“When I say ‘AA,’ you say TAT!”
The strong voice of Don Williams, founder of UC Santa Cruz’s African American Theater Arts Troupe (AATAT), can be heard from anywhere in the Theater Arts Center. In the mainstage, 20 students-members of AATAT, stand in a huddle, rehearsing for their next production: “Dreamgirls.”
Williams is at the head of the production. He founded AATAT 35 years ago with the goal of bringing diversity to theater arts, inspired by his own experience with people of color struggling to be cast in a lead role. AATAT allows anyone to get involved with the program, casting students with little to no experience. As of this year, AATAT remains the only African American acting troupe in the entire UC system.
[Left to right] Christian Bell, Aché Smith, Mekhi Moore, and Chibuikem“Ikem” Okoh spent the first half of the rehearsal in the Mainstage planning their blocking and choreography. As they planned their blocking, they regularly paused to watch and reference other renditions they found online.
“I started theater with AATAT,” shared third-year computer engineering major and AATAT member, Chibuikem “Ikem” Okoh. “And there’s really nothing else like it. It’s the only place where I really feel like I can be myself.”
Chosen through popular vote by AATAT members, “Dreamgirls” is a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical that first premiered in 1981. Created by Tom Eyen and Henry Krieger, “Dreamgirls” follows the Dreamettes, a fictional ’60s girl group composed of three young women: Effie, Deena and Lorell. The musical follows the Dreamettes as they pursue stardom in the cutthroat world of the music industry. 
Don Williams [right] pulls Aché Smith [left] aside during the rehearsal to give advice on performing Smith’s character, Jimmy.
“[‘Dreamgirls’ is] important,” Williams began. “’Cause, Motown was real. Diana Ross and the Supremes was real. They were the beginning of that whole era of music, and the story walks a fine line of showing you that, because folk’s stuff was taken.”
Motown Records was a Black-owned record label in Detroit in the ’60s and ’70s that became famous for its innovative and distinctive blend of Black gospel, jazz and soul. The label also produced famous Black artists and groups like the Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, as well as Diana Ross and the Supremes. Eventually becoming a cultural movement, Motown provided a space for Black artists in a time where Black artists weren’t respected by many other record labels.
“Back in the day, you had to be extra good, even to get on the circuit and to be able to be seen and make money at it,” Williams said.
In AATAT’s production of “Dreamgirls,” The Dreamettes are played by UCSC students Olivia Ervin, who plays Effie, Godsgrace “Grace” Mgbam, who plays Lorrell, and Selah Hyson, who plays Deena. Hyson, a fourth-year environmental science major and Black studies minor, has been in AATAT for two years.
“I’m a STEM major, I don’t get [to experience] a lot of creativity,” Hyson expressed. “I felt like there was a hole in my life. When I found AATAT, it brought so much value to my life, just being surrounded by other creatives, especially Black creatives, and just having a space to be myself.”
Down the hall from the Mainstage, Godsgrace “Grace” Mgbam, Selah Hyson, Olivia Ervin, and Abigail Opeyemi follow Aniya Hamblin, as they practice the choreography for the song, “Dreamgirls.”
Hyson grew up acting and has had a long-standing love of singing and performing. Despite this, Hyson spent her first year with AATAT as a stage manager, filling a gap in the crew. After spending a year managing the stage, Hyson knew she had to return to it.
“I love all musicals, but most musicals have a very, Broadway, white style of music,” Hyson said. “But ‘Dreamgirls’ has soul, it has funk, it has jazz, it’s based in Motown. [It] has so many Black influences. It’s very exciting to get to be in a musical and simultaneously be part of Black culture and share Black culture with other people.”
Representing the business-focused side of the music industry, Ikem Okoh, plays Curtis, the ultra-ambitious manager of the Dreamettes, deadset on getting the group to stardom. For Okoh, Curtis is more than just a role, it’s about returning to memories from his upbringing and his lived experiences as a Black man in America today.
A second group of actors gathers in the Green Room to practice their lines.
“[‘Dreamgirls’] represents a struggle that I’m really intimate with,” Okoh said. “I have a lot of friends that are in the music industry in Santa Cruz right now. And there’s something very, very unique about people of color trying to make music in a space that is predominantly white. It’s not easy.”
For many members of AATAT, including Okoh, “Dreamgirls” is their first musical. Considering “Dreamgirls” is a production known for its powerful musical numbers and choreography, producing a show of this caliber is no small feat.
A group of actors gather on the stage ramp during the run-through rehearsal, as they wait for their queue to enter the stage.
While it’s an ambitious endeavor, particularly for a theater troupe with only 20 members, AATAT is well-prepared to bring the production to life, rehearsing four nights a week, with members taking on multiple roles.
“I think it’s so important to be, first off, just generally in community, regardless of culture, regardless of race, with other people during these times of political unrest,” Hyson said. “Even just us being together every night is us resisting against this system that’s trying to attack diversity.”
Since President Trump took office for his second term one year ago, many universities have rolled back their DEI programs under threat of losing federal funding and grants. Students across the country, including AATAT, feel the effects of these changes in their communities. Still, they refuse to back down.
“Every day that we show up and every performance we put on is us resisting,” Hyson said. “And not only is it a political act, it’s also so nurturing for the soul.”
