In 2018, the world was introduced to Harris with the headline-making debut of his first major production, Slave Play. Eager to capitalize on his mome
In 2018, the world was introduced to Harris with the headline-making debut of his first major production, Slave Play. Eager to capitalize on his moment in the spotlight, and not only be remembered as the creator of the “hot Black play that came and went,” Harris said he got “shameless” with his public persona “by making sure I was everywhere.” But his time on the media circuit was less about “personal promotion” than “self-preservation,” Harris told Guiducci. “I was doing anything I can to not go back to Virginia and have to work at a Burger King.”
The explosive Slave Play, a piece about the impact of systemic racism which centered on three interracial couples who undergo radical “antebellum sexual performance therapy,” earned a record-breaking 12 Tony nominations, but ultimately won zero awards at the 2021 ceremony. When asked about the shutout five years later, Harris doesn’t hold back: “The bitchiest level is that in spaces where it matters, as in spaces with money, people think I won the Tony. So it kind of doesn’t matter if you win or lose.”
Despite his laissez-faire attitude toward the American Theatre Wing, Harris remains deeply impassioned about the state of Broadway, from his divisive take on cell phones in the audience—“addiction to your phone is a type of disability”—to the current economic strain. “The amount of stifling work that has to be put on because people fear that unless you have the six biggest celebrities from the sixth-biggest Netflix show that week in your play that it can’t run and recoup,” Harris explains, “means that we are not getting the great performers of yesteryear that we discover from their off-Broadway to Broadway transfer. It means that people that decided to do this because it is a middle-class profession are not able to feed their kids or not able to feed their families and are having to figure out what to do in this really, really expensive city.”
Watch the entire hot-topic-filled conversation between Harris and VF’s Guiducci above, in which the former gets candid about all corners of politics and pop culture. And don’t forget to follow Fair Game on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
