Today, I decided to venture out into the world and see a play at Center Stage. The play I saw was Kwame Kwei-Armah's, Elmina's Kitchen. I knew little about the play or playwright before seeing it. The only assumption I made was that the playwright Kwei-Armah must be African American. I was wrong he's actually British African Caribbean.

The only thing I knew about the play itself was that it had something to do with West Indians. If I haven't said it before my family is from the West Indies. So I admit I had a vested interest in seeing this play. It turns out that the play is about three generations of West Indian men living in Britain. It's about there lives on the Murder Mile in Hackney, London where they run a restaurant called Elmina's Kitchen.

After the play was over the playwright was available for a Q&A session after the show. I found him to be vibrant, lively, and extremely intellegent. He was so good that I'm surprised he's not running for public office.

In all the years that I have worked and seen shows at Center Stage I can not recall a writer being so accessible to the public. Then again Kwei-Armah isn't a run of the mill writer. He started off as an actor. He was a long time series regular on Casualty. Casualty is like the UK version of ER. Of the two I believe that Casualty has been on the air longer. Also he was famously booted off of Fame Academy. Fame Academy was a show that pitted UK celebrity against celebrity. His failure to make the finals caused a major public uproar. The reason I know all these things is because I spend way too much time on UK message boards and I Google.

Overall, Elmina's Kitchen was like seeing an August Wilson play filtered through the lense of the British Afro-Caribbean experience. This I found was no accident because Kwe-Armah explained during the Q&A session that he is an admirer of August Wilson's work. Also I learned that he wrote the first three pages of the play in Baltimore. So coming here to him was like coming full circle. He had come to Baltimore a couple of years ago to see an August Wilson play and to see a lecture Wilson was giving.

I will be posting a more detailed review of the show later in the week.

WHAT I'M WEARING:Today, I have on a red sweater. Under the sweater I have on a white turtle neck. The pants I'm wearing are black. My shoes are black canvas tennis shoes.