Abasiama came to America with high hopes—for her arranged marriage and for her future—intent on earning a degree and returning to Nigeria. But when her husband is seduced by America, she must choose between the Nigerian and the American dream.

Still, Broadway Black got the chance to sit down with Udofia and discuss why she took a break from singing, how she defines her work, and what exactly is “Nigeria-dar.”

Broadway Black (BB): You’re just like…a master of everything!
Mfoniso Udofia (MU):  Oh, my mother is like ‘Be careful Mfoniso, don’t become a jack of all trades and master of none!’  Because I did, I liked to dabble!

BB:  What’s the last incredible show you saw?
MU: I just saw The Color Purple and Cynthia Erivo… it’s like my Nigeria-dar went off! She was so good, like incandescent. From this little body came this gorgeous, gorgeous voice.  The Color Purple itself, by Alice Walker, the book tore me up. The movie destroyed me. Then watching it… I think I forgot how deep the story was and the type of healing that story demands.  Alice Walker is a beast.  Reading her canon is good for the Black body.

BB: So did seeing Color Purple inspire you at all [to want to return to acting/singing]?
MU: For a hot HOT second!  But I don’t sing like that, and that was a big thing when I was auditioning.  I think people want me to sound a very particular way, because of what I look like.  So it’s gonna demand a breaking of our gaze which sometimes is easy and sometimes is not.

BB: There’s been a lot of talk about the white gaze over the different productions.  What would you say to someone who is trying to work under what we might veil as a “white gaze?”
MU: Having the uncomfortable conversations, in the beginning, is important and right at the start dismantling privilege.  I do think that is something that Playwrights Realm was wonderful working with me going, ‘Listen, the play I’m writing right now, the gaze from which I’m writing it is not the gaze that most western theatergoers might understand and I am not interested in changing the internal heartbeat that way’ and I was actually listened to.  But, you can’t make an assumption that you are understood. I push from the beginning so that in the middle when I’m pushing it can’t be like ‘Oh, I didn’t know this might be coming one day.’ I’m pretty upfront.

BB: What is unique to you and your storytelling?
MU: I make sound. It’s poetry, really. I may break the form of what feels like spoken word. My father was giving me narratives to read when I was young and I think I started thinking in poetry and it’s leaked into my writing. I love it because it confounds itself.  The line will play on six different levels.   The way poetry and prose fuse…

BB: If you had to give it a name…?
MU: If I had to give it a name… [You can hear her struggling to create the vocabulary for her art] You’re asking me to create on the spot, you’re watching the creative mist [she laughs]…. It is “true north.” My poetry is the container in Sojourners and is true north in Run Boy Run.

BB: What do you want your audience to take away from Sojourners?
MU: I want them to have critical sight into what the African-Nigerian body actually is. How certain immigrants might have come here to build a life.  Especially since now, we’re having really interesting conversations on immigrants and there’s a particular sense of phobia in certain pockets, so to really understand what it’s like. I want audiences to understand that the WAY immigrants come into this country, they’re varied, there might not even be a desire to stay, and that building within the Amerian dream is a particular crisis.  I hope this play complicates the idea of the American Dream and makes us understand that when immigrants are coming in they’re coming in with their own dreams and will become a fuel for the American Dream.
Also, I do hope people start to grapple with the African body vis-à-vis the African American body and we start to build language and see where connections fail and where connections can be made between those two communities.

Sojourners is currently playing at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater through Feb. 13.  For tickets, visit TicketCentral.com.  For more on what Mfoniso is up to, check out her website mfonisoudofia.com.

On the set of #Sojourners today with playwright @mfudofia! Tonight the first preview for her stellar new play happens at @playwrightsrealm! This off-Broadway play is a dynamic debut for a playwright who is bound to have many more produced! Can’t wait to share all of what we talked about today. Look for it on BroadwayBlack.com! #BroadwayBlack

A photo posted by Broadway Black (@broadwayblack) on Jan 21, 2016 at 11:23am PST

The post Sing Girl Sing: One on One with Sojourners Playwright Mfoniso Udofia appeared first on Broadway Black.

With more than 40 film and television projects under her belt, and having shared the screen with the likes of Forest Whitaker, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Robert Duvall, Salma Hayek, and Jenna Elfman, this Texas native and Yale School of Drama grad admits that theatre is her first love – embracing and reveling in the energy that’s shared with a live audience.

“It’s a sacred triangle between you, your fellow colleagues onstage, and the audience. There’s a synergy there that doesn’t exist with a camera,” Scott says.

Nottage’s Sweat is a timely and relevant piece that delves into the impact of corporate buyouts, outsourcing, and the disappearance of manufacturing jobs on human capital. Nottage set the play in a small town to “explore America’s industrial decline at the turn of the millennium by examining the inhabitants of one Pennsylvania town who still struggle to reclaim what’s lost, find redemption and redefine themselves in a new century.” Sweat premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in August and is now headed to the Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater in Washington, DC, where it opens on January 15 and runs through February 21.

Scott is cast in the role of “Cynthia” one of two friends for life who work at a local factory in Reading, Pa. Tracey (Johanna Day) is white; and Cynthia is black. Their friendship is tested when Cynthia is promoted to management, causing a painful rift with Tracey, who had also applied. Tracey attributes Cynthia’s selection to tokenism.

In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with Broadway Black, Scott discussed her latest role, her thoughts on comparisons of Nottage and Wilson, and other topics.

What is it about the role of Cynthia that drew you to it?

I know Lynn’s work and she’s a beast, she’s amazing, and opens windows into people’s souls, her character’s souls that are just astonishing and lovely. I had not even read the play when I said “yes.” I knew it was going to be beautiful. I knew it was Lynn, and I went, “I’m in. Can I read it?” They said, “We only have the first act. We only have the first act.” I said, “Let me read it.” I was like, “Okay, if you think…” they’re like, “Yeah, we think.” Then, about a month before we started, I got to read the whole play, and it blew my mind.

Reviewers have sometimes compared Nottage to August Wilson, particularly as it relates to dialogue. Do you see any similarities between the two, having worked with both of them?

I think that the joy in the language is absolutely there. That joy, that familiarity, that humanity, is absolutely comparable and the same, and glorious. It’s glorious, the way she makes these people that are completely familiar. You know who they are. You know these people, you know their situation, and you know their feeling. She does not write things that are easy. They’re beautiful mountains, they are beautiful mountains that you have to climb. You can’t see it, when they call places you can’t see the top. Somehow, you have to take it one scene at a time, one moment at a time. I feel that way about Sweat. You take it one moment at a time, you take it one scene at a time, you keep breathing, and you keep going forward in the experience of these characters in the play.

That was the way it was with August. Very, very keen ear for his own work. That’s the thing they have in common, the keen ear and also the joy. She has a great joy in the room. August would lean back and laugh and enjoy it. She enjoys hearing your experience of what she’s written. She enjoys you turning on the lights in this rooms that she’s furnished. It’s beautiful; it’s really quite beautiful.

“Cynthia” faces some very real issues when she gets the promotion – allegations of tokenism. Some of us have felt that at some point in life. As an actress who’s played very diverse roles, have you ever encountered anything like that and what was your response? Did your response affect how you handled that in the role?

Doing the play, telling this story is so familiar for so many of us. It’s so familiar. I had so many women walk up to me and say, “Girl, girl let me tell you. Girl.” It’s having that experience of suffering and questioning the value of your own ambition.

It’s hard because ambition is hard enough; self-esteem is hard enough. Then, to become a tool, to have it all, to be used in the way that she gets used, is hard. It’s hard to tell the story because it’s familiar. I really think that if you have any ambition at all, if you have any sense of self-esteem or achievement as an African-American woman in America, you can understand what Cynthia goes through. It’s tough to lean into what it is that she goes through with her friends. It’s not simple, it’s class, it’s race; it’s all of that. Friendship on top of that, and camaraderie, and 20 years of experience, 30 years of experience, it’s tough. It doesn’t matter who you are, it’s close.

The play opens at Arena Stage DC on January 15. You’ve played there before in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, what will it be like to go back?

Every audience is different, but to do this play in Washington DC, so close to the area that this is talking about, so close. There will be exponentially more people who not only have had an experience like it, but will know exactly what we’re talking about. On top of that, possibly people in the audience who will have a possible way to affect the situation, policy wise, that’s very gratifying. I look forward to, possibly, the congressmen and senators, and people from the various departments of the U.S. Government who could come and see this play and understand, maybe, on a more fundamental level, what’s happening. I think that Lynn has written a play that is as illuminating to the deindustrialization of America and this moment in history that we’re at, as Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman was to that moment in American history – for the American working man.

For someone with such an impressive and enviable body of work, how have you been able to maintain longevity in a profession where people often get discouraged and give up, or they just can’t get the roles?

There came a moment when my dad died. It got real, as they say. I realized, life is finite, and daylight is burning. I was living in Los Angeles and when you live in Los Angeles, you do television and film, you tend to turn down a lot of theater to wait around for film work and television work. When my dad died I had just done a play and I realized how much I missed doing theater. I was doing theater over the years, but not as much as I could have been doing. I wasn’t doing everything that I was offered. I had this moment where I realized, “Wow, I need to follow my bliss. I need to do that. I need to trust that everything’s going to come out okay. I need to go ahead and do what’s offered to me because it’s coming to me for a reason.” I just decided, I’m not going to turn down nothing but my hat.

I’m Buddhist. My practice is so much about really attracting things and not chasing after my fortune. I’m not trying to chase after my fortune anymore. I’m really trusting that my fortune is coming to me. Ever since I’ve really tried to stand in that truth, it’s been great

What is it that inspires you?

My colleagues inspire me endlessly, their courage, their bravery. We have three new cast members and just the opportunity to rediscover the play with new people, that’s inspiring, as well as the experience of discovering it the first time with the people who originated their roles. I have a profound belief that the first cast leaves DNA in the play, there’s no getting around that.

When you do world premieres, you’re crafting an experience. You’re crafting a play. You’re crafting this thing, telling this story. You have these actors telling this story, this way. You’ve got a director working on it and on the way we tell that story, but no matter who the director is, and the playwright, and the words that the playwright has brought to the table, and we tell that story, there’s no getting around the fact that the first cast puts a stamp on it.

For tickets to see Scott in Sweat at the Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater in Washington, DC, visit here.

The post Exclusive: Kimberly Scott Talks Sweat, Nottage Vs. Wilson, & What Inspires Her appeared first on Broadway Black.

As a young girl, Wilhelmina Louise picketed her neighborhood supermarket when it refused to hire Black workers and participated in voter registration drives. Her parents – Mamie Wimbush Allen, a teacher, and William Allen, an actuary – surely integral in her fervor. During her 70s, she is quoted: ”The saying goes, if you want to date any of Ms. Allen’s daughters, first you have to picket something.”

The saying also could go: If you want brownie points with Ms. Allen, don’t even think about a retirement plan.

Allen had a non-stop career. One that started in 1943, when the 18-year-old star in the making arrived in New York ready to become immersed in the world of theatre. One that undoubtedly was propelled upon witnessing opera singer Marian Anderson perform in 1939 at the Lincoln Memorial. Allen recalled the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow Anderson to sing at Constitution Hall. Her protest came in the form of name calling, as the venue would forever be known to her as “Constipation Hall.” Allen had the opportunity to present a rose bouquet to Anderson when she received the NAACP Spingarn Medal in 1940, as well as watch her idol – or “secret queen” as she described her – become the first African-American performer at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955.

In an interview, Allen said of that moment: “We were so elated but most of all proud. Proud because I knew her. Proud because she knew me.” As a trailblazer in her own right, those who have been inspired by Allen voice the same sentiment. They, too, are proud to know her.

For his column piece in The New Yorker, theatre critic Hilton Als wrote:

“Billie was talented and beautiful during an era when the world wasn’t really looking out much for Black female performers… And as she persevered, her world opened up; she worked in Black theatres in Harlem when the place had yet to become a thing, all the while earning her bread and butter with artists ranging from Phil Silvers to James Baldwin and everyone in between.”

After graduating high school, Allen attended Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) and was mentored by namesake Billie Davis and inspired by Romare Bearden. Bound for New York, she was part of 1944’s On The Town a year after landing in the big city. She was offered a scholarship to study ballet and acting at Lee Strasberg Actors Studio and was soon dancing professionally and auditioning for roles. Her Broadway premiere came in 1947’s Caribbean Carnival. By 1949 she was featured in the film Souls of Sin with Jimmy Wright and William Greaves. During the early 1950s and 1960s, she performed in the Broadway plays Four Saints in Three Acts and My Darlin’ Aida (1952); Take A Giant Step (1953) with Lou Gossett Jr., Godfrey Cambridge and Lincoln Kilpatrick; and Ira Levin’s Critic’s Choice (1960) opposite Henry Fonda.

As one of the first African Americans on television and in commercials, Allen appeared on “The Phil Silvers Show” (from 1955 to 1959) and the soap opera “The Edge of Night” (during 1956). In 1964, Allen returned to the screen in Black Like Me portraying “Vertel.” That same year, she was cast in Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro and directed its revival in 1990. She also appeared in Baldwin’s Blues for Mister Charlie. Allen’s final Broadway role was in 1969 with A Teaspoon Every Four Hours. Her Off-Broadway performance in 1976’s Every Night When the Sun Goes Down at American Place Theatre garnered her a Lucille Lortel nomination.

Also by the mid-70s, Allen’s directorial gifts have graced: Off-Broadway’s Home, with Samuel L. Jackson; Kathleen Collins’ The Brothers; Anna Deavere Smith’s Aye, Aye, Aye; Miss Ethel Waters; and Langston Hughes’ Little Ham, developed with her second husband the late composer Luther Henderson, and which featured Obba Babatundé.

In 2001, she directed Saint Lucy’s Eyes; the play starred longtime friend Ruby Dee, who she shared the stage with in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Her other credits include: television shows “Route 66,” “Car 54, Where Are You?” and “Law and Order”; the TV movie “The Vernon Johns Story”; and films The Wiz, Winter Kills and Eddie Murphy Raw. Allen’s most recent film appearance was in Lynn Nottage‘s By the Way, Meet Vera Stark.

In an effort to nurture emerging playwrights, Allen founded Harlem’s Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop in 1973 along with Morgan Freeman, Garland Lee Thompson and Clayton Riley. Allen also was a founding member and co-president of the League of Professional Theatre Women as well as a founding member of Women’s Project and Productions. She served on the boards of American Place Theatre, New Federal Theatre and AMAS Repertory. At the time of her death, she served on the advisory board of Cherry Lane Theatre – the oldest continuously running Off-Broadway theatre (it opened in 1924) and one of the first theatres Allen visited.

In September 2014, Cherry Lane’s founding artistic director Angelina Fiordellisi supported LPTW’s Oral History series interview of Allen. Tony-winning Phylicia Rashad (the first Black actress awarded for best leading actress in a play) fielded the questions for Lincoln Center event. The project’s interviews are with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Allen herself interviewed the late Rosetta LeNoire and Dee for the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.

Allen – active with the Tony Awards on its administrator committee, American Theatre Wing advisory committee and nominating board – received the 2002 Audelco Pioneer Award along with her musician husband (who died in 2003). She established a scholarship in honor of Henderson in 2006 at the Juilliard School of Music.

Als also wrote in his commemoration of Allen: “The map of America was on her beautiful face, and the grain of America in her beautiful hair. She was interested in stillness, in listening, but one didn’t get too far in the conversation without Billie’s hands going up in a little arabesque to illustrate a point, or her hips slightly swivelling to emphasize that something exciting had happened, or was about to happen.”

Allen died Dec. 29, at her home in Manhattan. She is survived by a daughter and son from her first marriage, Carolyn Grant and Duane Grant, Jr.; stepchildren; a brother; and a granddaughter.

Watch Billie Allen talk about her idol Marian Anderson…

The post Rest Well: Billie Allen Defied Barriers On Stage, Screen appeared first on Broadway Black.

The partnership between HUMANITAS and CTG, as part of the program PLAY LA, supports the best new, unproduced play by emerging or mid-career playwrights based in Southern California. The winning playwright will receive a $5,000 cash prize and $5,000 will be given to a local theatre to subsidize a world premiere production. Additionally, two runners-up will be awarded a $2,000 cash prize.

The works of Anyanwu and Wyatt celebrate girl power with Good Grief and SHE, respectively.

Good Grief follows Nkechi, a first-generation Nigerian girl whose misadventures consist of love, loss and growing up. Anyanwu is the founder and artistic director of the 1st Generation Nigerian Project. The actress, writer and producer also is co-artistic director of NOW AFRICA’s Playwrights Festival. She holds an MFA in acting from University of California, San Diego. Anyanwu will direct She Gon’ Learn by Lisa Rosetta Strum at the Obie Award-winning The Fire This Time Festival, which will run Jan. 18 through Feb. 6, in New York.

SHE tells the story of a young girl who discovers the small town she desperately wants to flee is filled with the very people who give her wings to fly. Wyatt, a Kansas City native and magna cum laude graduate of Howard University, is a two-time recipient of the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Discretionary Grant. Her other works include: Living the Dream; Our Music, Our Spirit, Our Gospel; Blue Diamond Daddies; and Li’l Easy. After volunteering with the Los Angeles School District, Wyatt developed The Girl Blue Project in 2003. The empowerment program for teen girls uses performing arts to combat images of overly sexualized girls, violence, drug use, discrimination, poverty, and sexual and physical abuse.

According to the HUMANTIAS Prize website, the plays will be developed with CTG’s literary staff, led by CTG’s Director of New Play Development Pier Carlo Talenti, and presented in professional readings Feb. 12-14, at Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of a weekend celebration of new plays.

In fulfilling its mission to “change the world one story at a time,” the HUMANITAS Prize was created in 1974 “to honor film and television writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way which, ultimately, inspires compassion, hope and understanding in the human family.” HUMANITAS, founded by Father Ellwood Kieser (1929-2000), believes film and television writers have enormous power to break down the separating walls of ignorance, racism and hatred. The organization, under the leadership of President Ali LeRoi (“Everybody Hates Chris”, “Are We There Yet?”), exists to find common humanity by exploring the hopes and fears of diverse human beings.

The HUMANITAS/CTG Playwriting Prize awardees will be announced at the annual HUMANITAS dinner Monday, Jan. 11, at the Directors Guild.

The post Ngozi Anyanwu, Marlow Wyatt Humanitas/CTG Playwriting Prize Finalists appeared first on Broadway Black.

Hip Hop is once again taking the theater by storm in the form of the newest hit contemporary musical iLLA!  After premiering at this year’s annual New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), iLLA received the 2015 Award for Excellence for the NYMF Developmental Reading Series.

iLLA! follows Robert, a classically trained dancer, who dreams of becoming a famous rap star.  After suffering a humiliating defeat at a leading open mic competition, Robert struggles to redeem himself in the eyes of his peers. He falls hard for a girl named Stacy but his family’s prejudices threaten to tear them apart.  Can Robert overcome his fears and troubled home life to achieve his Hip Hop dreams? It’s a journey of Swagger, Struggle and Self-love that we all must travel.

The fresh production touts musical influences ranging from hip hop to R&B to gospel with music by Jevares C. Myrick and book and lyrics by Ronvé O’Daniel.  Alumni of Wright State University, the writing duo are both theater veterans, having collectively performed in shows including Book of Mormon, Seussical the Musical, Ragtime, Smokey Joe’s Cafe and Altar Boyz.

In more exciting news, iLLA! was recently selected as the first NYMF Next Link Project for 2016.  An exclusive writer service opportunity, Next Link entitles the production to subsidize production slots at the festival, training sessions that optimize the creative team’s access to funds and professional contacts, and a qualified dramaturg to assist the writer in improving the show.

It’s thrilling that shows like Hamilton are setting the stage and opening up new doors for innovative takes on a traditional art form.  Congratulations to the cast and crew of iLLA!  Stay tuned for all the latest news on this HOT new musical.  You heard it here, it’s gonna be FIRE!

The post New Hip Hop Musical iLLA Is Creating A New Beat appeared first on Broadway Black.

Previews for the 90-minute suspense thriller – starring two-time Emmy and Golden Globe winner Bruce Willis (“Paul”) and three-time Emmy winner Laurie Metcalf (“Annie”) – kicked off Oct. 22 at Broadhurst Theatre. A limited-engagement run of the Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures production goes through February. Two-time Academy Award winner William Goldman, 84 – who penned Butch Cassidy and the Sundace Kid and All the President’s Men as well as authored “The Season,” a chronicle of what was on Broadway in 1968 – adapted the play and the 1990 film. The film starred James Caan and Kathy Bates, who won an Oscar and Golden Globe for her performance.

Willis – known for his film credits in Die Hard, The Sixth Sense, 12 Monkeys and Pulp Fiction – makes his Broadway debut with Misery. For The New York Times, he described his role as “85 minutes of being in that bed and just a few minutes of being out of it.” Metcalf – a two-time Tony nominee and original member of the Steppenwolf Theatre – replaced Elizabeth Marvel, who was initially announced for the deranged and obsessed character.

Bringing the house to life where the novelist is nursed back to health and imprisioned is David Korins whose work appears in Hamilton, Motown, Vanya and Sonia…, Annie, Bring It On and Magic/Bird. The creative team also includes: Academy and Tony winner Ann Roth (costume design); David Weiner (lighting design) and Tony-winning Darron West (sound design).

Brown would be the first African-American actor in the work as well as in his role – a role that doesn’t call for any specific racial or cultural background. In addition to regional theatre and television roles, Brown’s career includes: Broadway’s The Trip To Bountiful, On The Waterfront, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, and Prelude to a Kiss; and Off-Broadway’s The Train Driver, Two Trains Running, The Alexander Plays (Signature Theater), The Day The Bronx Died (AJT), The Lights (LCT) and As You Like It (Theater for a New Audience).

While some comments have been that Willis should be no where near Broadway, the acclaimed story is no stranger to the stage. British writer Simon Moore adapted the work for a London West End production in 1991, and it has had runs at several regional theaters through 2013. In 2012 Goldman’s adaptation was produced at Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania, while Moore’s handiwork appeared in Dubai by London-based theatre company Popular Productions. In 2014, Dutch composer and theatre producer Florus van Rooijen adapted the work into a “feel-bad musical” in Amsterdam, and a German production was shown at Schlossparktheater in Berlin.

Directed by Will Frears, Misery opens Nov. 15. Fans have the chance at the theatre to leave a message on the Misery Typewriter and be featured on the Twitter page (@miserytweets).

Write for your life. Leave us your #NumberOneFan message at the theatre on one of our @miserytweets typewriters. pic.twitter.com/wG8M3iHZy4

— Misery on Broadway (@MiseryBroadway) October 24, 2015

The post Leon Addison Brown Shares Stage With Bruce Willis, Laurie Metclaf In Misery appeared first on Broadway Black.

According to her official Facebook page, her decision was due to “some vision problems and solo concerts are becoming more difficult to do when you are on the stage for more than an hour alone.” She noted that “retirement is from concert work and has nothing to do with stage productions, which are always group efforts.”

Recent White concerts include: Feinstein’s/54 Below; The Crest Theatre (Delray Beach, Fla.); Lyrics & Lyricist Johnny Burke at 92nd St. Y; Joe’s Pub with Guy Davis; Jamie DeRoy and Friends at Birdland; Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; Broadway Concert Series at John W. Engeman Theatre; Life is Good at Feinstein’s; and Terri in Paradise at Waterfront Theatre in Key West, and San Carlos Theatre in Key West.

Having performed with Liza Minnellii, White earned a BroadwayWorld.com Cabaret Award for “Best One-Show Special Event” for a July 2013 performance. Just five years earlier, White was evicted from her apartment. She couldn’t work, couldn’t make rent and couldn’t patch up a breakup with a longtime girlfriend. Rather than ask for help, she slept in Washington Square Park when she didn’t spend nights on a friend’s couch. With a help of a police officer, she was able to live rent-free in a basement apartment. A year later she landed a role in Broadway’s Finian’s Rainbow, which garnered her nominations for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. A New York Times article poignantly details how she found home, love and her soul.

Enjoying a decades-long career, White appeared as the original “Joice Heth” in Barnum, was Nell Carter’s understudy in 1978’s Ain’t Misbehavin, later replacing Carter in the 1988 revival. Other shows included: Welcome to the Club, The Club (Obie Award); Nunsense I & II and Nuncrackers. She took on “Mama Morton” in the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago in April 2010 and appeared in the Kennedy Center production of the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical Follies as “Stella Deems” from May to June 2011. Her credits also include: Showboat; Bubbling Brown Sugar; The Jungle Book; Two Gentlemen of Verona; and Little Shop of Horrors.

Here is a look at some of her performances:

“Thank God I’m Old” from Barnum with the Fred Barton Orchestra in “American Showstoppers: Cy Coleman” at NYC’s Michael Schimmel Center – October 18, 2014

“You’ll Never Walk Alone” at AIDS Walk Opening Ceremony in Los Angeles – October 13, 2013

“Here’s to Life” at Sterling’s Upstairs at The Federal in North Hollywood, CA – September 15, 2013

“Just A Couple of Sisters” with Rue McClanahan in Nunsense

At Theater Marl in Germany – November 9, 2012

“Necessity” from Finian’s Rainbow at St. James Theater – 2009

We look forward to seeing Terri White onstage  again soon in collaborative productions and appreciate all that she’s accomplished so far.

The post Terri White Says Farewell To The Live Concert Stage appeared first on Broadway Black.

The Howard University graduate has also appeared Off-Broadway, as “Hannah” in Civil War Christmas and as “Mrs. Jefferson/Seasons of Love Soloist” in Rent.  And while it hasn’t always been smooth sailing the chanteuse with the velvet pipes seems to have hit her stride. That’s why it’s no surprise that Iman has been named as one of this year’s recipient of the Emery Battis Award for Acting Excellence. The award, given by The Shakespeare Theatre Company, recognizes  two actors per season who have demonstrated exceptional skill and technique on the stage. Iman was chosen for her riveting and smokey hot  Mainstage performance during the 2014-2005 season as Aldonza in Man of La Mancha. 

Michael and I enjoyed Man of La Mancha @ShakespeareinDC. Amber Iman's charismatic Aldonza is a performance to remember.

— Jonathan Rauch (@jon_rauch) March 18, 2015

The award is named after Dr. Emery Battis, a beloved character actor who during the span of his 70 year long career acted in all but one of Shakespeare’s plays. He specialized in bringing to life secondary characters. The Shakespeare Theatre Company focuses on works with profound themes, complex characters and heightened language written by Shakespeare, his contemporaries and those playwrights he influenced.

Amber Iman is still in the arly stages of her career and we look forward to seeing what she has planned next for fans.  There is no doubt, however, that she has already put the world on notice that she has what it takes to be a Broadway Black star and we wish her continued success and congratulate her on receiving this outstanding award!

The post Amber Iman Honored with Emery Battis Award for Acting Excellence appeared first on Broadway Black.

Thank you Memphis. 5 shows. Headed in to the last one. pic.twitter.com/fkFerIA9Sf

— Tyler Perry (@tylerperry) April 27, 2015

For all of his success, Perry still has many critics.

The animated show created by Aaron McGruder,  “The Boondocks,” lampooned Perry  in an episode entitled “Pause.”  The episode parodied Perry as a “closeted, cross-dressing cult leader whose love of the Christian faith is a mask for his true sexuality.” The jabs continued with Spike Lee and Perry engaging in a very public war of words on the value of Perry’s artistic offerings.

The character of “Madea” has invoked the ire of many as a stereotype of the worst sort, as she supposedly represents many of the matriarchs found in the extended families of African Americans.  To this criticism, Perry says in an interview with reporter Jen Yamato,

You know what; I’ve stopped trying to defend that stuff. I don’t even deal with it anymore. I like to let the audience speak for themselves. We all know what we like, and how we like it and what we want to see, and I think that it’s awful that we as Black people – and this is where most of the criticism comes from, it comes from within our own culture — that we are so ashamed about certain parts of our society, about our own culture, that we want to act like it doesn’t exist. But this woman exists. I still know her. She is still in my neighborhood. She was my mother and my aunt. She didn’t go to an Ivy League school, and she took care of the whole family. So it’s not a stereotype, it is a part of our culture that we all need to embrace.

Criticism of Perry has also come from within. From early in his career, there were rumblings of Perry’s poor treatment of his actors and the writing team. In 2008, Perry fired his “House of Payne” writing staff, setting off a firestorm of controversy. “I feel like I was slapped in the face, like we were used,” said writer Teri Brown-Jackson. “We were good enough to create over a hundred episodes, but now when it comes to reaping the benefits of the show being syndicated and having other spin-offs from it, he decides to let us go unless we accept a horrible offer.” “Disrespected, betrayed, saddened…it’s hard to describe,” said writer Lamont Ferrell. “The actors and a majority of the production crew on the show were working under union contracts and they received the pay and benefits that you need to survive on in this business. But after all those episodes and success when it came time for us to get a fair contract, we’re told on a conference call ‘sorry, you’re fired.’” “House of Payne’s” head writer, Kellie Griffin, added, “A lot of people who fought for civil rights and social justice never really saw what eventually came out of their work. While I’d like to see something positive come out of this for us, if this fight helps future Black writers get what they deserve, that’s a good thing.”

Most recently, Perry has been under fire again, as we previously reported, when two unions banned actors from working with the million dollar writer/actor/producer with the Midas touch but a tight clutch on the purse strings.

The stories of mistreatment are particularly disheartening because one would think that someone with Perry’s background would want to compensate those who had helped him earn his success. As a child, Perry was physically abused by his father. At the age of 16 he attempted suicide. Perry credits watching the Oprah show as the impetus for him to begin to write and launch his first stage play in Atlanta. That first show was a resounding dud with only 30 people in attendance. Undaunted, Perry went back to the drawing board to try again to launch the play, suffering similar letdowns in several cities, until the play “I Know I’ve Been Changed” hit its groove at the House of Blues in Atlanta. From near empty theaters to sold-out shows, Perry, who had at one point been homeless and living out of his car, had arrived.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CL88tfPxwM

Perry does seem to have a philanthropic side for those not connected to his organization, supporting victims of Hurricane Katrina, giving financial aid to Haiti, and donating  $1 million dollars to the NAACP in celebration of its 100th anniversary. Recently, Perry made news by providing significant assistance to the Houston/ Brown family during the tragic injury and later death of Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of Bobby Brown and the late Whitney Houston.

Perry, for all his flaws and glory, remains an enigma.

His tenacity, vision and fortitude provide a platform for his writing and paved the way for the over the top character “Madea” to become a household name. His work continues to evolve with widespread support for his current televisions shows.  His characters reflect more depth; the storylines are more unpredictable and tackle more complex subject matter.  For all of his contributions, the question remains whether everything that is popular is good in a greater sense, particularly when the most lovable character is a mere caricature of the women who are most often the cornerstones of Black families. Perry’s themes of domestic violence, bitter and broken women, neglected children, and loosely moraled but ultimately redeemable heroines, don’t paint a fully realized picture of Black life.  In real life, every situation does not resolve itself through the love of a rough around the edges blue collar worker who falls in love with a damsel in distress sprinkled with a healthy dose of church/jail/Madea.

Is Tyler Perry any different from any other modern creator of entertainment targeted at Black people?

His appeal is undeniable, his success quantifiable. The difference is perhaps in his unwavering vision and dedication to his form of art and his willingness to stick to his tried and true recipe, despite criticism from his community and peers.  Ultimately, it is up to each one of us to paint the narratives we want to see portrayed of what Black life is. That responsibility does not reside only with Tyler Perry. Whether we support or decry his work, it is his idea of what we are that is being consumed by both Black and white audiences.  There is no doubt that he has opened previously closed doors and we, as a community, gave him the foundation to do so. But what happens next, whether we continue to follow along the path he trailblazed, or we support other deserving writers who share messages more in line with how we view ourselves, is exclusively up to us.

The post The Tyler Perry Factor – Will Madea Ever Go To Broadway? appeared first on Broadway Black.

The production of Bootycandy at the Intiman Theatre Festival in Seattle will be the first time the play will not be directed by writer Robert O’Hara — a fact Oyetimein does not take lightly. This play explores one man’s experience of growing up Black and gay in America, a story not often told in mainstream theater. Oyetimein feels, “It’s beyond time for us to start seeing the world through more than just the white gaze. Pushing people out of their comfort zone and forcing them to ‘step into someone else’s shoes’ is necessary and exciting!!” It is this type of commitment to expand the mindset of not only theater audiences, but society as a whole, that is crucial for the growth and healing of this nation.

The second work, Kia Corthron’s Force Continuum, is a somewhat different glimpse into the world of police brutality by focusing on the conflicts of a black cop at a crossroads of identity and allegiance. Oyetimein strongly believes that, “This play is more than just controversial or timely. To me, it is essential…This play was written 15 years ago and monologues from it will have audiences wondering if it was ripped from the headlines this year.” While still in the pre-production phase, it is important to Oyetimein that this play is seen and received as the call to action that it is. This work is a clear artistic representation of the genocidal war waged against Americans of color. Helping to make these type of theatrical pieces is Oyetimein’s battleground.

While it is despicable that this fight is still very necessary, it is good to know that artistic warriors, or “Artivists” as she says, like Malika Oyetimein are dedicated to using their skills to change the world. When asked how she believes the arts, especially theater, can be used in activism, Oyetimein writes, “In this life, we have to seize every opportunity to speak about the things that matter. We have to speak. We must use our voice. My voice is my art.”

Bootycandy by Robert O’Hara and directed by Malika Oyetimein will run September 17- October 3 at the Intiman Theatre Festival in the Cornish Playhouse Studio at Seattle Center. For tickets and more information, visit www.intiman.org

The post Arts and Activism in America: Malika Oyetimein appeared first on Broadway Black.