Ticket

Playhouse Downtown gets first serving of ‘Black Eyed Peas’

Saudia Mills was a creative person in need of a creative outlet.

She found it with "Black Eyed Peas at Midnight," a play she wrote and directed that will make its debut on Saturday at The Playhouse Downtown.

With the stage name Saudia Yasmein (her first and middle names), Mills worked with many of the biggest names in hip hop and jazz when she lived in Los Angeles -- A Tribe Called Quest's Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Wu Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah, Roy Ayers, Adrian Younge.

She appeared on the BET singing competition series "Sunday Best," hosted by Kirk Franklin. She worked on the soundtrack for the Netflix series "Luke Cage" and got to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as part of a screening and concert.

Family needs brought the Warren native back to the Mahoning Valley in 2020.

"I adopted my little cousin," Mills said. "I came home and took care of him because his mom passed away, and I just stayed here to make sure he was OK. God, the Lord has blessed me for that."

Now living in Cornersburg with a young child, Mills knew she couldn't go on the road as a touring singer, but she needed to create. In addition to singing, Mills did theater in Los Angeles, and a cousin suggested she try writing a play.

Mills was watching a movie where one of the characters said, "I want my black-eyed peas before midnight," and the line stuck with her.

"I had the title, but I had nothing to write," she said. "I didn't know what to do. I would write a sentence here, two sentences there, because I really didn't know how to start it. And my cousin just said, 'Keep writing, Saudia. Just keep writing. It's going to come to you.' And eventually, when January came around, a story in my mind started to take shape about a family."

In Mills' play, three generations of the Wilfree family assemble at their matriarch's home on New Year's Eve with plans to make her black-eyed peas recipe to ring in the new year. But the family gathering brings up painful memories and unresolved issues amid the cooking chaos.

Mills drew upon her own experiences for some of the story elements. She was adopted at a young age because her biological mother battled addiction issues. The character in "Black-Eyed Peas" isn't an addict, Mills said, but she had a son at a young age and left him to be raised by her mother. Now, years later, she is trying to reconnect with him.

"I talk about forgiveness and having faith, no matter what the trauma is or whatever you've gone through," Mills said. "Sometimes you don't know if you should have made those sacrifices or made those decisions because, in this story, it caused a divide between the real mother and her son. The grandmother is saying, 'Before I leave here, I need my daughter and my grandson to rekindle or build some type of relationship.' That takes forgiveness. It takes communication, and it takes faith."

The play also includes music, so when it came time to cast the play's first staging, she took a unique path to find her actors before scheduling auditions.

"I needed singers that can act, because the songs I wrote, the feeling needed to be in them," Mills said. "My friends started telling me about these little karaoke spots, so I started going to karaoke and just scouting people and talking to them, giving them my information."

The cast features TaeShawn Madison, Brunetta "Bre" Christian, Mgelle Green, LadyPerez, Bill Bell, Essence Geddis, Chaun Taylor and Jaidyn Skinner.

Mills ultimately wants to take the play to other cities, but right now she's looking forward to seeing how it plays with a local audience.

"I want to hear the laughter. I want to see if they feel what I feel. And the biggest thing is just wanting to sit and and just be engulfed by everything. I want to see them do it under the lights and sit in an audience and see what it feels like with other people."

If you go …

WHAT: The premiere of the play with music "Black Eyed Peas Before Midnight"

WHEN: 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: The Playhouse Downtown, 220 W. Boardman St., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $30 and are available online at youngstownplayhouse.ludus.com and by calling 330-788-8739.