Blood At The Root: What if Harry Potter went to a HBCU in the South?
Screenwriter, playwright, director LaDarrion Williams posed this question to Twitter unsure at the time that it would be the beginning of something great.
Who is LaDarrion Williams?
The playwright was born and raised in a small town outside of Birmingham (Helena, Alabaster) Alabama. In an interview with VoyageLA, Williams speaks of his rooting love for the arts.
Alabama, home of the great tide roll, makes headlines every year with near perfect stats. Though he stood 6’3″ at 16 years old, he had no interest in playing sports, which was already decided for a young man that height.
The director recants a time in high school detention where he finished his assignments early. The teacher offered the student two options—read a book or a newspaper. He opted to reading a book. The book happened to be Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in The Sun.
Williams loved the book so much that he decidedly adopted a love for theater. He speaks of his hopeful encounters with teachers who fueled his strengths in writing for performance.
Nevertheless, the future filmmaker performed a scene from Fences by August Wilson with a classmate in the theater class. This is when he decided that he would pursue a career in playwriting.
A Newfound Career in The Arts
According to FilmFreeway, LaDarrion’s first play, Concrete Rose, won first place at the Alabama State Thesbian Conference.
The play was performed internationally in 2013 and has since then become a short film. The writer later composed another play, Broken Memories. The play undoubtedly gained several awards and recognition.
‘Blood At The Root’
Fast forward to 2021, Williams’ hard work finally pays off. The fruits of his labor set up a path of longevity in the industry of arts.
In spite of potential controversy, William teams up with AJ Lovelace to bring his latest idea to life.
Malik Baron, the protagonist, navigates his way through a whimsical university in the Deep South amongst other witches.
