The Origins of The Madame of Leimert

The Madame of Leimert is born from larryjean/gene being the 2021 recipient of IAMA Theatre Company's Rhimes Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission, made possible by Shonda Rhimes and The Rhimes Family Foundation. This commission supports an underrepresented writer of color who has not had a play professionally produced.

Gene immediately got to work and, inspired by a certain group of Black Gay Icons in Los Angeles, sat with them, gathered histories, hopes, desires, and losses. They then wrote a purely fictional piece as a container to explore and examine themes that kept coming up in the conversations. They set it at a legendary party that happens in Los Angeles called The Sip N Tip, which Gene’s Uncle Arthur Smiley started years and years ago.

Gene then used most of their commission to pay other Black Men, most of whom identified somewhere on the spectrum of Queerness, of all ages, to come together, read pages, and share histories of their own with one another on Zoom over the course of four Friday afternoon/evenings in March 2021. Whether they were there to listen or read, they each were sent $100. IAMA gave extra support when Gene’s commission ran out. Gene called them “Sip N Reads.”

Sip N Read participants included:
Eric B. Anthony, Waymon Arnette, D. Malik Beckford, Terrence Carson, Reginald Douglas, Antwayn Hopper, Danny Johnson, Zhailon Levingston, Donja R. Love, Kevyn Morrow, Isaiah Reaves, Charles Reese, Kenneth Roberson, Devere Rogers, Michael Rishawn, Justin Sams, Michael A. Shepperd, Jalen Stewart, Uyoata Udi, Charles Wallace, Josh Wilder, and Galen J. Williams, with Kenneth L. Roberson as Lead Collaborator.

The first meeting and discussion about the first draft of the play (then called Edward’s Elysium Parts 1, 2, and 3) was with IAMA Artistic Director Stefanie Black. Gene called their brother Greg Wilson and asked if they could have the meeting there at The Carl Bean House (Home of In The Meantime Men’s Group) in Los Angeles, CA.

By the end of 2021, the play had its first public reading as part of IAMA’s Festival of New Works, then called Eddie’s Love. The cast included Matthew Hancock, Harrison White, Blake Young-Fountain, Parnell Marcano, John Sweet, Darian Dauchan, Justin Sams, and Eric B. Anthony, Directed by Roger Q. Mason.

The next summer, on Gene’s birthday June 30th, 2022, the play received a second public reading with support from IAMA Theatre Company and The Latino Theatre Company at The New Los Angeles Theatre Center. The cast included Devere Rogers, Harrison White, Abraham Amkpa, Charles Reese, John Sweet, Darian Dauchan, Justin Sams, Malachi Rivers, and Thomas Silcott, Directed by Gene Powell with creative support from Zhailon Levingston, Roger Q. Mason, Stevie Walker-Webb, and williambryantmiles as Lead Collaborator.

In July 2024 we made the PASSION version and on December 12th, 2024 we shared it as part of an Open Community Screening Wellness Activation in-part funded by Holly Mitchell’s Office Los Angeles County’s 2nd District’s Office of Arts & Culture.

This play examines the urgent need for intergenerational mentorship within the community and the conflicts that arise between personal desires and communal responsibilities.