Danai Gurira Shares Importance of Live Theater During Tumultuous Times | THR Video
Danai Gurira shares how exciting it is to see African stories get recognition on Broadway while on the carpet of the 2024 Tony Awards. Hear why she believes live theater is so important now more than ever.
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00:00You look incredible.
00:02Thank you.
00:03What are your emotions heading in tonight? It's a big night for Broadway.
00:06It is a big night for Broadway. I'm very, very excited about many things.
00:10You know, I am presenting. I'm presenting the amazing, New York-loving, celebrating Hell's Kitchen,
00:20which is going to be quite a performance. I watched it this morning in the early hours.
00:27I mean, I've seen it twice, the whole thing.
00:29But I watched the performance that they're doing for y'all today, this morning.
00:33And it's very special.
00:36Well, I was going to ask what your favorite production on or off Broadway was.
00:40I have another one.
00:41Okay, yes, give it to me.
00:42Also nominated tonight, my African sister. Don't get me emotional.
00:47Jocelyn Beo.
00:51Tell me about how special that moment is for Broadway.
00:54As an African female playwright as well, you know, it's so exciting to see our stories get recognition
01:03and the platform that only Broadway can give a playwright.
01:07And, you know, I know I was out here with my play, like, oh, what was that?
01:11My God, 2016.
01:13And it was a lonely field.
01:17So to see Jocelyn come and know there are many, many, many more coming
01:22and the African woman's voice will be continually amplified, yeah, it gets to me.
01:27I know it's obviously a wild political year, tumultuous times that we're in right now.
01:31Why is it important now more than ever to have live theater and to have a night like this?
01:35People have to tell their stories.
01:37We have to remember our humanity.
01:39We have to remember that people matter wherever they are, that they matter, that it's not people who want to hide.
01:45We have to remember your humanness above everything.
01:49Don't let anyone ever take that away from you.
01:51And a lot of the time in our political landscapes, we start to come at each other
01:57and come at things in a way where we lose that.
01:59And so what I love about theater is that people come together in a space,
02:03they have a collective community experience, and stories get to be told,
02:07voices get to be heard that aren't often heard.
02:10And, you know, we're thinking about so many conflicts around the world.
02:13We think about Gaza, we think about Rafa, we think about Sudan,
02:16we think about the women of Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, we think of DRC.
02:21There are a lot of places that need to be heard in a way that they don't get to be heard.
02:27Sometimes theater helps just that little, little bit.
02:30I mean, it doesn't necessarily change everything, but it helps make people remember
02:35these are human beings we're talking about, and they deserve to live.