a sharply intuitive director, and Olivia Matthews’ layered, generous script—set the foundation for some robust reflection. Reflection is at the very core of this piece.
New Hope Baptist Church Presents THE NATIVITY STARRING KEISHA TAYLOR lives in two worlds: the sacred one of the Biblical Annunciation…or at least a very funny, anachronistically worded allusion to it, and the scarred but no less sacred world of 2009 Black girlhood in America. In Matthews’ sharp hands, the juxtaposition of these timelines they comment on each other, echo, and even overlap. In the 2009 timeline, we see a group of teenage girls vying for the role of Mary in the youth Bible groups’ nativity play. The motivations to pursue the role include pressures to raise/maintain status, to be the “best”, for financial gain through scholarship, and to cover up personal indiscretions. The girls aren’t just competing for a role; they’re navigating a web of respectability, performance, belief, and survival. In some ways, the casting of this play becomes more like a calling. Who gets to be Mary? Who gets to be loved, seen, sanctified?
While the Biblical role of Mary is often depicted as a symbol of obedience and purity, each of the young girls demonstrates a determined sense of agency that challenges (rather than obliges) patriarchal authority as they each endure a course of self-discovery that is complicated by what some may consider impure actions… others may call it being a normal kid.
Matthews gives us the chance to re-encounter the Biblical story of the Annunciation through a contemporary lens and compare it with other high stakes circumstances today’s youth may face. Here, the Nativity is no longer a passive miracle, but an event that interrogates the expectations placed on girlhood, especially Black girlhood. Mary isn’t simply accepting her role—she’s reckoning with it. What does it mean or what does it take for a Black girl to be seen as holy? Or chosen? Or worthy? What does it cost?
Throughout the reading, something that really stuck out was Matthews’ ability to unearth the less admirable features of institutionalized religion while holding reverence for the sincerity of religion’s spiritual mission. This isn’t a mockery of church culture—it’s a mirror held up to it. A deep love runs through the script for these girls, for their Blackness, for their flaws, for their hopes, for their compassion, for their growth, and for the enduring plight of having to be accountable for responsibilities and perceptions thrust upon them.
One of our cast members was quick to note: this play reminds us that these girls *are* still kids. They are asked to carry so much—expectation, doctrine, history. In both the Biblical and modern timelines, we see how girls are burdened with adult responsibility long before they’re ready. That tension—between innocence and accountability, between choice and assignment—is where *The Nativity Starring Keisha Taylor* finds its heartbeat.
And so, as we gathered remotely to lend our voices to these characters, something quietly radical unfolded. A room full of actors, artists, and educators returned to the core of what theatre can do: reflect the world back at us, sharpened.
We’ll read the piece again in a few days. No doubt it will continue to grow and change, as all good art does. But even now, *The Nativity Starring Keisha Taylor* is already something sacred.
Come join us this Saturday to see this play out loud for yourself.
