June Carryl: Playwright, Actor, Teacher, Activist Extraordinaire
We so enjoyed the world premiere production of June Carryl’s play “Blue” that we came back a second time two weeks later with several family members in tow. At the first performance, the playwright herself joined us in the tiny theatre designed, very effectively, to mimic a police interrogation room.
As June discussed with us, her play involving yet another shooting of a Black man by a white officer serves as a metaphor for the same malevolent, racist spirit that drove the January 6th insurrection—which she found as a deeply moving revelation of America’s darkest side.
Born in Iowa, but raised in Denver, June’s life was supposed to head in a different direction. “My Mom and her best friend plotted for me: I was going to go to Brown for undergrad, then the University of Chicago for law school, and then I was going to be a Supreme Court judge,” she told us. “That was the plan!”
But then she saw friends from her college fencing team trickling back from law school bedraggled and dejected—and she knew that would be her road not taken. “Clearly that was not my thing,” she said.
“I needed the law to be more absolute than it is,” she said. “I believe that there is right and wrong. And I need to believe in a universe that bolsters that belief.”
Too often, she found a legal system that works against real justice.
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So instead, she pursued a degree in English literature, which led her to a drama survey course and playwriting classes. From that, a now 30-year career was launched that has included numerous appearances on stage, television, and screen as an actor.
During nearly a decade during the 1990s in the Bay Area, June taught acting and playwriting workshops and frequented area stages, before moving to Los Angeles in 2000, where she wrote and acted in films, television, and theatre.
Once “Blue” wraps up at the Matrix Theatre, June and her team plan to take her play to Edinburgh, Scotland, where she will play the part of Detective LaRhonda Parker.
Listen to her lovely discussion and share your thoughts.
“Blue” plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. through May 14 and has been extended now to play Mondays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. through June 5th, at the Henry Murray Stage, upstairs at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Avenue, L.A., California, 90048. For reservations call (855)585-5185 or go here.
The opinions expressed here are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions or beliefs of the Hollywood Progressive.
