Stagecraft: Kelundra Smith on “The Wash”

Summary

Broadway Radio Podcast Summary
Episode: Stagecraft: Kelundra Smith on “The Wash”

Release Date: June 18, 2025
Host: Jan Simpson
Guest: Calundra Smith

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Introduction

In this episode of BroadwayRadio's Stagecraft, host Jan Simpson engages in an enlightening conversation with Calundra Smith, a seasoned theater journalist and critic who has recently ventured into playwriting. The focus of their discussion centers on Smith's latest work, “The Wash”, a play that delves into a pivotal yet overlooked event in American history.

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Overview of “The Wash”

“The Wash” is a dramatization inspired by the true story of the Atlanta Washer Women’s Strike of 1881. Calundra Smith articulates the premise of the play, highlighting its historical significance and contemporary relevance.

“The Wash is inspired by the true story of the Atlanta Washer women's strike of 1881... and they won.”
— Calundra Smith [02:33]

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Discovery of the Historical Event

Smith recounts her initial encounter with the story during a visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Surprised by the lack of prior knowledge about this event in her Atlanta upbringing, she delved deeper into research, which eventually led to the creation of her play.

“...I saw it, and I thought to myself, I'm born and raised in Atlanta... and I had never heard of this.”
— Calundra Smith [03:40]

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Transition from Critic to Playwright

Jan Simpson inquires about Smith's transition from being a theater critic to a playwright—a move that initially seemed unplanned but became a natural evolution driven by her passion for the story.

“...it was like the story needed a medium, but that was bigger than what journalism would allow for me.”
— Calundra Smith [18:16]

Smith admits feeling apprehensive but found support in collaborating with talented artists and dramaturgs, which alleviated her fears and enriched the play's development.

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Challenges in Dramatizing the Strike

Smith outlines several key challenges she faced in bringing “The Wash” to life:

1. Learning the Craft: Transitioning from reviewing to writing demanded a deep understanding of dramatic structure and storytelling.
2. Authentic Southern Storytelling: Balancing traditional dramatic elements with Southern narrative nuances required careful orchestration.
3. Movement and Stage Directions: The play's focus on the physical act of washing posed unique challenges in depicting movements authentically on stage.
4. Maintaining Contemporary Relevance: Ensuring the period piece resonated with modern audiences without losing its historical essence.

“...finding that balance was really the bulk of the work of setting us in place, but also having the contemporary resonance...”
— Calundra Smith [07:48]

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Character Development and Diversity

Central to “The Wash” are its richly developed characters, each representing different facets of African American women's experiences during the Reconstruction era. Smith emphasizes the importance of portraying diverse backgrounds, challenges, and personal lives to humanize the historical narrative.

“These women are fully formed, you know, and they're not only dealing with, like, the wages and the strike, but they have other things happening in their lives...”
— Calundra Smith [08:30]

The inclusion of a white ally character, Moselle, serves to explore interracial solidarity, reflecting nuanced relationships and collaborative efforts during the strike.

“Moselle is as much of an ally she could possibly be in the 19th century and more of an ally than some folks are now.”
— Calundra Smith [11:29]

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Nuanced Portrayal of Activism

Smith delves into the complexities of activism, acknowledging that not all participants may be unequivocally committed. By portraying characters with doubts and fears, the play presents a more authentic and relatable depiction of social movements.

“...it's almost like there's this perception, like it's just a part of who we are...”
— Calundra Smith [12:49]

She references Jeray Holder's Too Heavy for Your Pocket as an inspiration for addressing class differences in activism, underscoring the multifaceted nature of social justice endeavors.

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Productions and Reception

“The Wash” is part of the New Play Network’s rolling world premiere, with productions spanning Atlanta, St. Louis, New York, and Chicago. Smith expresses delight in observing how different regions interpret and resonate with the play, noting the universal investment of audiences in the characters and their stories.

“...the audience reaction and the way that they are invested in the characters and what happens to them is universal.”
— Calundra Smith [16:25]

The play has successfully ignited audience interest in the historical event, prompting many to seek further information and engage with their own communities.

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From Critic to Creator: Navigating Reviews

Smith reflects on the unique position of being both a critic and a playwright. Her background allows her to understand potential biases and blind spots in theatrical critiques, helping her navigate reviews with resilience.

“...when black, and especially black Southern work is reviewed by people who don't live that experience...”
— Calundra Smith [18:16]

Contrary to her fears, the reception has been overwhelmingly positive, with reviews appreciating the play's depth and its ability to challenge and provoke thought.

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Future Projects: The Reconstruction Trilogy and Beyond

“The Wash” marks the beginning of Smith’s Reconstruction Trilogy, which explores black achievements in post-Civil War Georgia through interconnected narratives focusing on family, popular sovereignty, and social mobility.

1. “The Wash” – Social Mobility in Atlanta
2. “The Vote” – Popular Sovereignty in McIntosh County, Georgia
3. Upcoming Play – [Details to be announced]

Additionally, Smith has other projects in the pipeline:

• “Monarchs”: A Great Migration story set during the Great Depression.
• “Other Paths to God”: A contemporary workplace comedy commissioned by Horizon Theater in Atlanta.

“...it's a part of a trilogy of plays that I'm writing called the Reconstruction Trilogy...”
— Calundra Smith [20:34]

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Conclusion

Jan Simpson wraps up the conversation by highlighting the significance of “The Wash” in shedding light on forgotten chapters of American history and its relevance in today’s sociopolitical landscape. Smith encourages listeners to attend upcoming productions and stay informed through her website.

“If folks are interested in the plays and knowing where they'll be produced, I put the different locations and dates on my website, calundra.com.”
— Calundra Smith [23:02]

The episode concludes with an invitation to explore more BroadwayRadio podcasts, promising continued insights into the world of playwrights and theater creators.

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Stay Connected:
For more information on “The Wash” and other plays by Calundra Smith, visit calundra.com.

Transcript

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[Jan Simpson]

Every play, every musical begins with some writer putting words on a page hello and welcome to Stagecraft, the Broadway radio podcast that talks to playwrights and musical book writers about the shows they've created. My name is Jan Simpson. My guest this week is Calundra Smith, the author of the A Timely Play about a Forgotten Part of American History that the New Federal Theater is presenting at the WP Theater through June 29th. Let me say right up front that I know Calundra and have admired her work as a theater journalist and critic for years now. And so it was great fun for me to talk with her about her new role as a playwright. Hello Calundra Smith, welcome to Stagecraft.

[Calundra Smith]

Thank you so much for having me. Hello. Hello.

[Jan Simpson]

I'm so up for this conversation. We usually start these episodes with a brief description of what the show is about, so could you tell listeners who haven't yet had a chance to see it what the Wash is about?

[Calundra Smith]

Yes, the Wash is inspired by the true story of the Atlanta Washer women's strike of 1881. This was a real historical event in Reconstruction era Georgia where African American laundresses who were fed up with being dissed on their pay said no pay, no wash. And they started throwing everybody's dirty clothes out into the streets. Just weeks before a new cotton expo was due to come to town and showcase the new South. Everybody was walking around in soiled knickers, as the newspaper said of the time. And so these women organized very, very methodically in churches, and they grew from a couple dozen women to more than 3,000 in just two weeks. And they won.

[Jan Simpson]

When did you first come across this story? Because I don't think it's one that a lot of people know, or at least it's one that I didn't know.

[Calundra Smith]

I first learned about the Atlanta washerwomen strike about seven or eight years ago. I had gone to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and culture in D.C. and in the historical galleries there, there's a reconstruction section, and there's just a panel in that section about the Atlanta washerwomen strike. And I saw it, and I thought to myself, I'm born and raised in Atlanta. I've lived in Georgia most of my life, and I had never heard of this. This was never taught in schools. And so I immediately needed to learn more. I reached out to Kalinda Lee, who was the historian at the Atlanta History center at the time, and I looked through newspaper archives, and one thing led to another led to a play.

[Jan Simpson]

Did you know pretty soon in your research that you were going to dramatize it?

[Calundra Smith]

Not at all. So I was actually at that museum on assignment when it first opened in my capacity as a journalist. I was covering the opening of the museum, and I had turned in my story to the magazine I was writing for at the time and had kind of. Because it had never occurred to me to write a play. And so one day I was driving home from work, and I started hearing these voices that I can only describe today as like, the voices of my ancestors. And those voices are what became what is now Act 1, Scene 2. Hmm.

[Jan Simpson]

You've written a real play. It's not just sort of like a historical pageant or a TED Talk. So could you now talk about what were the challenges in dramatizing this event, even though the voices had come to you?

[Calundra Smith]

I would say the two main challenges. Well, I'll say three main challenges were a. I had never written a play before, but I had reviewed plays and covered theater for a long time. So I really had to start watching and reading plays differently, paying attention, truly, to the craft of how we move from one moment to the next to get that dramatic structure down, but then also figuring out the authentic, like, Southern storytelling of it, of messing with traditional dramatic structure and really placing it in Like a Southern storytelling experience. And traditional dramatic structure and innate Southern storytelling are not one to one at all. So it was trying to figure out where that play's authentic voice lives in the specificity of the region and of the women, but also making it mold into this dramatic structure. So that was one challenge. The other challenge was the movement. Language of it as written is a lot of movement of fabric and sheets. And really figuring out that flow from scene to scene, which, in the New York production Awoye Tempo, who's the director, did a really cool thing where they're moving walls instead of sheets. So she is experimenting there. And it works really well. But as written, there's all this kind of sheetography, as I call it. And then I would say the last piece that was really challenging is that for me, it was very important that this period piece feel immediate, that it feel present, that it harken to things that are happening today, and that it feel very contemporary as much as it does feel like it's set in 1881. And so finding that balance was really the bulk of the work of setting us in place, but also having the contemporary resonance, which I think I achieved.

[Jan Simpson]

I'm also interested in how you decided on the particular characters in the play. Because it's a large story, but you root it through the experiences of four or five women. And I'm very interested in how you chose and how you shaped those particular women. Were they based on historical women, or did you feel the need to choose women who represented different kinds of experiences?

[Calundra Smith]

So the characters are all fictional. But I really wanted to write an intergenerational dramedy, if you will, that depicted different women at different phases of their lives. I thought that was super important, especially because I feel like today women don't seem to be talking across generations very effectively at all, from my perspective. And so I wanted to write something that could start to open that up. And then to also think about the fact that for black women, especially in this country, and for poor women more broadly, you're never dealing with just one challenge. So these women are fully formed, you know, and they're not only dealing with, like, the wages and the strike, but they have other things happening in their lives that are immediate and urgent and need to be addressed. And my philosophy has always been, even in my work as a journalist, that if you can make someone care about a person, then you can make them care about what happens to them. And so I kept that in mind as I was building the characters. And then, of course, there has to be humor, because I do believe that laughter is the key to overcoming and sustainability. And so these women are not just striking, but they're joking, they're laughing. They have other things happening because they have to have life outside of their circumstances.

[Jan Simpson]

When you talk about the different generations, there are women who had one time been enslaved. There are women who are more educated. There are women who are married, women who are gay. There's just an assemblage of women.

[Calundra Smith]

Yeah, I mean, there's. To me, there's nothing new under the sun. And so, you know, having a woman who's a lesbian, but having to navigate that in an 1881 context, you know, to me felt very, very necessary. You know, women who have lost children, women who are having children and raising children. You know what I mean? It's a part of the experience, and I think it breathes humanity into these characters. Because I think often when people think of, like, a 19th century histor drama, they're thinking like, oh, this is going to be depressing, or they think of something super didactic. And I wanted to kind of disrupt the perception of what a period piece could be in that way. Like, we can talk about hard things, but we can also have a triumphant view of them.

[Jan Simpson]

There's also. I don't think this is a spoiler. There's also a white character in the play, and I'm wondering, was she always a part of your story?

[Calundra Smith]

Yes, the character Moselle was always a part of the piece. And I thought it was really important because at the time that I started writing the Wash, I really needed to write a version of allyship I had never experienced at the time. Moselle is as much of an ally she could possibly be in the 19th century and more of an ally than some folks are now. So it gave me that opportunity to imagine. But also it was rooted in the history of the time. There were a small number of white laundresses who did join the strike. So that is rooted 100% in actuality. But more importantly for me, it was an opportunity to look at interracial solidarity and what can be achieved when we get together across color lines.

[Jan Simpson]

I thought it was also interesting that some of the women in this community are not so sure they want to participate or that they can participate in. In the strike. And I'm curious about why you felt the need to include that point of view.

[Calundra Smith]

Well, I think so often we think of activism as, like, automatic. Right. Like that at some point we're all going to get pushed to something that will push us into Activism. And, like, especially when it comes to black folks, it's almost like there's this perception, like it's just a part of who we are. And I think that there needed to be some nuance to that. Like, that people can be afraid, they can be uncertain, they can be hesitant. That's human. Everybody's not always on the same page. And so I think it added layers to the characters. I think it made it more true. And I have to give a shout out to. He now goes by Mansa, But Jeray Holder was what he went by when he wrote the play Too heavy for your Pocket. And that play, for those who are unfamiliar with it, was about a young man who grew up poor who decided to join the Freedom Riders. And it really dealt with, like, the class difference of who could protest during the civil rights movement and what was at stake. And I remember that play being so unique to me for unpacking that. And I thought, yes, that's 100% true, because, like, I descend from people who supported the movement in the sense of the ideals of it, but they were too living on the margins to be able to not work and go march, you know, like, that costs you. And so I thought it was important to raise that, that, you know, some people are willing to lose it all, and some people are like, this is too much to lose, and that's okay.

[Jan Simpson]

I remember that play and remember being moved by exactly what you're talk about and then again moved and recognizing that, as you say, nuance in your work as well. The program note says that this is a production of the New Play Network, an alliance of theaters that give playwrights an opportunity to see more than one production of their play. And I was wondering what that has been like for you, seeing your work reinterpreted in different ways by different directors.

[Calundra Smith]

It's been a real treat. The national New Play Network rolling world premiere of this play started in Atlanta last year, where the play ran for eight weeks in the summer of 2024. And then it had a production in St. Louis in March of 2025. And now this production at New Federal Theater is not actually a part of the NNPN rolling world premiere, but it is an additional. But the rolling world premiere will conclude in Chicago in November, and there are some productions already slated for 2026. And it has been really cool to see how people interpret, you know, the setting and the. And the choreography of it all. But then there's also been the opportunity to see how the play resonates in different regions of the country, because at this point, it's been in three different regions. It was in the Southeast and the Midwest and now in the Northeast. And it's been really cool to see what resonates in different regions and what lands in different regions, but also affirming to know that when I talk to people in the audience after the show, the audience reaction and the way that they are invested in the characters and what happens to them is universal. And also, audiences are always asking, how come I never heard this story before? I've got to look up more about this. And that, to me, is the biggest treat, is when people feel empowered and inspired to go get the information for themselves, and hopefully it ignites something in them to see how they can make positive change in their own communities.

[Jan Simpson]

Yeah. Yeah. And that makes the play particularly relevant in terms of what's going on right now in attempts to suppress history. And so the chance to be exposed to what is our collective history, American history, is really, really important as well. So thanks for that, too. Now, I know you as a critic and a theater journalist, and so I have to ask you what it's been like to jump on the other side of the table and be a playwright. Was it a difficult move? Did it make you nervous about how your fellow AND s critics would respond to the play? Did being a critic help you in terms of shaping the play? I'm just curious about the whole thing.

[Calundra Smith]

So I would say that. Was it scary? Yes, because it was something that I hadn't planned to do. You know, it was like the story needed a medium, but that was bigger than what journalism would allow for me. And so it came into the form of a play. And so whenever you're doing something you've never done before, it's like, am I crazy? You know, and so that was scary. But I also have the great privilege of working with very talented artists along the way to help with the development of the piece. I never felt like I was doing it solo, never felt like pressure in that way. Had had the honor of working with great dramaturgs all the way through and then great directors as well. And so that piece felt good. I will say that being reviewed, I had two different minds with it. Right. Because I'm a theater critic, I know what the challenges are when black, and especially black Southern work is reviewed by people who don't live that experience. Right. So because I'm a critic, I know where the biases and the blind spots are in the industry. But I think that that also helped me to not take some things personally. But I've also been surprised and delighted by, you know, the worst fear that anybody has of their New York premiere is that they'll be completely panned and run out of. And that has not happened.

[Jan Simpson]

No, it has not.

[Calundra Smith]

It has not happened. Like, no. None of the reviews have been like, this is awful. Don't go see it. She should never write a play again. And that is the win for me. Like, all of the reviews have something to chew on in them. And I can tell when I'm reading the reviews that the play challenges critics and makes them think. And so that feels like an achievement.

[Jan Simpson]

Does the whole experience make you want to write more plays?

[Calundra Smith]

Well, Jan, it's funny you should bring that up, because I already have.

[Jan Simpson]

Oh, my gosh. Okay.

[Calundra Smith]

So the Wash is a part of a trilogy of plays that I'm writing called the Reconstruction Trilogy. Three plays set during Reconstruction era Georgia that focus on black achievements during that time period. The areas that the play focuses on are the family, popular sovereignty, and social mobility. So the Wash is the social mobility Atlanta story. And right now I'm working on the Vote, which is the popular sovereignty story set in south coastal Georgia, set in McIntosh County. And so I actually will have a reading of that play in Atlanta soon. It'll be, I think by the time this comes out, it will have passed, but It'll be on June 17th in Atlanta that we'll have a reading of the Vote. And in addition to the trilogy, I also have a play called Monarchs that I wrote, which I started writing the Wash, and then I put the Wash down and I wrote Monarchs, and I finished Monarchs first. And Monarchs is a great migration story that imagines family that moves from Jackson, Mississippi, to Chicago, Illinois, during the Great Depression. And then I also have a play called Other Paths to God, which was a commission by Horizon Theater in Atlanta. Other Paths to God is a very contemporary workplace comedy about a group of nurses who get entangled in an embezzlement scheme at the hospital where they work, and hijinks ensue as they try to prove their innocence.

[Jan Simpson]

Well, I'm looking forward to all of them on the bas of the Wash. I think this is a great direction for you to be going. And while we're waiting to get those on stage, people in New York now have the opportunity to see the Wash. And those in Chicago will have a chance to see it later this year, and hopefully it will pop up in other places as well. In the meantime, thank you so much for talking with us about this really smart and entertaining play.

[Calundra Smith]

As well, thank you so much for having me. And I will just say, if folks are interested in the plays and knowing where they'll be produced, I put the different locations and dates on my website, calundra.com that's k-e l u n d r a dot com. So they can always find information about where the play is in a city around the country on my website.

[Jan Simpson]

Great. And we'll put that in the show notes, too. Okay. Thanks again, Galandra, and thank you for joining us. We hope you'll come back next time and that you'll listen to all the other Broadway radio podcasts, which you can find on Broadway Radio. Com.