From my point of view there are two groups of people: those who were lucky enough to see the extraordinary performance Tonya Pinkins gave in the musical Caroline, Or Change and those who didn’t. Those in the first category know what an amazingly powerful performer Pinkins is. For those who never saw Caroline, you now have a chance to see her in another show, Time Alone at LATC. The play was written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Alessandro Camon (The Messenger).

Time Alone is a series of monologues intertwined for 90 minutes. Pinkins plays Anna Jackson, a woman whose police officer son was recently killed in the line of duty. Alex Hernandez plays Gabriel, a young man serving time in prison for killing a gang rival.

I recently had a chance to talk to Ms. Pinkins by phone about the play, its challenges and the issues it raises.

Tonya Pinkins and Alex Hernandez star in "Time Alone"
Tonya Pinkins in “Time Alone” at the Los Angeles Theatre Center

What inspired you to join Time Alone?

I think probably my conservation with Alessandro. He’s a really beautiful writer and his language is so beautiful. I liked his humility about the whole subject matter and his openness to having a black person playing a role he felt he couldn’t have written for a black person because he’s not a black person. He wrote a really complex woman and I think there isn’t any race to grieving.

You’re doing a series of monologues. What are the challenges of not having another actor with whom to work?

Working with another actor is just easy – you can pay attention to the another actor and make him give you your performance. In this situation, you are relying a lot on the audience being your partner and some audiences are different and not willing to play along. I’m much more vulnerable and have no sense of what it will be every night. I guess I feel like the power of the piece is a line that Alessandro wrote about pain being the thing that connects us all

Is this a part that inspired you, scared you or both?

I think I was very afraid of the part because to do any role you have to be willing to inwardly explore what is the truth. That’s the way I work. I’m not inventing and go ‘I will do this.’ I have to let myself go there. I have to live in that tragedy every single day and it’s taking its toll on me. It’s a lot.

"Time Alone" is a play about grief shared by two strangers
Alex Hernandez as Gabriel in “Time Alone”

How do you shake off the part after a rehearsal or performance?

I go home and go to bed. I haven’t prepared on how big a toll it was going to take on me. It’s really devastating for both of us. I hope that by our willingness to go there, the cost we pay will be the cost the audience is willing to pay with us. By that I mean we all learn to sit with pain without doing something to fix it or go away and we all increase our capacity to bear pain, other people’s as well as our own.

Anna has a monologue where she talks about the idea of forgiveness. I heard echoes, not directly, of “Lot’s Wife” from Caroline, Or Change. Do these characters share any similarities?

They certainly share things. I think they both have been betrayed by life. I think they both are products of the time that they live in, even though they live in very different times. I think that the depth of their pain and frustration and rage is equivalent.

The death penalty is an unavoidable subject in Time Alone. What are your own views?

I’m not for it personally because I don’t believe we have the right to kill somebody else. I absolutely understand the desire to want someone to be dead because they caused you so much pain. I don’t think they are mutually exclusive positions. Anybody that would hurt a child, I wouldn’t want them on the planet, but because the way it is administered it’s biased. It’s class-driven. I wouldn’t give the state that permission. I think the only shift I’ve had is if a child of mine had to die, I’d want to be the person to administer that decision. I think how humane that would be.

For all the intensity this project possesses, I assume you need an outlet. What do you enjoy when you aren’t wrapped up with such intense characters?

I love comedy. I love love love comedy. I really like funny things. I did this rap rogue video and I thought everybody could have a laugh on me. We took every insult publically said about me and turned it into a rap song. There’s no name you can call me that’s going to make me now focus my attention on this name you call me. I love comedy and I love to laugh.

Do you have a dream project you’d like to do?

I’m focusing on writing and directing. When you get to a certain point as an actor you’ve worked with amazing people and had an education nobody else can ever have. Where can you use that? You have to move to the other side. I’ve written a franchise of environmental social justice horror film that’s very funny. Mother Nature is shouting her wrath. That’s what I’ve been working on all year. I’ve been enjoying myself. It’s very funny. I have to pull back some of the humor so you can have more terror.

Time Alone is in previews at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown Los Angeles. Opening night is Saturday, October 7th. The show is scheduled to run through October 29th.

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