SAN FRANCISCO BAY VIEW
BY Wanda Sabir
March 29, 2000

Imagine coming of age in the shadow of the panther. Well, veteran actor Michael Gene Sullivan did, but wasn't aware of his photogenic legacy until a guy working on his car looked at him, scratched his head and said, " Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Huey P Newton?"

Raised by parents that saw protest marches as family outings, it was almost inevitable that the Russian flag drawing five year old would grow into a man who looked like the icon many of his principals were founded on. Although his parents never became formal members of the Black  Panther Party for Self Defense, they definitely knew of the Party's work and supported many of its philosophical ideals. The 90-minute performance opens with the character's first "identity" encounter - "Did You Know... " -then quickly shifts into commentary on the whole notion of what it feels like to share an uncanny resemblance with a man who elicits such volatile responses from folks he'd meet on city streets, from grocery clerks and shop owners, to police officers. Not all fans of Newton, each person's story of the Black Panther Party sheds light on yet one more facet of a most fascinating man and an extraordinary time in recent American history.

Unlike Robert Alexander's play "Servant of the People", and Roger Guenveur-Smith's one man show "Huey P. Newton", Michael Gene Sullivan's drama is his coming of age in the 60's story, somewhat the way Debbie Swishees "l00's of Sisters, and 1 Big Brother" is more of a young girl coming of age in a cult (Synanon) rather than the history of the cult. Everything is predicated on her personal experiences, just as Sullivan's "Did Anyone Ever Tell You..." is based on his own life. This is a much more refreshing look at such a topical subject matter.

Sullivan does not interview the BPP muckity mucks, rather gives mister and missus ordinary citizen a palate and crayons and lets them go for it, and what emerges is a multi-faceted man, tortured, brilliant, insane, kind, scared. It's quite remarkable what people tell Sullivan jus because he sports a mug that folks either love or hate. However, the Huey P Newton who emerges is not hateful, nor are his message and what he stood for anything less than brilliant.

Sullivan never met Newton, but the picture that his characters' draw of the man depict him as just that, a man, capable of making mistakes. There are Anna Deveare Smith similarities in the piece; however, it's Sullivan's story, none other. How often does a writer look at  history from a child's point of view? It is quite refreshing, because these non-discriminating eyes tell the truth. Sullivan, who played the title role in Robert Alexander's play, makes few, if any historical errors. He has definitely done his homework, though at times, the soap box stays on the set a trifle too long as the young man curses his nemesis because he is human after all.

Interactive, there's a revolutionary songbook included with the program, which has a copy of the BPP's 10 Point program (last page, inside cover) A filling slice of history.