Kasi Lemmons has been a driving force in the film industry for many years. Most recently, she took on the libretto of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” that premiered June 15 at Opera Theatre St. Louis, co-commissioned with Jazz St. Louis.
Music for the opera is by Grammy winner Terence Blanchard, who Lemmons has worked with several times before.
The book of the same name was written by New York Times columnist Charles Blow, and Lemmons’ mission was to adapt it for the libretto. Luckily, it was just the kind of character that gets her excited.
“This boy, the protagonist, is misunderstood, and he’s vulnerable,” Lemmons said. “He is an extremely compelling and moving character, and definitely in my wheelhouse of interests. It felt natural to me. And this was an amazing opportunity.”
Though this is her first libretto, she’s played around with the form on her own and used to like to read operas as a teenager. Sure, there were challenges, but definite similarities to a screenplay.
“The challenge of figuring out how to draw out the dramatic effect was fun,” she said. “And an opera is a little freer flowing than a movie.”
Now a New Yorker, she was born in St. Louis, but her family moved to the Boston area when she was 8. She took some acting classes, later went to film school in New York, and she said everything in her working life has happened organically.
Beginning as an actress – and a writer – she made her way behind the camera after realizing that directing was a way of bringing those two passions together.
Her directing debut came in 1997 with “Eve’s Bayou.” After writing the script, she started looking for a director to take it to the screen.
“Then I woke up,” Lemmons said. “I thought, ‘I don’t want it to be interpreted differently. I want to direct it.’”
The resulting production, starring Samuel L. Jackson, had positive reviews, and Lemmons received a number of awards, including the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.
Following “Eve’s Bayou,” she directed “The Caveman’s Valentine,” also with Jackson, and “Talk to Me” with Don Cheadle. In 2013, she adapted and directed “Black Nativity,” starring Academy Award winners Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Hundson, and Academy Award nominee Angela Bassett.
Some of her most notable acting gigs were in films like “Silence of the Lambs,” “School Daze,” directed by Spike Lee, and horror film, “Candyman.”
She’s still open to acting, if it’s a role she really likes, she writes screenplays (all the time), she directs, she produces, she adapts various material. She approaches all of these things in a different way, but they all center on the character or characters and the connection she feels.
“I am a filmmaker first, but in many ways I think of myself as a writer,” she said. “There have been times when I fall into a malaise if I don’t write.
“But all of my films and projects mean something to me,” she said.
In the early days of Lemmons’ career, she said that as a black woman, she was the exception, but that often made her more interesting because she was unique.
“When I first started directing, I was rare. There weren’t a lot of black women in the industry, and in some ways, I think it helped me,” she said.
She is now in the editing phase of her latest movie project, “Harriet,” the story of Harriet Tubman, famed African American woman and abolitionist, who led hundreds of people to freedom.
“It is my kind of application of African American history. It tells more of Harriett’s story than the image we usually have of her. She was fierce, powerful and tiny.” Lemmons said.
“I like stories about black people. I like stories about women. And I think there is a hunger and demand for African American stories.
“And with this movie, there is a lot of collaboration, which is my favorite part of the process,” she added.
Lemmons also teaches filmmaking and directing at New York University, driven by her passion for passing on her knowledge and craft, encouraging young people to be inspired.
And meanwhile, she’s happy to be reconnecting with St. Louis through the making of and premier of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.”
“St. Louis seems re-invigorated and very alive,” she said.
Lemmons is married to actor Vondie Curtis-Hall.
To purchase tickets to “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” visit opera-stl.org.
