Lamar Legend

Actor, writer

Artist statement

"Blessed" is a short five-act play about a poet self-quarantined in his apartment who falls in love with his Guardian Angel, and their love brings about the end of all existence. It tracks their first encounter on earth, then takes them to a trial in Limbo, where they are separated to the dominions of Heaven and Hell to spend eternity. While there, each starts a revolution that effectively breaks existence as we know it. The Stay-At-Home order forced me to experience - like most of us - the mundanity and opportunities discovered while living in a confined space. I was spending so much time in my own head, alone, having deep conversations with myself while checking into fantastical news bulletins of the virus and murder hornets, people dressing up as ghosts in order to scare people to stay inside, empty towns, vacant schools and churches, and desolate city streets. Everything seemed to be happening so fast and epically and that's when this play came to me.

Art Saves Me Statement

In my senior year in high school, I came out to my family. At the time, my mom was Christian and my stepfather was Muslim and they did not react well. My living situation became so dangerous including acts of violence and even an exorcism that the police were called. Eventually, I ran from home and lived with the families of two of my friends, while having regular meetings with a judge about emancipation. Still, while my home life was in chaos, I went to school because my high school relied heavily on arts education. I was in rehearsals for a show where I starred as a bratty brother and it provided me an outlet to work out all my family frustrations and feelings. I'm certain that without the support of that show, its story, my cast/schoolmates and the faculty I would be living a very different life, built on desperation, need and survival. Indeed, I wonder if I would have survived at all.

Lamar Legend

Meet the Artist, Lamar Legend

Lamar Legend is a native New Yorker and began his theatrical training at The High School for the Performing Arts (The "Fame" School/LAG Arts) as an actor. He honed his dancing technique at The Alvin Ailey Dance School. But it wasn't until he moved to Chicago that he married his love of Shakespeare with physical theatre under the title of Director. Since then, Lamar has written and adapted seven plays, produced, directed, and starred in over fifty theatrical works in four US cities, as well as abroad in Tuscany, Rome, Milan, Prague, and Mexico. He's performed at The MET, The Steppenwolf Theater, The Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Teatro Franco Parenti in Milan, and has been honored with The Gregory Award in Seattle, and The Rising Star Award by The Broadway League in New York.