NC woman elevates community stories. Now, that covers a play about Black women’s hair

You can’t pigeonhole Tina Kelly, even though the UNC Charlotte alumna has been part of Charlotte’s theater scene for almost a decade.

She began as a performer, then spent several years in stage management. Now, the 31-year old works primarily as a director.

But she’s also an advocate for and producer of original works by local playwrights, through the Queen City New Play Initiative. And she’s the founder of Queens on Quads — a skating group started for Black women — which got rolling during the pandemic.

“I have all these different plates that I’m spinning in all these different arenas,” Kelly told The Charlotte Observer. She spoke in a recent video call from her Charlotte apartment, framed in the background by strings of purple holiday lights and the harp she’s played since the fourth grade.

Kelly strives to make things beautiful and create space for others to do so too, as she uses art to forge community and connection in innovative ways.

Connecting through shared experiences

Take her current production, for instance. She’s the director of “The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks and Curls” for Three Bone Theatre. The show delves into a topic to which many Black women can relate: the public and private policing of hairstyles.

The play, written by journalist and screenwriter Keli Goff, is making its regional premiere in Charlotte and runs through May 20.

Kelly was drawn to the show for a few reasons.

She was happy to return to Three Bone, where she made her acting debut in 2014 performing the hair monologue from “The Vagina Monologues” (by playwright V, formerly Eve Ensler). Goff’s play, similarly designed as a series of monologues and ensemble pieces — on the topic of hair — seemed “pretty kismet,” Kelly said.

“When I read the script, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I need to be a part of this,’ ” said Kelly, who moved into directing about four years ago.

Kelly specializes in telling stories written by Black playwrights about Black cultural experience. She was eager to bring an innovative approach to “Glorious World” by integrating multimedia aspects like short films, projections and shadow theater.

But the contemporary stories being told have centuries’ old roots, Kelly said, noting the 18th century Tignon laws which forced free Black women in Louisiana to cover their hair in the manner required of enslaved women.

“Black women’s hair was considered too alluring and we were always actually made to wrap our hair up and… that’s where scarves and things like that came from in the Western World,” Kelly said. “The way that our looks have been policed for so long, I think that it’s important that we have works like this.”

Goff shows “the ups and downs in the beautiful struggle that is Black hair,” she said, creating a complete story arc through the monologues.

And Three Bone is partnering with the non-profit PrettyPonytails for this production. The organization helps boost young girls’ self-confidence through hair care kits and educational programs.

A haircut triggers challenging comments

Because of social media, Kelly said, more people are now familiar with some of the challenges that Black women go through in the workplace, being told what’s deemed professionally appropriate.

But hair also can be policed in personal ways.

That’s something Kelly’s experienced recently after cutting her hair short for the first time.

“I always had an amazing, like, gorgeous… Diana Ross-type of fro,” said Kelly, who decided she was ready for a hairstyle change as she hit her 30s.

It’s affected the way some people perceive her, she said. They ask about her sexual preferences or make assumptions about who she is, including her friendliness and approachability.

“I wear ‘Sailor Moon’ t-shirts, you know what I mean?” said Kelly, pointing to the anime character on her outfit. “I’m in touch with my ethnicity but I’m a very, like, bright and bubbly person. Somebody told me I look like a dominatrix — that steps on people — when I cut my hair.”

Encouraging playwrights and the community

Kelly also works to tackle a different type of stereotype — that theater can be an elitist art form. She does that through her work as artistic administrator and program coordinator for Queen City New Play Initiative.

The organization, led by playwright, film and TV writer Stacey Rose, was created to support writers of the Southern experience through educational opportunities and commissioned projects.

“I think a lot of people look at theater and are really gifted writers, and have all the talent to become a playwright but… they don’t see themselves as having a place in theater. That’s why I do staged readings outside of my producing stuff.”

Her recent staged reading at BOOM Charlotte of Rose’s one-act play, “Bones, Bonez, Bone$,” for example, used one sound cue, two hand puppets made from found materials and five actors armed with scripts.

BOOM Charlotte festival leans on diversity, local artists in return to pre-COVID size

“I want people to be able to come to things like that and see themselves, and realize that theater is very much just storytelling,” she said. “I want to bring people into the conversation and into the world of creating theater.”

The New Play group advocates for emerging playwrights and provides them opportunities. Directing Rose’s work, Kelly said, was one of the most meaningful projects that she’s taken on because they are both colleagues and friends.

But it also represents the essence of what the New Play group is about: developing productions of works by local playwrights.

Rose’s plays are presented across the country. She’s won fellowships, and written for the TV series “9-1-1”, yet she has never had one of her own plays produced locally, Kelly said. “We have a very big hole in our art system, where we need to support writers that are actually from here and produce great work from writers that are here.”

The initiative regularly hosts and streams artist conversations between local playwrights and others across the country, and solicits new plays.

NC playwright aims to share complex, diverse stories about the Southern experience

Ensuring productions represent and engage the local community is essential, Kelly said. That includes programming, hiring decisions for directors and designers, marketing efforts and partnering with relevant, local organizations.

Queens on Quads

Engaging and creating community is also what Kelly’s done through Queens on Quads.

She grew up with inline skates but got intrigued with roller skating during the pandemic.

‘I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m gonna get roller skates, I’m gonna be one of these really cute girls on Instagram,’ and I got them in the mail, went outside and completely fell and did not touch them again for two weeks.”

When she did, she realized she wanted company. She tried out a few groups but didn’t really connect with their music or the vibe.

So she created Queens on Quads in March 2021, with skate meet ups a few times a week for someone like her: a Black woman who liked listening to Megan Thee Stallion and wanted genuine “girl time, queen space.”

For Kelly and others, she said the group has been about building community while doing something healthy. The group’s motto is “Skate. Connect. Give,” and includes a service/fundraising component.

It’s also about sharing a love for the artistry of skating and discovering rink culture, a subculture within the Black experience.

Just like dancing where you find the foxtrot and tango, there are different skating styles, including JB (short for James Brown), snapping or waltz skating. “And all of those different styles of skating are born out of the great migration of Black people to different areas around the U.S.,” according to Kelly.

All ages participate in the group. And while Queens on Quads was originally created as a space for Black women, it welcomes everyone of all genders and races as part of the “royal family.”

“It’s been beautiful to see that even with the model that we start with, as a definitively Black space, people can still feel included,” Kelly said. “And I think that part of our success is that we create this experience… very indicative of my culture, but it allows people to come see and grow within it… in a very respectful way.”

Whether it’s with actors on the stage or roller skaters in the street, Kelly plans to continue with her focus on building up and supporting Black culture.

Want to go?

Remaining performances of Three Bone Theatre’s “The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks and Curls” run Thursday through Saturday at 8pm at the Arts Factory at West End Studios 1545 West Trade St., Charlotte. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. More info: threebonetheatre.com

More arts coverage

Want to see more stories like this? Sign up here for our free “Inside Charlotte Arts” newsletter: charlotteobserver.com/newsletters. And you can join our Facebook group, “Inside Charlotte Arts,” by going here: facebook.com/groups/insidecharlottearts.