• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Nov 15, 2009

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This is the story of The Story, which makes its Southern University premiere on Wednesday, Nov. 18.

Aileen Hendricks learned of The Story from a friend, who told her it was, well, a good story. Hendricks is a theater professor in Southern’s Visual and Performing Arts Department.

The Story is a play written by Tracy Scott Wilson.

“And she was right,” Henricks said. “It is a good story. It’s something our students can really relate to. It challenges everybody in the way we react and asks why we grab on to stereotypes — and why we characterize those stereotypes.”

The Story does this by looking at several levels of racism explored through the story of a young, black reporter named Yvonne.

“Racism comes out because of stereotypes and through inner racialism,” Hendricks said. “The main character of this play wants the privileges she perceives the white people have. So, she distances herself from the black people, and she wants success and will do anything to get it.”

Her success may be destroyed when she’s faced with the fact that her big news story may be a hoax.

Wilson based her play on the 1981 scandal involving 26-year-old Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke. Cooke won a Pulitzer Prize for her feature about an 8-year-old heroine addict, but had to give up the award when it was discovered that the story was a figment of her imagination.

And while Wilson uses many facts from Cooke’s life, her story focuses on a different situation — the murder of a white man in a black neighborhood.

The story unfolds docudrama style, told in a real yet surreal way. Characters interact as the action unfolds, while simultaneously telling their stories to other characters. It’s not confusing. In fact, the approach this Southern troupe takes in rehearsal is compelling.

“I can’t believe our performances start next week,” Hendricks said. “We’ll be ready.”

She says this in the week preceding opening night, her cast on stage playing before an audience of empty seats. But this is exciting, because all of the chairs here are new, as is the ceiling and the floor.

“We also have new catwalks,” Hendricks said.