Petron Brown’s original stage play, “Tingum in Da Bush Ean Get No Name,” will make its world debut on the Ozarks campus in April and the University of the Ozarks alumnus says there’s no other place he rather have it open.
Written and directed by Brown, the play will be presented by the University Theatre in the Walton Fine Arts Center for a six-performance, two-weekend run — April 11-13 and April 18-20.
Brown is a 2021 U of O theatre and environmental studies graduate from Nassau, The Bahamas. He is completing an MFA in theatre from the University of Southern Mississippi while serving as an adjunct at Ozarks in the theatre department this semester.
Having his play debut on the Ozarks stage where just a few years ago he performed numerous times as an undergraduate student is almost surreal, Brown said.
“It is very exciting because I somehow feel like I wrote the play for this University,” Brown said. “There is a certain international identity that I feel permeates my work and Ozarks is where I feel that energy pulling me. I’m really excited about this play. It’s complex but somehow accessible and I hope I get it right.”
Brown called “Tingum in Da Bush Ean Get No Name” a play about “belief and what it means when the foundations of the things we hold onto start to shift beneath our feet.”
“To who or what do we turn?” Brown said. “I try to stray away from breaking down the plot because the mystery of the play is the impetus that drives the story and our experience of the story. Everyone should come see it at least twice. Trust me, you’ll have totally different experiences.”
Brown said the play was conceived in his Dramatic Writing course under Dr. David Coley at the USM, and called it “my response to a number of things: both the existential reality of world crises and an amalgamation of playwrights that I had been studying.”
“If I hadn’t read Lucy Alibar, Philip Howze, Arlene Hutton, Aleshea Harris, etc., this play would not exist.” Brown said. “The play also has a strong Caribbean voice, but an incredible universality. That was something I wanted to hone. I wanted the story to apply across a variety of cultures and demographics.”
The play will be the University and Brown’s entry into the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival later this year. Brown said being both playwright and director has its challenges.
“It is a very specific experience,” Brown said. “There are moments when the playwright needs to tame the director or vice versa—the latter has been more common—or moments where the director has to really negotiate with the playwright. We are now in production, so truly, the director has ultimate say and advocates for the actors. I sound like a crazy person, but that’s okay. It is all bursting with opportunity and color. There was a moment after rehearsal where I went home and changed the opening into a Shakespearean sonnet and then I turned it into something else on top of that. That has been a highlight. The actors are really receptive, which I’m so grateful for.”
The experience of working with undergraduate actors has also been fulfilling for Brown.
“What I enjoy most is that the undergraduate students are so eager and open to learning,” he said. “They also have so many different energies that you constantly find yourself shifting between, which is so important to understand. I also admire how brave they all are. Their job on that stage is really hard and a couple have never been on stage before, especially at this level.”
Brown, who won the U of O Hurie Award in 2021 as the top graduating senior, will be inducted into the USM Graduate Student Hall of Fame later this year. He said he is still growing as an artist.
“So much of my foundation was laid here at Ozarks,” Brown said. “I would certainly agree that there is more definition in my artistic voice, but also I’ve become freer and more expressive. And, it has nothing to do with leaving the school but everything to do with time and the building upon that which was initially laid. Overall, I’m still growing, as I was at Ozarks.”
Brown is teaching a Movement class at Ozarks this semester.
“It makes me more connected to the students’ experience of the class material,” he said. “I never stopped being a student. Even when I was teaching classes at USM, I was still going to take my classes. Even now, I am enrolled in some virtual playwriting workshops. Teaching in the same department is a culture shock of how much things have changed in just under three years. This does not feel much like the same department. Which is a good thing as it allows me to fully immerse as an adjunct in a seemingly new world. None of the students in the department were here when I was here.”
Earlier this semester, Brown was informed that he was one of 11 playwrights and artists nationwide to receive the prestigious 2024-25 Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellow.
“I am humbled beyond belief,” he said. “This is such a prestigious award and it still hasn’t fully set in. There were nearly 700 applications and they picked six playwrights. What’s also amazing is that until this year, the fellowship was only available to New York based artists. This is the first year they have opened it up to fellows all over the U.S. I am so grateful. The fellowship is really free-form and will include whatever the playwright needs. I will develop one full-length play with the DGF. I will also gain mentorship from professional playwrights. There is also rehearsal space for me in New York City, whenever I need it. There are other opportunities that get defined later in the year as the play develops.”
When it comes to writing, directing or performing, Brown said it’s difficult to pick what he prefers.
“I’ll choose to pit the three against each other: performing and writing are fighting for top stop. Nothing beats the euphoria of being onstage. So, performing probably wins. But writing is also quite euphoric—lots of labor too. Directing is most foreign to me, but I have a number of tools that really work for me.”
Brown said he’s not sure about his long-term goals, but they are certain to include theatre and education.
“I have so many goals and ideas,” he said. “Simply though, writing and acting professionally across a variety of mediums is at the top of the list. Education will never leave me, so continuing teaching is also a long-term goal. And, ya know, who knows what else?”