The Harry Potter Play Continues Its Story 19 Years Later
The Harry Potter Play Continues Its Story 19 Years Later
By Tia Carol Jones
Ebony Blake began her theatrical journey in the sixth grade. But, being raised in the church and doing Christmas pageants and Easter speeches prepared her to speak in front of audiences. She loved to study and memorize her lines and liked seeing the excitement on people’s faces in the audience.
Blake went to school for theatre in Dayton, Ohio and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre. She has been working in theatre since she graduated. Now, Blake is portraying Hermione Grainger in the touring production “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which is in Chicago at the James Nederlander Theatre until Feb. 1st.
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” picks up where 19 years after the Harry Potter book series ends, with Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione’s children getting on the Hogwarts Express to begin their wizard journey.
Blake said the role of Hermione was interesting to her because she identified with the character.
“On the surface, she projects this intense confidence, she’s extremely intelligent. It seems like she has a mastery of every sort of situation, immediately. Right beneath the surface, there’s this deep need to be loyal to her friends and she loves her friends and family to a fault and there’s a fear of failure, fear that’s she’s letting people down,” Blake said.
As Blake read and re-read the books since she has been involved with the play, the recurring theme of Hermione’s character is the fear of failure, which is why she is such an overachiever, who turns to books and the library to fix things and find solutions. Blake prepared for the role by reading the books and approached it as she would any other play, she read the sides and threw herself into the snapshot of the situation. She was really taken with it, because she could feel the world within that and knew who Hermione was.
In the books and movies, Hermione is depicted as a white girl. As a Black woman playing Hermione, Blake said it feels like an immense honor. It is so exciting for her to see boys and girls who look like her come up to her after the show.
“They are just enthralled with the fact that they’ve come to see this immensely magical thing, because that’s what it is, theater itself is magic. Afterward, their parents say, ‘they didn’t expect to see you and they were so excited.’ So, it feels like an honor, but it also feels like a fun challenge to me,” she said.
Blake said everyone who comes to the play, knows the backstory of the Harry Potter and have their ideas of who Hermione is. She loves that everyone takes the journey together through the duration of the play and meet and at the end, she hopes theatergoers realize Blake is Hermione, too. She said, “there’s the movie Hermione, there’s the Hermione that I thought of in the books, but now I’m leaving the theater and I totally believe her as Hermione.”
Blake hopes people take away from the play the importance and magic of the community of the theater and having a shared experience. She hopes people take away the continuation of the Harry Potter story and find a place in their hearts for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” with the stories they’ve known for so many years. She said there are easter eggs that have been incorporated into the play and it is faithful to the stories from the books and movies.
Tickets for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” range from $49-$193. For tickets, visit www.BroadwayInChicago.com. Groups of 10 or more can book tickets by calling 312-977-1710 or emailing GroupSales@BroadwayInChicago.com.
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