Photo courtesy of
University Theatre Department

“Blacula,” “Foxy Brown,” “Coffy” — these retro posters for Blaxploitation films help set the stage — literally — for University Theatre’s production of Jeannette Jackson-McNeil’s “Single Black Female, Looking…” about one woman’s search for love via a personal ad in the Bay Area circa 1973.

“It’s about the struggle that Melodi Williams, this successful black woman, goes through in order to satisfy other people’s expectations and demands,” Director Thomas Whit Ellis said. “The same people who told her to focus on her studies and not get pregnant when she was younger are now telling her she needs to find a husband.”

So Melodi, an optometrist played by student Kalisha Scott, places an ad in the personals and goes on to meet a parade of “freaks and geeks” at a local bar and café in search of the right man, after her ex-boyfriend, Jared, disappears suddenly from her life.

“The messages she leaves on his answering machine act as a kind of diary for her as she copes with his absence,” Ellis said. “These days it would be considered stalking, but this is 1973 here.”

And as for the “freaks and geeks” from the personal ads, they are aplenty in “Single Black Female…” James Taylor, Aaron Few, Elliott Montgomery and James Mederios portray just a few of the men eager to impress Melodi.

But the one man who really gets under her skin is Xavier Williams, singer in the fictitious R&B group “Truth & Soul,” played by Mitchell Shaw.

Ellis found the production a struggle to direct at times, due to scheduling problems with the cast, which prevented everyone from rehearsing together simultaneously.

“This has probably been the most challenging play I’ve done, period,” Ellis said. “I’ve had to lose a lot of people, replace a lot of people and threaten a lot of people.”

But despite the initial challenges, Darom Southichak, who plays cocktail waitress Marva, said that Ellis did an exceptional job of bringing everyone together.

“He has this energy about him, in showing the actors what he wants,” Southichak said. “I’m learning a lot about the way he directs, and about teamwork. Everyone is needed to collaborate. It’s been an amazing experience to be a part of this. Each person plays an important part that helps make up the whole.”

Another character indispensable to the production is the music.

“It’s woven into the structure of the play in her office, in the bar, on the radio,” Ellis said. “AM radio stations were literally the heartbeat of the black community in 1973.”

Ellis, who is currently pitching the play to a black theatre troupe in Sacramento, says he would definitely direct it again. He hopes that if nothing else, the audience learns along with the actors, many of whom are first-time performers.

“I feel like I’m introducing them to the world of the theatre,” Ellis said.

The production — based on the Taiwanese film “The Personals” — starts tonight at 8 p.m., and runs through March 15.

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