A quote from reviewer

Ms. Margie Brown-Boynes Puts on a One-Woman Show! — Last night my friend Margie Brown-Boynes put on a one-woman show about her life at the Old Academy Players Theatre in Philadelphia.  Margie is 75-years old, and this is the first time she’s acted on stage.  She’s been a beauty shop owner and operator; community youth program executive, property pre-development consultant, and policy director for a great number of social-action initiatives, including her Youth Gang &Police Live-in Retreat in the 70’s, and her current Home Partnership Program for single women over 55 who cannot afford conventional retirement communities.

     As an actress, Margie is fabulous as a ten- year- old and fifty –year old in her play “Scarred in the Womb” & George the Therapist which is drawn from her memoir of the same name.

     In this play as in her book, Margie is creating a dialogue about parenting, by tracking her journey as a child wounded from not knowing her father. Margie is particularly focused on fathers, a big issue in the inner city, where a large number of teenage men are fathering children but not taking the responsibility for them or participating in their lives.

     Margie’s play about her life is presented in three scenes—the first about her teenage mother’s romances and blues and giving birth to her, Margie. In this act, Margie, dressed in pink little girl clothes, pink and white sneakers with big braids and bow, prances around the stage as the vibrant little girls that she was at ten. She talked about and acted out the sadness of never knowing her father, being called a “bastard child” and how it made her feel.

     Music, from “Where are the Fathers” by Israel Houghton, to Dance with my Father Again” by Luther Vandross, and Reach out and Touch Somebody’s Hand” sung by Diana Ross accompanies Margie’s story, which is moving and powerful. Her appearance on stage ends when she comes on stage dressed as a 50-year old professional in stylish hat and gloves and dress getting ready for a trip to Africa. In that scene, she applies for her birth certificate to get a passport and finds out, for the first time in her life, her own father’s name. Her anger is palpable when she declares that this all happened to her, but she’s going to do something about it with and for young people so that others didn’t have to suffer the hurt she had.

     The play doesn’t end with Margie’s story—which I should say, elicited a great deal of laughter, as well as tears, from the audience.  In part four, a young psychotherapist, Tim Barksdale, crosses the stage as if coming into his office. Soon other adults and children begin “arriving” at his (stage) door to talk about the play they had seen. The other “actors” along with Tim Barksdale, included Dr. Thora Brown, Counseling Psychologist who works with young children, their parents and teachers; Edward S. Melvin, MSW, Behaviorist, who works with children and their families in crisis; Dr. Wesley Pugh, Professor at Cheyney University; Dr. Nathaniel King, retired principal; Dale R. Allen, Jr., MBA, New York Life Insurance Company, as well as three teenagers, Kahil Brown, Kariyma Brown, and Tieara Finkley.  These people began a dialogue on stage about the play and the issues involved, including the impact of absent parents on youth crime.  Margie had written into her production and memoir the question “If womb scars were revealed and treated at age five instead of age 75, could youth bullying and other youth crimes be reduced? If so what would the treatment model look like?”

    The audience participated as well in this fourth scene. When one of the professionals on stage took issue with the term “scarred” in the womb, saying, it should be called a wounding, not a scarring, because these emotions can be healed as part of something larger, part of love, a young woman in the audience disagreed, saying that for her it was still a scarring. A young man seconded her with his own experience.

     The way Margie and they experienced it, they were scarred by not knowing at least one of their parents. Margie’s says that as a child and young woman, even up to today, she feels wounded and ashamed of being called “illegitimate.” Many more people in the packed neighborhood theatre expressed similar feelings.

     Lots of us have scars. Everyone, even the coldest of people, longs for warmth and reassurance.  We all long for love. Certainly love, protection and power surround a baby in the womb, but that same benevolence is not always shown them in the world into which they’ve emerged. How we make it out through that tiny wet tunnel into light is astonishing—and then we appear, wet and goopy and alive—it’s a miracle. But then” real life” choices come in to play. Babies are our future—they all belong to us. We need to take care of them so that they can grow up to live, love, and care for others.

     Margie’s play is important, as is her memoir. She has lived a long time helping others, young and old alike. I am thrilled and impressed by her courage to get up there and show her stuff. She was marvelous!  The dialogue she’s stated is important. I hope it was videotaped. All these thoughtful African American men, women and teenagers on stage, discussing the issues from a wide variety of perspectives, and then people roused up and speaking from the audience, is inspiring and contagious. Last night’s play, and last nights speakers make it evident how critical a topic it is —and how Margie Brown-Boynes play and her book can be used for the healing we so desperately need to make this world a less angry and better place for all of us.

--Kathryn (Kitsi) Watterson
[Professor, Author, and Civil Rights Activist]
June 15, 2006

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