Playwright Johnny G. Lloyd Practices Patience

“There are people for whom, you know, it takes a very long time. I feel lucky that I’m able to have a first off-Broadway production. There are people who are still waiting for that.” Playwright Johnny G. Lloyd no longer has to wait as his play Patience is having its world premiere at Second Stage Theater’s The McGinn/Cazale Theater in New York.

The play depicts a Black gay champion solitaire player, Daniel (Justin Davis), considering if it is time to stop competing. As he’s making this professional calculation, his boyfriend (Jonathan Burke) is wanting to settle down in a more traditional way while Daniel is being challenged by an 18-year-old player named Ella (Zainab Barry) who wants to be the world’s best solitaire player.

Lloyd created the world of champion in-person solitaire for Patience. There are no such tournaments, but his own experience playing solitaire informed the world in which his play takes place.

“I played a lot of solitaire. I was a Windows95 kid. I always start my plays through a place of structure and then I try to find the story,” he revealed in a recent Zoom conversation. “With this play I knew that I was very interested in card games and I knew that I wanted solitary play. I felt like there was something that was theatrically really interesting about that. Solitaire is this thing that is so singular. I got really excited by that. It was really what are the games that I know and love and then how can I translate that into a theatrical medium.”

Patience began its life at Columbia University in January 2019 when Lloyd was being mentored by Lynn Nottage (Ruined). That was followed by a 2019 workshop at the Corkscrew Festival. A 2021 reading at Second Stage led to this world premiere.

When we spoke Patience was just starting the first of its previews. Lloyd was very clear about his role once a play finds its way into the hands of its cast and director.

“I like to always say that I’m the stupidest person in the room because I have a sense of what I want,” he said before letting out a warm laugh. “But as soon as an actor gets a hold of it, I’m just learning from that person. I believe wholeheartedly in really trying things out with actors and asking them how something feels. I find it just so necessary and this is such a giving group of actors.

“Where are you in your trajectory? What do you think is happening here? Is there where we need to go? Do you feel us getting there and sometime’s the answer’s yes and sometimes the answer is absolutely not. It’s been about excavating and finding all of those little micro moments that make a massive difference when you put them into motion.”

It all comes down to decisions. Just as Daniel faces in the play. In the language Lloyd has written for his protagonist, Daniel says, “Every time you make a choice, you reveal new things, but you also destroy new things and old things.”

“A lot of the idea of that comes from the structure of solitaire itself,” Lloyd says of that line. “Every time you flip over a card, it could be anything until you flip it over. I was always really interested in what does the game say? If I had to listen to the game what is in front of me in the game. As somebody who’s been in the theater for the last ten plus years and had a lot of jobs, there’s a moment when this moment is over. This particular part of this thing is over and also it’s feeding into the next chapter. So you have to release the things that you thought you wanted in order to move into the things that you actually want. I think that that’s been something that’s certainly paid off for me and my career constantly.”

With each decision, right or wrong in any given moment, that sets up a whole other bunch of choices that Lloyd, like all of us, has to make.

“A lot of my work is like time is a flat circle, like everything has already happened before. Yet I think that there’s a magic in the ability to decide things in the moment for yourself, even if perhaps you might not have all the right information. You might not have the ability to say this is right, but you’ll never know if it was right. Maybe it was right. Maybe the thing that seemed the most wrong was actually the most right. You have no way of knowing that and I think that there’s a power in accepting that the power you have is to choose.”

One of the themes that runs through Patience is the concept of Black excellence. Venus and Serena Williams are held up as examples of not just Black excellence, but also better than the best. Lloyd has given those concepts a lot of thought during the writing and development of his play.

During the Corkscrew Festival he gave an interview where he said that “The better than the best mentality can open up a lot of doors, but racism can still close them as quickly. And I think knowing that makes it difficult to make long term commitments.”

While there has been a lot of discussion about creating more equal playing fields in the theater for people of color, Lloyd isn’t ready to say significant progress has been made…yet.

“It’s still too soon to tell. In 2020 there was a lot of energy around these issues. Yet also I think we’ve seen institutions, particularly the theater right now, take that energy and then stifle that energy. In another five years perhaps we’ll be able to say yeah, this was a turning point or this wasn’t a turning point. In this particular moment where’s the space for a person of color to be mediocre? That doesn’t really exist in the way that it should. Hopefully that is shifting and hopefully that is changing.”

Lloyd isn’t talking about being mediocre, but of support for the maturation of an artist.

“I feel very lucky that I’ve been able to, in a way, fail at certain parts of the theatrical tradition in order to learn things. I think there are a lot of people who, in their experiences, one is done. As an artist the only thing you can really hope for is grace. We’re all trying to create something together and having the opportunity to simply exist is how you learn and how you grow.”

It’s no accident that of that many various types of solitaire games, Lloyd chose Patience as the title for his play. Asked how much patience he personally has, he’s quick to respond.

“A lot of patience, but not as much as some people. The dream really is to be able to collaborate with other people. You can always find opportunities for that. Any chance to collaborate is a thing to explore. I’m so thankful for the opportunity and the platform and I’ve had such an amazing time working with Second Stage.

“I think about it in terms of am I going to be able to just write. That’s all I really want to do. Having the opportunity to do that by myself means that I don’t feel like I have to wait all the time because I’m able to do this thing myself and I’m able to work with people that I truly care about. I love productions and I would love as many productions as possible. But I think the mentality that you have to get the thing is what destroys a lot of people. Really we’re in this because we love connecting with others. I think that when you bring that energy you can never be waiting for to work.”

Johnny G. Lloyd’s Patience is scheduled to run through August 28th.

Main photo: Jonathan Burke and Justin Davis in Patience (Photo by Jeremy Daniei/Courtesy Second Stage Theater)