Once upon a time, Toni Robinson was a familiar face on the stage in metro Phoenix. But, for the last decade, she stopped performing. Instead, she learned how to become a playwright.
And now, she’s returning to the stage to perform her first play — a one-woman show called “Between Masks and Mirrors.”
The play premieres Friday and runs through this weekend at the Black Theatre Troupe’s Helen K. Mason Performing Arts Center.
She came into KJZZ studios recently to talk about the show.
Full conversation
LAUREN GILGER: Let’s begin with the kind of long road to this performance, right? Because you were on stage often, a decade ago, but you took a long time off. Tell us, why, what that felt like? Did you miss it?
TONI ROBINSON: Oh, I definitely missed it. I think stepping away from the stage when that’s what you love and when it’s your passion is a really difficult thing to do, but it was a time of me going inward.
I think of it as an incubation, not a time away from the stage, but a time where I had an opportunity to start developing some other areas. So, I took classes, I worked on my writing skills, this is my first time being a playwright.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah.
TONI ROBINSON: So, it was an opportunity to develop and hone that as well.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, and it sounds like you did a lot of those things in service of this project, which was sort of mulling in the background for that decade?
TONI ROBINSON: Yes, I have lived with these stories for years. I have and, you know, you want them to come out and I just wanted to do it well. I wanted to do a good job of bringing them to the world. And so that was an opportunity to really develop the characters, to think about who they are, to observe people, to get some nuanced information and to bring that all into the project.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. OK, so it’s a one-woman show, your first play, as you said. That’s quite an an undertaking for your first play. Why a one-woman show?
TONI ROBINSON: Well, I’ve always loved the genre ever since I saw Whoopi Goldberg many, many years ago doing her one-woman show, I thought this is something I would love to do. And so, the other piece is when you’re a new playwright, it’s much easier to write for one person than to write for a lot of different characters.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, I could see that.
TONI ROBINSON: So, that’s part of it, but I’m also fascinated with characters and people’s stories. And so doing it this way allows me to get into each individual person and allows the audience to kind of really understand the characters who are there and take their stories into consideration.
LAUREN GILGER: OK, so it is sort of a series of almost vignettes, right? Like it’s not one long play, it’s almost five separate character studies in a way. Do they tie together?
TONI ROBINSON: Yes. So they’re five distinct characters in five completely different scenarios. And the connection between them all is they’re all taking the courage to kind of look beneath the mask that they wear and confront who they really are.
I think that what you’ll see between the characters is that every one of them has a unique story, a unique situation, but they’re all sort of coming to realization like who they really are at this point in this juncture in their lives.
LAUREN GILGER: Right, so that’s an interesting way to thread them together because you have it sounds like a very diverse set of characters, like one is an ICE agent, another’s a person who uses a wheelchair, you’re playing men, you’re playing women, right? This is all kind of ages. Where do these characters come from?
TONI ROBINSON: So, they’re a compilation of people I’ve met along the way, of people I know, and then of me as well. So, I have a way of attracting stories and people to tell me their stories, and I started writing this as a way to share those stories.
The initial name was “Divine Encounters” because I just feel like I meet people and we connect and we have we share this moment of life together. And so, in doing that, I found myself in a lot of these stories. And so, that was kind of how I came up with the characters, is just pulling all these people and these situations together and also looking at society and some of the things going on in society as well, and bringing that into the story.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, so I don’t want you to give it all away, but give us an example of how you kind of structure as a playwright, a one-woman show. Like are you talking to characters who aren’t there who you can hear? How do you set the scene? I mean, logistically, it sounds difficult.
TONI ROBINSON: It’s challenging, I will say that. And it’s funny because when you’re writing, you have all these visions in your mind of how it’s going to come out. And when you actually start going into production, it becomes a completely different thing.
So, one of the scenarios, it’s where the audience is actually the individual I’m speaking to. So that’s a really easy way to do it so that there’s no one else there.
In another one, we’re using some voiceover. So, you’ll hear other people in the conversation, you’ll hear my inner thoughts in that conversation as well, and then you’ll hear me speaking on stage. So, we’re using a variety of different ways to kind of bring that forward.
LAUREN GILGER: That’s really interesting. OK, but physically demanding, I’m guessing, because you are the only one on stage for I’m guessing a full-length, long show with maybe a break in the middle. Like that’s not a lot. What’s it been like to actually stage this, to put it on stage in real life? Is it exhausting?
TONI ROBINSON: It is exhausting, and I will tell you, I start my day every day going to the mountain for a hike.
LAUREN GILGER: OK.
TONI ROBINSON: And I’m doing that so I can get my stamina up to keep the energy throughout. And as I’m hiking, I’m actually saying my lines and moving because it is, and not having been on stage for a while, you forget the physicality that’s involved, right?
And there’s a lot of movement, and especially with the character who’s in a wheelchair, like just moving the wheelchair around the stage and doing that, it is it does take a lot of energy, it takes a lot of movement, but I’m actually really thrilled to be doing that.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. Are you getting some weird looks on the mountain when you’re walking?
TONI ROBINSON: No, no. Everyone everyone’s kind of weird on the mountain, so it’s all good. It’s all good.
LAUREN GILGER: Does each performance come out differently?
TONI ROBINSON: It does, and that surprises me. Each practice comes out differently. I’ve been playing with voices, with accents, and as I get to know my characters even more, they bring forth things that I didn’t even think they would bring about. So, yeah, everyone is still a little different.
LAUREN GILGER: I love how you just talked about that like they’re separate from you in a way, like they take control when you’re when you’re embodying them.
TONI ROBINSON: They kind of do, yeah.
LAUREN GILGER: How does that work? What’s it feel like?
TONI ROBINSON: It feels like, for me, it’s like I’ve stepped out of observing, like being the participant observer and I am just truly the participant in that stage.
LAUREN GILGER: That’s amazing.
TONI ROBINSON: And that person. And to me, that also says that I’m finally giving this person voice and being authentic to who they are.
LAUREN GILGER: I love that. Do you have a favorite character you get to play in all this?
TONI ROBINSON: That’s a hard question. It’s hard because they’re all so different, and there are pieces of all of them that I really love.
I would say favorite character is probably the last one who is a mystic, a clairvoyant. And she’s just a lot of fun, she’s over the top, she’s energetic, she’s very interesting and very layered. So, that’s probably the favorite one because she brings this whole, this dimension of fun.
LAUREN GILGER: That sounds like fun, yeah. A clairvoyant, OK, cool.
So, the last thing I want to ask you about is I guess in the title and you’ve mentioned pieces of this throughout this conversation, but it sounds like what you’re trying to get at for yourself at least is and for your characters, is like how do you understand what kind of masks you’re presenting to the world. Is that the challenge you’re trying to give to your audience here as well?
TONI ROBINSON: I think I’m trying to ask the audience: Who are you when you take off the mask that you wear on the outside? And are you even aware that you’re wearing the mask? When did you put it on? How long have you been wearing it?
And if you take that off and you look at the person who’s there, is that someone that you identify with and you’re comfortable with? And then thinking about the people that we encounter, I want the audience to be curious about the people they encounter and who they are underneath the mask that they’re wearing.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, strip us all back to our humanity a little bit.
TONI ROBINSON: Strip us back. Yeah, pull pull back the mask and just, you know, look at the reflection and just know that that’s a a beautiful reflection and if you want to change it, you can.
LAUREN GILGER: Masks and mirrors, OK. Toni Robinson, thank you so much.
TONI ROBINSON: Thank you.
MARK BRODIE: Toni Robinson’s one-woman show, “Between Masks and Mirrors,” premiering Friday, and runs through this weekend at the Black Theatre Troupe’s Helen K. Mason Performing Arts Center.
KJZZ’s The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text is edited for length and clarity, and may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ’s programming is the audio record.