SpeakEasy Stage

A rousing 'Ain't No Mo'' poses a provocative question

A rousing 'Ain't No Mo'' poses a provocative question

Caption: Among other characters, Grant Evan plays a drag queen named Peaches. (Courtesy Nile Scott Studios)

I’m unsure if I’ve ever been as moved, devastated and simultaneously entertained as when I watched Front Porch Arts Collective and SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of Jordan E. Cooper’s “Ain’t No Mo’” (through Feb. 8).

The play starts with a spirited sermon delivered by Pastor Freeman behind a kente-striped podium. It’s 2008, and Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States. 

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What Can an EDI Consultant Do for a Play?

Artist and entrepreneur Kira Troilo leads with empathy and heart.

She has employed both attributes in her work with Boston’s SpeakEasy Stage Company, which recently staged three plays with intricate narratives centering on characters of color: Sanaz Toossi‘s EnglishHansol Jung‘s Wild Goose Dreams, and Jackie Sibblies Drury‘s Fairview. These productions—with themes of division, racism, identity, and more—respectively took audiences to a classroom in Iran, to the bustling city of Seoul, and into the home of a suburban Black family readying for a birthday party.

Showgoers at these productions may not have realized how much work went into trying to get them right, but directors and actors from the shows say the behind-the-scenes work of Kira Troilo, an equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) consultant and the founder of Art & Soul Consulting, was particularly helpful in handling the cross-cultural issues raised by these plays with sensitivity and care. Read more


A scene from "Fairview." Photo: Nile Scott Studios