A playwright, poet, actor, director, and producer—Keenan Scott II joins to discuss his powerful and captivating Broadway play “Thoughts of a Colored Man.”
A playwright, poet, actor, director, and producer—Keenan Scott II joins to discuss his powerful and captivating Broadway play “Thoughts of a Colored Man.”
Debbie Millman:
COVID has been very, very bad for theater from ushers to lighting directors, to actors. There was no work for well over a year, but playwrights could still write. And as theater slowly welcome audiences back, we finally get to see what some of them have been up to among the anticipated plays of the season is the Broadway debut of Keenan Scott the Seconds, Thoughts of a Colored Man at the Golden theater. Keenan Scott is a playwright. Yes, but he’s also a poet, an actor, a director, and a producer. He joins me to talk today about his play and his career. Keenan Scott the Seconds, welcome to Design Matters.
Keenan Scott:
Thank you for having me. How are you?
Debbie Millman:
I’m good. I’m very excited to talk to you about your life and your work. Keenan I understand that your father was a New York policeman and your grandfather was a Vietnam veteran.
Keenan Scott:
Yes.
Debbie Millman:
So I’m guessing that your coming from a long line of heroes.
Keenan Scott:
Yes. And my great-grandfather was actually in World War II. So, I come from a lineage of military veterans for this country, as well as servicemen, which my father was, he works for NYPD for 21 years.
Debbie Millman:
Wow. How do you feel now about the way that the police and sort of non-police are managing this complicated time?
Keenan Scott:
That’s a tough one. My plight, as a young black man, hasn’t afforded me to still avoid the negative sometimes interactions and relationships between myself and police officers. I do know that, through my father, there are a lot of hard working, honest, straight forward police officers that just want to go out, do their job, be safe and return home to their families. But unfortunately, as we know due to others, their attitudes and their actions have pretty much blanket all of the police force, I think more so the issue is when those bad apples do, do something truly being held accountable. I was an educator for 11 years and I know for us, when things happen, when teachers don’t always do the right thing, they are held accountable and you will not see them as a teacher again. And I think everybody can understand that.
Keenan Scott:
And just like teaching, firefighters, police officers, I think these are high morality jobs, right. But I think it’s also the responsibility of these institutions and these workforce to hold their own accountable. And I think that’s what the people want to see. And I think honestly, that’s what the black community wants to see. So this has been an ongoing problem historically in the black community. Even looking back how the police force was originally created in this country and in who they were created to patrol. So that’s kind of a hard question for me to answer, but I would say, I do notice some great officers out there doing their jobs. I think the ones that don’t do a great job just need to be held accountable like everybody else
Debbie Millman:
You grew up in Flushing Queens in the Pomonok housing project. I spent many years of my childhood in Howard beach Queens, by the way.
Keenan Scott:
I lived in Howard beach for three or four years actually. But so I am familiar with Howard beach as well. I lived there as an adult.
Debbie Millman:
Okay. I was going to say, where did you go to elementary school?
Keenan Scott:
No, this was as an adult. That was a small portion of my life. But yes, I grew up in Flushing, in Pomonok houses and I attended PS 200 while I was there on Juul avenue.
Debbie Millman:
Even though where you grew up, there was a police precinct across the street.
Keenan Scott:
Literally.
Debbie Millman:
You’ve written about how you could watch fights with boys, with razor blades under their tongues. And you’ve written about how fighting showed you that you were a man that could survive in a city where many are raised by wolves. I mean, aside from it being absolutely beautifully written, it is somewhat horrifying to think that, that’s what it felt like as you were growing up, how did you feel you could survive, where many are raised by wolves?
Keenan Scott:
You don’t know. And that is the danger of it all. Unfortunately, people outside of the community don’t realize that there are things that the youth and people have to partake and for survival. And a lot of times it’s not by choice. I grew up a shy kid, I didn’t want to, I wasn’t picking on nobody. I stayed out of people’s way. I was quiet. I didn’t want to fight nobody. But due to, now we’re talking early nineties, New York, there was certain things that we had to do. And I was raised to protect myself. And unfortunately a lot of times I was in situations where I had to do so, but the true danger of it all in those environments is not knowing what is going to happen, what the next day is going to bring.
Keenan Scott:
And that’s the part that gets scary when growing up in environments like that. A lot of it seems natural. I was seeing at times the drugs, the violence and things of that nature, but on the flip side, my childhood was beautiful. It was a vibrant time in New York. It was hip hop was at it height and in my storytelling, I try to show both sides of it, because it wasn’t just all one way. But absolutely there was a lot of things that I experienced growing up in the projects in New York like many others.
Debbie Millman:
I understand you saw the movie Toy Story when you were seven years old and decided right then and there that you wanted to work for Pixar.
Keenan Scott:
Yes.
Debbie Millman:
Did you want to work in animation or did you want to work in storytelling?
Keenan Scott:
Animation. So I always like to say, my God given talent is drawing. I’ve been doing it since I could remember. I don’t remember a time starting anything I could get my hands on, whether that was crayons to charcoal to watercolors. So that’s my first love in life and I believe Toy Story the first one came out seven. I was seven, eight years old I believe. So that’s about 94. I think the movie came out and it changed my life. I remember asking teachers and asking my parents to say, “Hey, what is that called? What is that?”
Keenan Scott:
And remembering it being so new, but somebody telling me, “Hey, those are computer animators.” So most of my life growing up, I always told people, I want to go into computer animation, not owning a computer, or even knowing how all of that worked. I just knew whatever Toy Story, whoever created that. I want to do that. So I still have dreams of working for Pixar. Most likely you’ll be on the storytelling side, maybe some voice acting, but Pixar very much sure was a dream for me growing up.
Debbie Millman:
You’ve talked about how, as you were growing up, adults treated your adolescent emotional life as that of someone much or older than you, which held you to a higher standard than your white classmates. I’m assuming that this is a common denominator for young boys of color. How did you manage that emotionally? How did you feel as you witnessed this sort of different standard for the boys around you?
Keenan Scott:
As a young kid, it angers you, because as a kid, you still notice the treatment is different. And we see that often in the news now when a young black boy loses his life, he’s usually described as a man and he is a child, my white counterparts males. They’re still considered boys up into college age. So me being an educator, even looking back at my youth, realizing how easy is for us to slip through those cracks. Just from the difference of reading level, when certain behavior is exhibited, it’s treated more harshly. We are suspended more because of the learning curve. We are sent to special education more than our white counterparts. And these are things that I might not have had the terms for when I was a boy, but I definitely did feel that and that treat internalized and that rage starts bubbling.
Keenan Scott:
That anger starts to start this fire inside you where you don’t really know how to explain it or where it comes from as an adolescent and those things could be acted out in different ways, right? Whether that’s a frustration towards your peers, adults, authority, we have to learn how to handle adult situations before we’re even adults. And that’s a very hard thing to navigate. So for myself, I’ve always had a village around me. My family has always been here to support me. I was raised by a village and I contribute who I am to them and them pouring in confidence and love, and joy, self-awareness and all of those things that my family gave me, which I know some of my peers didn’t have. And their lives took very different paths than myself so I’ve contributed a lot of that to my family, the village that raised me and God always felt God has had his hand on me. But here I am and I can only do the best I can do and try to be the best person I can be.
Debbie Millman:
Well, you’ve talked about how that frustration and that anger was met outside the house with punishment instead of care and understanding.
Keenan Scott:
Absolutely.
Debbie Millman:
Which seems to actually perpetuate the problem and make it worse.
Keenan Scott:
Absolutely.
Debbie Millman:
How did you begin to understand how to make sense of that frustration and that anger and ultimately that rage?
Keenan Scott:
It just came in time. There’s really not one answer for it. I just know, as I matured, as I started to experience more things, my frustration and my anger got fueled and put into my art into me playing sports. I was very much so focused on playing football and basketball, growing up, basketball being my main sport, me always being an artist and always funneling that energy inward into those things, especially my art eventually into my performing and writing. So for me, that was my saving grace. And now being married with a child, I’ve become way more retro perspective about my thinking and my acting, because it’s not just for myself, it’s for my family. So me, I’m always on a quest spiritually to be the best person I can be, be the best leader I can be for my household. Be the best husband, be the best father, be the best brother and friend it’s evolution.
Debbie Millman:
You moved to the suburbs of Maryland, as you were about to go into high school, where you, as you mentioned, were playing football, but also writing poetry. That’s quite a range. What first motivated you to turn to poetry as a way to express yourself?
Keenan Scott:
So actually I moved to the suburbs of Maryland before I got to junior high school for me growing up, especially elementary school, the beginning parts of junior high. I struggled academically, especially when it came to English. I always excelled in all my art classes and things like that, but I didn’t realize until I was older, that I was actually dyslexic. So therefore it affected my learning and how I received information as a child. And I would say that I never had a teacher take the time to figure that out about me and figure out what my strengths were. So I could Excel academically. And that goes back, connects to the conversation we just had about how young black boys are viewed older than what they are. I almost slipped through the cracks because with young black boys, we’re often not approached with care and patience.
Keenan Scott:
So therefore it’s like, oh, if the struggle academically, you need to go to special education. And that’s where I was sent for many of my courses. It wasn’t until sixth grade, I was after elementary school. I was put in all special ed classes. So when I was a youth talking back in the nineties, there wasn’t inclusion classes. So when you was in special ed, usually you was in a basement, you was in around the corner, you was in a classroom that was off, away from everybody else. And I remember being in sixth grade, a lot of my peers weren’t in special education. They was in regular courses and or honors courses. And at that time, I internalized that in a way to where it made me feel dumb. So I never forget asking my guidance counselor to put me in all honors classes, which is wild, right? To go from special education to skip regular average courses. But they called it average classes to honors.
Keenan Scott:
And my guidance counselor said are sure, that’s not a usual. I said, yes, I want to be in all honors classes, such and such my friends, they’re doing it. I hang out with them every day. I think I can do it too. And kudos to my mother. She said, if Keenan says he can handle those classes, then he can handle it from that day forward. I was never in special ed classes again, sixth grade was the last time. And I say that to say, I never viewed myself as a great academic student. That was my sister, the straight A student, my older sister got to eighth grade, got a poetry assignment after turning in the poetry assignment. It was written so well that to teach your thought, I plagiarized it, but it wasn’t until that moment where that reaction showed me that, that I can write creatively better than most.
Keenan Scott:
And then after that, I started just writing to myself and use it as a personal journal to get my emotions and feelings out, which is I guess the cliche story for every poet. And it wasn’t to the age of 15 that my sister’s boyfriend at the time, he wanted to start going to poetry venues, and he didn’t want to go by himself. So he asked me to go to the club with him to perform. I was 15 at the time, had no desire to perform or anything like that and went to the club and I did horrible. Did horrible, forgot my poem on stage blacked out, had to start over again. It just wasn’t a good night for me. And from that moment, I didn’t want to do it again. But my competitive nature kicked in. I’m very competitive. I told myself, I have to redeem myself at least have to go back one time, redeem myself do well. I can’t leave on a note like that.
Debbie Millman:
Do you remember any of the poems that you performed at that time?
Keenan Scott:
No. Unless I recorded it or somebody filmed me doing it, those are pieces that I haven’t done in 15 plus years. So no, but I went away, I studied for several months, turning 16, by the time I returned, went back to the drawing board, started reading a lot of poetry, a lot of Nikki Giovanni, Langton Hughes. I discovered Def Poetry Jam, which was two seasons in at the time. So it was a new show on HBO. I had to buy or find the DVDs because we didn’t have cable. So went back to the club and I did great way smaller audience this time around, but I did great.
Keenan Scott:
And people were taken back by me and was shocked to find out that I was 16 years old. That’s when I got bit by the bug and I went from there. And then I started going back again and again, and I loved it because it was a double life for me. I was going into the city at night to perform and compete against adults. And then I was going back home and getting ready for class in the morning for high school. So that really led me on a path to where I am today.
Debbie Millman:
What made you decide to stay the acting at Frostburg state university in Maryland as opposed to poetry or animation?
Keenan Scott:
My focus had shifted from drawing and animation. And after I had been performing for about three, maybe four years now, on stage before college, and I had aspirations of wanting to now act and write and direct and all of those things for TV and film. And somebody told me if I wanted to act on film, I had to learn how to act on stage. So I said, okay, cool. I said, if I go to school and I study performing on stage, I was already a performance poet. I figured that would be a subject that keep me in school and something that I would be passionate about. I didn’t want to go to college and just get a business degree or something like that. It wouldn’t have kept me there to be honest. And that’s when I decided to study acting in Frostburg.
Debbie Millman:
At school, you found that the professors stuck closely to the classic cannon of playwrights, like Checkoff, Arthur Miller, Epson, Tennessee William, Shakespeare. And while you grew to appreciate this work, you didn’t see yourself or your community in their pros back then, did you find any work that reflected your world?
Keenan Scott:
No, not at all. And that’s definitely not all of my professors either. I think that’s a institutional problem that has to change. I think there’s way more works that are in the American cannon now, compared to even 15 years ago, there wasn’t a Donny Love, Jeremy O Harris, Catory Hollin in a form she is now, Madomic Mosor and so forth. I can name many now. So yes, my professors exposed the program to the classics as well as they did expose us. I did discover Entozaki from my professor Marizy during my sophomore year more so there weren’t any stories that spoke to me and my generation. There was no contemporary stories that I was exposed to and, or put in front of me at that time that I could say, hey, this is me.
Keenan Scott:
This is my community. I can see it on stage. It didn’t exist. So as a poet I figured instead of complaining about it, I wanted to create what I didn’t see. And it was a small novel idea really. It was myself there might have been four black men in the program. I was like, “Hey, I want to write something where if we stood on stage, it would represent us. We could talk the way we want to. We could walk the way we want to. We wouldn’t have to try to fit in a box where we wouldn’t have to change who we were.” Me being from New York. One of my partners being from DC, another being from Baltimore, I wanted to create something that we can hold onto. And really that was my mission. And not realizing that was the origins of me writing Thoughts Of a Colored Man. Back when I was a sophomore in undergrad.
Debbie Millman:
What was the reaction to the early iterations of Thoughts Of a Colored Man from your professors?
Keenan Scott:
They loved it. They were the ones who gave me the space to produce it. I loved them to death to this day they still support me. They travel wherever I go. They were the ones who first gave me the first seed money, which I believe at the time might have been a hundred dollars, which was great. So they were the ones that truly supported and believed I could do it and gave me the chance to, because usually student projects of that nature to do a play, an original work usually comes from the directing track. I was on a acting track. So for them to even allow me to do something like that, not even being on that track was amazing. And that’s when I realized how important it was, because I was doing it out of necessity, but how important it was to produce, to be a producer.
Keenan Scott:
I had to be the director because there was nobody else that could bring this vision to life, right? Cause it was new. Nobody knew what it was, but me, I became an acting coach because at the time there was only two, I believe black men at the time in the program that could even be in the play. So we didn’t even have enough men in our department to fulfill all the seven roles. So I had to enlist my friends on campus that never acted before. So I became an acting coach. So out of necessity, I started wearing all of these hats and that’s what showed me it was important to own my own narratives. And I feel like there was a large population on my campus that felt included and felt welcomed and invited because of they knew who I was and what I stood for. And it became a huge success on my campus. Huge success.
Debbie Millman:
Yeah. I heard that all the shows sold out in two hours.
Keenan Scott:
Absolutely. Which was a shock to me. And that right there showed me that I had more than just this small idea, right. So if it wasn’t for Frostburg, showing me that I had some inkling of a career in producing and directing and doing all those things. I would’ve never thought that for myself.
Debbie Millman:
You stated that you used this specific word colored to spark a visceral reaction like it did during the civil and pre-civil rights days. How do you feel about the word now?
Keenan Scott:
It’s definitely a word I don’t care for at all. Cause I understand that the history behind the word, but I stand behind why I use the word for the response that is getting at this moment, because it’s sparking a conversation. It’s having people like yourself and many others asking why use that. What’s the reason behind it. And when they find out what the reason is, they understand it. And for this particular show about stereotypes and tropes and dispelling them and turning them on its head, realize using the word colored because that was a time that my people were labeled with that coupled with the show.
Keenan Scott:
It makes sense to use that as well as when I tell people it pays homage to the literary works that I’ve read in the past, the great writers and revolutionaries and artists that I followed, whether it’s for color girls, whether it’s colored museum and literary works of that nature, I wanted to pay homage to them as well.
Debbie Millman:
You not only use it in the title, you also use it as part of the stage setting with the word, very prominently, just the word colored across the screen that exists-
Keenan Scott:
The billboard.
Debbie Millman:
on the stage, the billboard.
Keenan Scott:
Yeah.
Debbie Millman:
That was something that was extremely in your face.
Keenan Scott:
Yes. And I cannot take credit for that. That idea was by our brilliant set designer, Robert Brill. And he wanted to do exactly that. What you just said, he wanted to be in your face. He knew by putting the word color that big because our billboard is true to size. He wanted the audience to be confronted by the word and already bringing their pre conceived ideas and thoughts of the word colored. And he wanted them to have a feeling right when they walked into the theater and he wanted everybody to be confronted with the word colored, knowing that this piece you will be confronting a lot as a human being.
Keenan Scott:
It just so happens this story is told through the lens of black men, but it’s a human story where this mirror not only turns to ourselves as black men in the black community, but it also turns the mirror to society as well for them to look into. So that’s why he chose to put the word colored on a billboard and I thought it was a brilliant idea when he first brought that to myself and our directly broad next to third.
Debbie Millman:
It reminded me a little bit of the mirror that’s on stage in Jeremy O Harris’s Slave Play. It’s a particularly rich time on Broadway right now with productions like yours.
Keenan Scott:
Thank you.
Debbie Millman:
Jeremy’s the several plays that Lynnatage has opening Antoinette Nuando’s play Pass Over. Do you think that this is what we will see to be the norm in terms of diversity and representation on Broadway now? Or do you think it’s a response to the times, but not a permanent change? What are you feeling optimistic or pessimistic about this?
Keenan Scott:
I feel very optimistic, but I do feel in large part because of the amount, it is a response to what happened last year and gatekeepers and the owners of theaters being called out. I think it will take more time to see if this is a permanent change. I hope more voices are championed and produced from disenfranchised communities, not just the black community, but all communities. Yes, this is the first time seven. I think the number’s even grown. I think it might be up to nine now, black playwrights coming to Broadway. But in actuality, outside of stories that are driven usually by white males in the theater space, there has been seven, eight, nine type of plays all at the same time on Broadway ever.
Debbie Millman:
Ever?
Keenan Scott:
Ever. There’s never been eight plays from the LGBT community. At the same time, there’s never been seven plays from an Asian lens at the same time, Hispanic and so forth and so forth. So we are on the front lines of protest. And hopefully this is a time where we are opening the doors for everybody to show that we all should be here, that our stages should reflect the society and the world that we truly live in. And our stages haven’t done that yet. We are inching closer and I’m very optimistic. I am very humbled and blessed to be a part of a season that is bringing forth this change and the conversation. And I appreciate the Shoeburts championing my voice, them giving us a verbal commitment before the actions of last year. The Shoeburts were supporting this piece in my voice and me as an artist back in 2019, when we were doing our regional run before the events of last year before the pandemic. So I can confidently say that the Shoeburts were already putting their best foot forward.
Debbie Millman:
Before the Shoeburts and I would say from 2009 through to 2017, 2018, you were developing and work shopping Thoughts Of a Colored Man independently.
Keenan Scott:
I was.
Debbie Millman:
You were maxing out your credit cards, saving up money, turning to your family members. Making them investors, producing the play in independent houses up and down the east coast.
Keenan Scott:
Yes.
Debbie Millman:
What gave you the sense that this play deserved its moment.
Keenan Scott:
I’ve written other works that people will see in the near future. I’ve auditioned for a lot of things. I’ve been a part of, a lot of other projects. It was always something special about this project. And really it was a voice of the people. I can’t tell you how many times I heard messages of, can you bring thoughts to my city? When are you going to do it again? I missed it. Because back then I was only able to afford doing it for a weekend.
Keenan Scott:
So it’s messages from young black artists that I receive all the time about how inspiring the play is, how seeing me in my journey gave them the confidence to not quit or not to give up and the hearing and seeing things like that over the years has truly given me the confidence in myself and history to keep on going because of how important I saw it was to so many people and me being fortunate enough at an early age to realize that my purpose is storytelling, regardless of the medium stage, TV, film, music, poetry, painting I am a storyteller and knowing that that is my purpose and realizing my gift. I think Pablo Picasso said it, once realizing your gift. Now it’s your life’s purpose to give it away.
Debbie Millman:
Over the years, how has the story within the play. How has the play itself evolved? You’ve been working on it, work shopping it, developing and producing it now for well over a decade. How has the story changed if at all?
Keenan Scott:
Oh, it’s changed a great amount. I started writing when I was 19. Now I’m 34 going on 35, married with a daughter. I am a different person mentally. These characters literally have grown up with me. So as I grew, they grew, as I experienced things as I saw the world change around me and things happen around me. So did the play, people always ask me why did I choose to set it in Brooklyn and not Queens where I’m from? And when the thread of gentrification came in, I thought there was no better place, but to showcase the old and new in gentrification in Brooklyn. And while I was honing in a lot on those details and nuances of location and themes throughout the piece, I was living in Brooklyn and I was seeing the effects of gentrification, remembering how Brooklyn was as a kid.
Keenan Scott:
And when I used to come and visit my grandfather that lived here, but of course going forward the way I designed it and written this play, it could really take place in any space that’s experiencing urban renewal. So this play has definitely evolved over the years. I have been blessed to work with tremendous artists. And as an actor, I lean on my actors when I work with them. So this play wouldn’t be what it is. If I didn’t work with incredible artists, I have over the years as they brought their experiences to the table. So there’s a little bit a DNA and a little bit of everybody I worked with over the years as well. So I can’t say all that credit. So the play has definitely changed since I first wrote it 15 years ago.
Debbie Millman:
The seven characters of the play who all come together in a barbershop are based on what you’ve described as the seven emotions that black men go through during the course of a lifetime wisdom, passion, depression, lust, happiness, love and anger. What about other words like joy or frustration or discrimination or rage?
Keenan Scott:
Yeah, I don’t think those are the definitive seven. Those are the seven I decided to go with. But like you said, there’s many more, as we know there’s hundreds and thousands of different feelings and emotions we have as human beings, but those are the seven that I decided to land on because those were the seven parts of myself. I felt like a time when I first started writing it.
Debbie Millman:
The seven characters range in age from late teens to mid sixties and the elder wisdom brilliant played by Esau Prechets speaks about respect, history and ancestry.
Keenan Scott:
Yes.
Debbie Millman:
Tristan Mac Wilds plays anger and laments consumerism, and the objectification of black athletes. Brian Terrell Clark plays the character of happiness and challenges, notions about black struggle and class with his success and his money and his orientation. Talk about the role of stereotypes and tropes that you’re trying to dispel.
Keenan Scott:
To often in entertainment. We are often portrayed as the athlete, the gangster, someone of low education, fatherless, and the list goes on. I wanted to create a piece to not show the perfect black man, but to show the black man in its entirety. And in doing that, you have to show the good, the bad and the ugly, because that is the human experience. One of the things I follow in my story telling is what Langston Hughes said, he said, we are good and ugly too. So showing a story of spectrum to show what true human story, to be able to build empathy in his reader or viewer that doesn’t mean to create a perfectly politically correct unflawed character. Showing a human story is showing someone in all of their flaws because that’s where you get the relatability. And that’s what I wanted to create in these men.
Keenan Scott:
And I wanted to show them in different ways. I wanted to show a business owner, a entrepreneur in wisdom. I wanted to show a husband who is happily married to a black woman. And they’re excited that their child is on the way. We don’t often see that. Yes, I have the athlete, but we often don’t see what happens or how that athlete feels when they are discarded. When they can know longer, be super human on the court or the field who are there as human beings. I wanted to also show that the young guy that don’t know no better, that all he wants to do is chase women. And really doesn’t even know who he is yet because he’s only a 20 year old and making all the mistakes in the world. I wanted to show a character that was full body and just happened to be gay because none of us should be portrayed in that singular way.
Keenan Scott:
I wanted to show him and him have the representation of being from a different class and being able to have those conversations centered around not only identity sexually, but identity as far as class in community in culture. So these are the things and the layers that I wanted to show that are not often shown for black men. And when they are normally all of these men are not seen together. And you would think that all of these men could not exist. And they do these men walk around my community and all the communities that I’ve ever lived in. And that’s what I wanted to showcase. I wanted to show the spectrum all at the same time, to see the range, to show that we are not monolithic.
Debbie Millman:
I loved the way you wrote the character who we ultimately find out is gay, because until he states that he is, and he’s talking about his relationship, I think most of the people in the audience just assumed that he was a heterosexual man talking about his wife and I love the way you played with us in that way. Keenan, you say you don’t write perfect characters that you create them all to be flawed because that’s where we see humanity. What do you think are the flaws that make us most human.
Keenan Scott:
All of them, it’s hard to pick one, right? As human beings we are so flawed. We at times have egos. We fall in to temptation. We lack discernment at times, there’s a lot of things that I can name, but I think through all of those flaws, hopefully most of us are on a journey to avoid those mistakes, fix our flaws, be the best person we can until we reached our end days. That’s what makes the human existence beautiful that most of us internally don’t want to dwell in our shortcomings and our flaws. And we want to set ourselves on a journey to correct all of those things. And I think that’s what makes our existence beautiful.
Debbie Millman:
You’ve said that you identify most with your character named Passion.
Keenan Scott:
Yes.
Debbie Millman:
Why is that?
Keenan Scott:
I’m a passionate person. I’ve always have been when I often speak my passion gets confused to something else because I speak very passionate of very high energy, especially when it comes to my art and things that I love. And I’ve always been driven by my passion. I’ve always, regardless of what I was doing in life, whether that was football, basketball, painting, writing, I was always very passionate about it and very disciplined about it and liked the character of Passion. Me also being an educator, I was passionate about the youth and I was passionate about helping them and saving them in the best way I could, whether that was showing them that I am them. And there is a way out and the negative things and choices can be avoided. So for me, the character of passion was always very close to me and probably has most of my DNA in that character.
Debbie Millman:
Passion also delivers the last message of the play. He has the last bit to say, is that a moment of optimism you’re trying to provide?
Keenan Scott:
Absolutely. I’ve always been optimistic more at sometimes than others, but I’m naturally an optimistic person and I think in the entertainment field, you have to be extremely optimistic because you spend most of your career hearing no’s until you might hear that one yes. And hopefully string that one yes to another yes. And hopefully create a sustainable career. But in this field, I think you have to be so optimistic about what’s to come, where your careers going to go, the task that you’re trying to fulfill and the goals that you’re trying to acquire gets you to a certain point. So I think just naturally I’ve always been an optimistic person.
Debbie Millman:
You really created this play now on Broadway through the sheer force of your will, but you’re not just doing that. You’re doing other things as well. So the last few things that I want to talk with you about are two other endeavors you’re involved in first, you were awarded a Ted fellowship.
Keenan Scott:
Yes.
Debbie Millman:
The Ted fellowship recognizes individuals at work on world changing ideas and provides them with tools to amplify the power of their vision. What has the collaboration with Ted been like for you?
Keenan Scott:
Ted has been phenomenal. I told them, I joke with them and I joke with my cohort. I’ve never felt so unimportant in my life.
Debbie Millman:
Why is that?
Keenan Scott:
In a positive way and I say that to say, when I first met my cohort, I felt so honored and privileged to be in this fellowship because all through Zoom, because we were still in the pandemic. Everybody was from a different country. People were from all over the world. I’ve never been a part of an organization or a group like that. Internationally people were from New Delhi, Nigeria. I remember going around the room, the virtual room and everybody saying what time it was, it was eight o’clock in the morning for some people. And it was 10 o’clock at night for others. And it just, it blew my mind. And as we introduced our ourselves and said, what we do, one individual is responsible for refrigerating vaccines, for diseases that go to third world countries. Another was a photo journalist that help find and save girls from sex trafficking in India.
Keenan Scott:
And here I am playwright. So for me, I jokingly say that, but I mean it in the most powerful way that I’ve never felt so unimportant in my life because being with these innovators and inventors and scientists realizing that these are the people that are so unsung and from my profession, it’s easy to gain attention, I guess, because of the way we view entertainment and celebrities and actors and notable figures. But here I am on a call with people that are literally saving lives. So I can’t say enough how much it means to be a Ted fellow and for now and forever to be a part of the Ted community. It’s such a beautiful community and I’m just so honored to be a part of it.
Debbie Millman:
My last question is about your newest work. I understand you are already developing your next stage play, which is titled The Migration LP. And you’re also working on a television pilot for Universal. So tell us about both of these projects, please.
Keenan Scott:
Amazing. The Migration LP is a very important piece to me where I wanted to show how the family’s lineage and legacy last throughout the years. So really it starts in the 1920s about a father that wants to move to Harlem, because he’s a dreamer, he’s a performer and he wants to move to Harlem from the south to better his family. But throughout the play, we see what that decision does for his lineage throughout the decades of American history. So we explore the seventies, the forties, the nineties and the now. And we see how that one decision back in the twenties that father made for his family, how it affects his lineage throughout different decades of American history. And I think it’s a beautiful piece, amazing characters. It’s over 20 characters into play.
Keenan Scott:
Hopefully it’ll be on the stage somewhere in the city next year for people to be able to see fingers crossed I’m still working on those things. My pilot at Universal, I can’t speak on exactly what the idea is, but I’m very excited to be working with Universal and to be developing my first TV pilot, commercially with such a great studio. That’s a project that hopefully people will see on the screen here in the near future, but it’s also a great project. So I’m very excited about the pilot that I’m doing over at Universal as well.
Debbie Millman:
Keenan Scott, thank you for making such good and important work.
Keenan Scott:
Thank you.
Debbie Millman:
And putting it out in the world for all of us to be able to share. And thank you for joining me today on Design Matters.
Keenan Scott:
Absolutely. Thank you. It’s an honor. Thanks for having me.
Debbie Millman:
Thank you, Keenan Scott the Seconds play Thoughts Of a Colored Man is currently making its Broadway debut at the Golden theater in New York city. It will be onstage through March. It is a mercy. You can find out more about all the other things Keenan is up to at keenanscott.com. This is the 17th year we’ve been podcasting Design Matters and I’d like to thank you for listening. And remember, we can talk about making a difference. We can make a difference or we can do both. I’m Debbie Millman. And I look forward to talking with you again soon.