Sonja Camille had just moved to Arizona from Chicago when she came across the Black rodeo. And she loved it. She loved it so much she made it the topic of her newest play, "El Dorado’s Gold."
It’s being performed at Arizona State University’s Kerr Cultural Center starting Thursday after a workshop at the Phoenix Center for the Arts last year.
The Show spoke with Camille more about the play, Black cowboys and her first impressions of Black rodeo.
Full conversation
SONJA CAMILLE: It was amazing because I just got here, just moved from Chicago, and even though there are cowboys in Illinois, I just was not around them. But just getting here with the adventure of it all and just loving Arizona, I ended up going to the Black rodeo for the first time with family members and it was so much fun. And just seeing the, the entertainment, the competition, the music, it was just an amazing experience.
LAUREN GILGER: It looks like a blast. Yeah. And sort of, you know, a welcome to Arizona thing, right? Like it's Western, although you're right, they are all over the country. And I understand you kind of grew up watching Westerns, right? Like "The Lone Ranger" with your dad, but didn't quite look the same as, as the Black rodeo, right?
SONJA CAMILLE: Right. It was mainly my grandfather who was staying with us at the time, my parents were taking care of him, and he had his small black and white TV and I would be in the room with him while he's watching the Westerns and my dad would, too.
In fact, my dad had a couple of cowboy hats he would wear. And this is Chicago, so — and he loved country music. So, yeah, so it was that and, yeah, I grew up watching but I just didn't see our faces.
LAUREN GILGER: Right. So when you realized this was something that Black people had historically been involved in, I'm sure that was eye-opening for you.
SONJA CAMILLE: From the beginning, yes, very eye-opening.
LAUREN GILGER: That's really cool. So you did a lot of research, I understand, in writing this play, understanding Black rodeo culture, Black cowboy culture, the history of it. Did you spend a lot of time at the rodeo?
SONJA CAMILLE: That's how I met some of these cowboys. So it's a funny story: I'm sitting in the bleachers and one of the cowboys — well, two of them came by and they saw me and they were like, "Can we take a picture with you?" I was like, "Sure."
So that's how I got started. So I started following them on Instagram and then I started to learn about these events. And so I was like, well let me just show up at some of these community events, picnics, 'cause they do things for the community, for the children. So the more and more I was around them, the more and more I became more intrigued and I was like, I have to write about these guys.
LAUREN GILGER: You have to write about these guys.
SONJA CAMILLE: And women — there were women, too.
LAUREN GILGER: Right. So you got to know some of the people involved in this. And I understand like some of the characters in the play, like you based specifically on a person that you know, right?
SONJA CAMILLE: Yeah, And so the first time I reached out to, his name is Shahid, I reached out to him and told him what I wanted to do. I'm getting stories in my head. I'm hearing people, you know, so that's what happens when you're a writer.
LAUREN GILGER: Yep.
SONJA CAMILLE: And I told him, he said, well, just come on out to the ranch and just start talking to us. And I'll tell them who you are. I was like, oh, really? You know, so right away, though, I mean, one of the cowboys asked, so why are you here? And I actually have that line in the play because there is a writer that I kind of base myself on.
So I started from there and I just told him who I was, a playwright from Chicago, and I want to write a story about them. So once they started talking and telling me about themselves, it was just like conversation and I'm writing and I'm recording. So I spent time a few days on the ranch, just right there and getting to know some of the horses and all that. It was amazing.
LAUREN GILGER: The horses, too. You gotta have the horses?
SONJA CAMILLE: The horses were a very big part of the story, too.
LAUREN GILGER: Right. So let me ask you about the staging of this, right? Because it's a Western on stage. I mean, you can't put a horse on stage, can you? How do you do this?
SONJA CAMILLE: It's funny this — when my aunt saw the show for the first time, she was on the front row and she said — she told me that she said, "I hope she's not going to bring horses out," because she's terrified of, of the horses.
But no, we were able to — and that's the thing about theater, you get the audience to feel. They don't necessarily have to see, but they, if they can feel it. So, it works with sound effects. Just get those horses in there by hearing them. So, yeah.
LAUREN GILGER: You hear them. And they make sense, I like that.
So this is a story of Tucker Callahan, based on one of the cowboys that you met and spent time with, right? He returns home after having betrayed his family and the story kind of goes from there. Kind of a prodigal son story it sounds. Tell us a little bit about the, the arc of this.
SONJA CAMILLE: Exactly. He left for three years to join the white rodeo. And there were some other, some other things that I can't reveal.
LAUREN GILGER: Don't give it all away.
SONJA CAMILLE: I won't. But he felt like he just had to get away. He felt like he no longer wanted the responsibility of carrying his family on his back. So he came back to make amends and from there his younger brother was not crazy about seeing him, and that's some of the conflict.
But after a few days his mom gives him these letters from his great-grandfather. These letters were specifically for Tucker. Right, yeah. So this was his first time reading these letters.
LAUREN GILGER: It does sound like there's an arc of, of history, of family legacy in this, right? That probably rings true to some of these cowboys in real life.
SONJA CAMILLE: Yes. And I got inspired by telling a history because a lot of us — a lot of people don't know like the history behind it. So that's why I wanted to go back to the Fulani tribe. The Fulani tribe is a, a tribe from Nigeria, but mainly they're nomads, so they kind of travel from country to country.
But they were known to be great horsemen and herdsmen. And so I wanted to get some history in there just to show how much Black people did contribute to the cowboy culture.
LAUREN GILGER: That's really interesting. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, does this feel like or has it felt for you like a reclaiming? I wonder what reaction did you get from the cowboys who saw the show, whose characters were playing out there?
SONJA CAMILLE: Yeah. So one of the things I did do, I had the cast visit the, the ranch so I can tell them, well, this is a character I based your character — I mean, this is the person I based your character on.
LAUREN GILGER: So the actor playing Tucker met the guy Tucker's based on?
LAUREN GILGER: Right. So when those real people saw it, what'd they think?
SONJA CAMILLE: Oh yeah. I was on pins and needles like making sure like that was the number one thing that I wanted to do because I wanted to be true. I wanted to be authentic. So, when they saw it, because they showed up like — a lot of them.
So I had an auditorium almost full of cowboys and cowgirls. So the word got around, and for them to want to take pictures of me after the show, I got thumbs up and they are ready to come back for, for this performance as well. So that made me feel really good, that I was true to, to the culture and true to their story.
LAUREN GILGER: That's amazing. You got the literal and figurative thumbs up from the real cowboys.
Sonja Camille, playwright, director, her new play is “El Dorado's Gold.” It'll be showing at ASU's Kerr Cultural Center May 7, 8 and 10. Sonja, thank you so much for coming on, congratulations on the show.
SONJA CAMILLE: Thank you.
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