By KATIE V. JONES

Photo Credit: Katie V. Jones
After reading the play “Consecrated Ground,” a story about the struggles of citizens in Africville, Canada, to save their homes, Lorraine Brooks suggested to her friend Maureen Rogers that Laurel Mill Playhouse should present it.
“She told me, ‘You do it,’” Brooks said, with a chuckle. “It was not on my radar. I thought she’ll know somebody, and it will be great. People still stop me wherever I go. It really had an impact on a lot of people.”
Now, Brooks, who is 73, is working on “Fires in the Mirror,” her fourth play as director at the playhouse. Just like her previous selections, this new production is “kind of heavy,” she said.
“Whenever I direct a play, I want people to leave the theater and think,” Brooks, a professional mental health counselor, said. “I get them to learn.”
Along with “Consecrated Ground,” by George Boyd, Brooks has directed “Miss Evers’ Boys,” by David Fedshuh and “Out of the Blue: Reflections From Ground Zero,” a play she wrote based on interviews she conducted with first Sept. 11 responders.
“Lorraine is always good at bringing over these kinds of plays,” Rogers said. “The sort of plays you have somebody see so it doesn’t happen again.”
Rogers collaborated with Brooks as producer of “Fires in the Mirror,” which was written by Anna Deavere Smith. The play is set in 1991 and explores the aftermath of the Crown Heights riot in Brooklyn that erupted after a 7-year-old Caribbean-American boy was hit and killed by a car driven by a Jewish man. Soon after the accident, a group of black youths attacked and fatally injured a Jewish student visiting from Australia. The play features monologues based on interviews Smith conducted that offer viewpoints of both the African American and Jewish people who were connected to the incident.

Photo Credit: Katie V. Jones
“We make a lot of assumptions about each other that may or may not be true,” Brooks said. “Things happen. Be open-minded and try to understand the other person’s perspective.”
While the play is set in Brooklyn, Brooks discouraged the actors from attempting a New York accent — she was cautious about creating a caricature.
“Part of their process,” Brooks said of the actors, “is understanding the person they’re portraying. They are real people.”
A native New Yorker, Brooks has a friend in Crown Heights who has sent her photos of the area to include in the stage’s background.
Brooks and the cast have largely rehearsed virtually, as the playhouse’s January production is occupying the theater. Brooks and the cast met at the Knights of Pythias Lodge, on Montgomery Street, in early January to go over choreography. While music and dance were not included in the original production, Brooks was eager to give it a try.
“It’s an important story,” Summer Moore, the choreographer said. “My main concern is I want to make sure the movement fits with Lorraine’s vision.”

Photo Credit: Katie V. Jones
While Brooks noted that there was still work to be done, she is always amazed how it all comes together at the end.
“I am having such a good time,” Brooks said. “Everybody wants to do well. Everybody does their best all the time. How often does that happen?”
“Fires in the Mirror” opens Feb. 7 at Laurel Mill Playhouse.