Kirsten Greenidge on ‘Bud, Not Buddy’: A Boy’s Search for His Father

Boston playwright and writer Kirsten Greenidge has already compiled a prolific, diverse and often issues-oriented body of work about the way Americans live today, and, according to New Dramatists, “shines a strong light on the intersection of race and class in America.”

But Greenidge says her latest effort, the script for “Bud, Not Buddy,” a world premiere commission and production that’s part play, part jazz concert in collaboration with the renowned jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard, is a little different.

“A world premiere, yes, and it’s based on this very acclaimed and respected book by Christopher Paul Curtis that’s been read by millions, it’s a big thing for me,” she said. “It’s based on the book and you have to respect that to begin with and that you’re true to source.”

“Bud, Not Buddy” is the story of a ten-year-old African American boy living in 1936, Depression-era Flint, Michigan, who’s just lost his mother, and wants desperately to find his father, except that he doesn’t know where he is. The only thing he has to go on is a fragment left by his mother, a flyer promoting a band leader named Herman E. Calloway, who leads a jazz ensemble with the resonant name of the Dusky Devastators of the Depression. Bud — who is not called Buddy — packs a suitcase and sets out to find his father, and himself, embarking on an epic journey.

“You have to deal with the music as well,” Greenidge said. “I can’t say I’m a jazz buff, but I do listen to the music, and  I did some research, and the era is fascinating—there were all kinds of variations on jazz, big band sounds and other genres.  Working with Terence Blanchard is such a pleasure. He’s such a major talent. It’s a new experience for me.” Blanchard is also the composer for a world premiere production of “Champion,” which will be staged by the Washington National Opera as an “opera in jazz,” beginning March 4.

Greenidge, an Obie Award winner who also oversees the playwrighting course of study at Boston University’s School of Drama, is used to more contemporary fare, although she’s also working on a play about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings.  “Bud, Not Buddy,” Greenidge said, is “about an African American boy, whose journey is very particular, but he’s searching for a father, and searching for a home in a particular time and place, but that’s also a very universal theme and story.”

Greenidge is also the author of “Milk and Sugar,” a coming of age story about a young African American girl which was staged by Mosaic Theater for its second season at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington under the direction of Jennifer Nelson.  Other works include “The Luck of the Irish,” which is about a black couple seeking to buy a home in a white neighborhood and uses a white couple as proxy buyers, a not uncommon but controversial practice.

Her work has been staged the Huntington Theatre Company, LCT3, the La Jolla Playhouse, Playwrights Horizons and Company One Theatre, and she is working on commissions from Cleveland  Playhouse, the Huntington, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival/American Revolutions Playwrights Horizon,  and the Goodman Theatre.  She was awarded an Obie from the Village Voice and has received a PEN/America Award, two TCG/Edgerton Awards and a San Diego Critics Award.

“Bud, Not Buddy” — part of “JFKC: A Centennial Celebration of John F. Kennedy” — runs at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater through Sunday, Jan. 15. The cast includes Frankie Falson, Roscoe Orman, Ken Yatta Rogers, Ray Shell, John Clarence Stewart, Justin Weaks, Charlayne Woodard and Michael Willis.