Amir Kapoor has turned his back on his upbringing in pursuit of the American Dream—he’s married to a beautiful woman, lives in a luxurious Manhattan apartment and is eyeing a lucrative promotion at his powerful law firm. But when Amir hosts a dinner party for his African American co-worker and her Jewish husband, the initially pleasant evening erupts into a volatile argument over race, religion and class in the modern world.

Broadway Black had an opportunity to learn more about Young’s character, her background, her first Broadway show, and what’s next!

BroadwayBlack (BB): Discuss the role of Jory and what nuance is brought to the character because she is Black. How does her race affect her interaction with the other characters?

Zakiya Young (ZY): Jory is very complex and I love playing this character. She’s a smart, successful lawyer – specializing in mergers and acquisitions at a prestigious law firm. Jory is confident, funny and suffers no fools. She does whatever it takes to succeed at work – which includes assimilating into white culture and “playing the game.” She’s the epitome of the American Dream.

Jory is very conservative – she believes in order, not justice – which is something that I struggled with at first. However, it’s not my job to judge the character. It’s my job to share her story with honesty and integrity.

Being a black woman makes Jory a little bit more sensitive to the tone of the evening. Every once in a while she’ll remind the party guests that she’s a woman of color but she tends to only use her race as a trump card to win arguments. She also notices things about her friend Amir during the dinner party that the white characters might not pick up on – micro-aggressions toward Amir about race/culture.

BB: Disgraced is officially the most produced play of the 2015/2016 Season, only the third time a playwright of color has occupied the number one spot. What does it mean to you to be involved in the production?

ZY: I’ve been trying to do this play since it was off-Broadway. I haven’t been able to forget it since I first read the script. Ayad has crafted such a bold, powerful and honest piece and it’s such an honor to be telling this story at this time – with this cast and creative team – at The Goodman. It seems as if our country is about to collapse under theweight of misunderstandings and assumptions about race, religion and social class. We need to go beyond being politically correct, have the tough conversations, ask questions, and really listen to each other. This play is an amazing way to begin that conversation because it forces you to think about the issues presented.

BB: Both of your parents are artists. How did having that background influence your upbringing? Do you consult with them about auditions? Do they provide advice or notes, more or differently than a non-performing parent would?

My dad has an amazing singing voice – he’s a bari-tenor- and until very recently he sang in the church choir every Sunday since he was a little boy. My mom did plays in college, was the president of the drama guild at Fayetteville State and still performs dramatic monologues at church.

Our house was and still is filled with music and dancing. They put my sister and I in dance classes, piano lessons, we both played in our school bands, sang in school choirs, church choirs etc.

My fondest childhood memories center around art – waking up and hearing my dad singing downstairs as he cooked us breakfast, having family sing-alongs in the car as we drove down south every August, dance parties in the living room, hearing my mom recite her favorite poems by Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. They took us to many different artistic events around the country. Even when we were on vacation in the middle of nowhere, my parents would find some kind of artistic event for us to attend.  

My sister Jamila and I often sang together and I accompanied us on the piano. I did a benefit concert at my parents’ church a few years back and it was awesome to have my dad and sister join me for a song.

I do talk to my parents about certain auditions – especially if I’m in final callbacks for a project I’m really excited about. My mom always sends me encouraging texts before my auditions.   Sometimes I ask for advice and sometimes they just give it. It’s the beautiful thing about family – they keep me humble and tell me the truth in love. My mom is super positive and enthusiastic – she sandwiches a suggestion between positive statements. Whereas my dad – hearing me practicing the piano for example – would come in and say “Not bad. Almost there! Keep practicing.” But they’re very proud of me and it’s a blessing to have parents who support me and challenge me to do my very best.

Also, if I’m visiting them in Pennsylvania and I get a last minute audition that I have to put on tape, I know that I can ask any of them to help me and they’ll all be great readers for the scene – especially my mom.

They’ve seen all of my shows and I would not be able to do any of this without the love and support of my family.

BB: You’re both an actress and a singer. As you progress in your career, do you find yourself gravitating toward one or the other?

ZY: I’m grateful to be able to do both plays and musicals and I honestly don’t have a preference. I just love performing. I’m especially grateful for the casting directors who saw a resume full of musicals but took a chance and started calling me in for plays. However, when I’m in a play I do find myself searching for karaoke opportunities or a piano I can play during my downtime.

BB: You booked your first Broadway show without an agent. Quite a feat! Why did you decide to go that route? Would you recommend this to other aspiring actors?

ZY: I never expected it to work out the way it did – but I’m super happy with how things unfolded. I took a two and a half year break from auditioning. I was burnt out and needed time off to figure out whether or not my heart was still in pursuing this career, so I took an office job. When I started thinking about performing again, I went to an EPA (Equity Principal Audition) because I didn’t have representation at the time. It was day 2 or 3 of EPAs for the original Broadway company of The Little Mermaid. I figured it was already cast and would be a “safe” introduction back into the audition room so I went to the EPA, signed up for a time, went to a voice lesson then came back and sang. A few months later I got a call asking me to come back in for an ensemble audition. A few callbacks later I got the call from Tara Rubin’s office telling me I had booked the job. It was right before Christmas and I was absolutely overjoyed. It was such a wonderful moment.

Would I recommend this to other aspiring actors? Absolutely. Equity calls are wonderful – they really are looking for talent at those auditions. Don’t believe people who say they’re a waste of time – you never know who you’re going to meet in the room. And regardless of whether or not you have representation, if you can’t get an appointment for a certain role, go to the EPA or the chorus call. There’s always a way to be seen by different casting offices and I’m grateful to our union for providing those opportunities.

BB: You’ve been on Broadway. You’ve worked with amazing actors and directors, including Kenny Leon. What is next for you? What is on your bucket list of accomplishments?

ZY: What’s next? My managers and I have our eyes on a few projects and we’re excited for the future. Since The Little Mermaid and Stick Fly, I’ve had some amazing opportunities to play leading roles in musicals and do plays at some of the top theaters around the country. I’m ready and excited to take things to the next level. Playing a principal role in a Broadway musical or doing another Broadway play are on my list of what I’d love to tackle next. I’ve also started doing some television and voiceover work so I’d love to continue doing that – maybe venture into film?

I do have a list of artists I’d love to work with: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ava Duvernay, Lee Daniels, Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Phylicia Rashad, Angela Bassett, Viola Davis, George C. Wolfe and Joe Morton are some of the artists on that list.

I am incredibly grateful to do what I love – and I’m excited to see what doors God opens. His plans have greatly exceeded mine so I’m just going to stay ready and open for whatever is next.

BB: What advice do you have for aspiring and emerging performers?

Advice? Be early and prepared for auditions, rehearsals and performances. You never want a casting office to stop calling you in because you’re late and/or unprepared for auditions. And be nice to everyone you encounter. Don’t just be nice to the directors, producers, casting directors and actors you look up to. Say hello to the reader at the audition, the janitorial staff at the theater, the wranglers, costumers, security staff. It’s easier to get a bad reputation than to build a good one and believe me – directors that are unfamiliar with your work will contact people from your past for feedback on how you carry yourself in the workplace. That feedback may or may not get you the job.

DISGRACED plays through October 25 at the Goodman Theatre. For tickets and more information, click HERE.

The post In Depth: Zakiya Young Stars in Disgraced at the Goodman Theatre appeared first on Broadway Black.

In this Broadway hit, siblings Vanya and Sonia have spent their adult years trapped in mundane lives at their family’s cottage, caring for their ailing parents. Meanwhile their self-involved sister Masha, a glamorous movie star, has traveled the world in decadent style. After their soothsayer/cleaning woman Cassandra (Butler) warns Vanya and Sonia of impending doom, Masha arrives unannounced, accompanied by her hunky young lover, Spike. When Masha reveals plans that will upend the family, long-repressed resentments bubble over in a weekend full of wild costume parties, voodoo dolls and surprise romance.

Recently, Ms. Butler sat down with Broadway Black to discuss her latest work, her longevity in the industry, and the importance of arts education in schools.

Broadway Black (BB): What attracted you to the role of Cassandra in Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike?

E. Faye Butler (EFB): I’ve studied {Playwright} Christopher Durang in school and his writing is unique. Hearing that he incorporated an African American character {into his play} was interesting to me. You never hear of the Black characters. Durang left it open in the show from Cassandra to be between 20-60 years old. It left it open to the actor’s possibilities. I can make her what I want it to be and create something that is different. Cassandra could be whatever you wanted her to be, even in her ethnicity. I approach her as a seer from an island, but I don’t quite know which one. Even in the costuming, there are so many cultural references: African, Jamaican, Brazilian. My Cassandra is a secret fashion designer.

BB: You have a long history with the Goodman Theatre, having appeared in several productions there. Tell us why that particular theatre and Chicago in general are so special to you.

EFB: Chicago is my home. Having grown up here, I have strong roots. I’m a Southside girl. So much American culture and icons in America are from Chicago. My parents were very active ensuring we went to the arts. My Godmother was Mahalia Jackson so I have experienced a migration of gospel music. I never forget who I am. I don’t get ahead of myself. I still take public transportation. Through my life experiences, I’m allowed to bring special things because I live amongst the people. I still attend Fellowship Baptist Church. All of it keeps me humble. I’m not in a bubble.

I went to the Goodman School of Theatre and graduated from Illinois State University, a public school. I auditioned. I broke through with {Director} Steve Scott, interestingly, the same director as I have now. A Christmas Carol was the first. I have a real friendship with Goodman folks. Chicagoans are regular people. They teach the art of the true theatre.

I’m a working actor and have been so for 40 years. I have never had to take another kind of job. I have worked with every Broadway actor and producer but never been on a Broadway show. It has never been a goal for me. I make sure I make a living through good, honest work.

BB: What role does performing play in your life?

EFB: You have to remember it is just A PART of your life, not your life. Then it can be very rewarding. Family, religion, faith, friends, community at large. These are the things that are important. It’s not what I live for. I love all facets of it, but it’s {just} a part. I can bring to it, as an individual, as a human, the human condition. It’s what playwrights write about. Just as in the play {Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike}, there is sibling rivalry, dead parents, in real life. When we’re reading, there’s a real human side.

My #1 job is to audition. To get in the room to secure the job. You have to earn it, so you don’t owe anybody anything. I don’t want to disappoint the directors. People think you can climb tall buildings when you get to a certain status, but the hardest thing to get across {to those casting a role} is to let you do what you do.

BB: How do you keep things fresh after four decades as a performer?

EFB: Every time I go away from it {performing}, and I go back, I have something fresh, bright, and energetic. I like new projects. I don’t like to repeat myself. Someone else needs the opportunity to do the role. We have to hand down to other people. Coming through in the 70s, roles were hard to come by. Now, there’s more and they must be passed down. When you have your hand closed to those coming behind you, nothing gets out or in.

BB: What advice would you give to younger Broadway Black actors and actresses?

EFB: Don’t pigeonhole yourself. Be a well-rounded actor. Audition for everything. You can change the mind of an author, producer, director. You have to believe you’re the best person for the role. Go after that role! You can make it happen. If you don’t believe, who else will believe? Don’t wait on others.

Look at Audra (McDonald), Norm (Lewis), Nicki (Anika Noni Rose). You have to think beyond what you see. You have to break the barriers. You can’t wait for someone else to decide what you want to be. Make it happen. Keep studying. Keep going to dance class. Keep getting coached. Keep singing. You have to do the work.

BB: What are your thoughts on Arts Education?

EFB: Arts Education develops good human beings. Without the arts, I don’t know where a lot of great performers would be. It’s a part of what makes you a great human being. Music, Theatre, Arts can be an outlet for children. It can change the face of who you are. Reading, writing skills, music, the knowledge of music and culture. That is what the arts do for you. Because of that, theatre falls into a great place. It makes you a well-rounded human beings. You have to be an activist of the arts and an advocate of arts with children. It’s an important facet in developing a child. The Arts come from the Motherland. How can you cut us off? From the womb, from the church, it’s a part of who we are. We listen in the home but it stops when children go to school. It has to be in our educational system. We’re denying our kids a part of their life.

BB: What is next for you?

EFB: I have dates booked from now until December. I will be working with College Bound Executive Director Kenneth Ward this fall. Ballou High School in Washington, DC has been reconstituted. There will be a new high school but they still need to raise funds for their theatre department because they took all of the Arts out. So I will be doing a Benefit for Ballou to reactivate the theatre department.

I also have club dates in Chicago. I will be performing at Ten Chimneys in WI. I will also be in Amish country at the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, PA next year. They have taken the blockbuster movie “Ghost” and made it smaller, just 9 people. I will be playing the role made famous by Whoopi Goldberg.

E. Faye Butler is the recipient of six Joseph Jefferson Awards, four Black Theater Alliance Awards, an After Dark Award, a John Barrymore Award, a Rockford Area Music Industry Award, two Helen Hayes Awards, an Excellence in the Arts Award, a Kathryn Lampkey Award and an Ova­tion Award. Ms. Butler was the recipient of the 2011 Sarah Siddons Society Leading Lady Award; she was also named a 2012 Lunt Fontanne Fellow and was inducted into the National Women in the Arts Museum in Washington, DC, in 2012.

Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike is running now at the Goodman Theatre through July 26.

The post EXCLUSIVE: E. Faye Butler Stars In ‘Vanya & Sonya & Masha & Spike’ At The Goodman Theatre appeared first on Broadway Black.

Broadway Black (BB): Stop. Reset. is your 12^th Goodman Theatre production. You are celebrating your 20^th anniversary at the Goodman Theatre as an Artistic Associate. What is the secret to your longevity?

Regina Taylor (RT): I feel that it’s been such a rare and wonderful treat at the Goodman Theatre and having longevity with an institution such as the Goodman. It is rare for any artist, especially a Black person, especially a Black woman, to be able to grow each year in developing one’s own voice. What is unique and special about that which you bring, what is your authenticity of full self that you bring to life and to your pieces? My pieces are markers in my life. I have been challenged in life and I challenge life with each and every piece. There is an opening to dare in each and every piece. With this one, I feel like I’ve learned everything along the way that I’m bringing fearlessly with my own tongue. Think about Miles Davis, you know who he is by that first note. That takes sounding like other people until you hit it and know that it’s yours. With this piece, I know that it’s mine. It’s an idiom of jazz. Each character is mine. In this piece there is an element of Afro-Futurism that harnesses both past and present when looking at who we are and how we survive into the future. It resonates with how we deal with what we’re dealing with right here and now and who we are. Who are children will be.

BB: Tell us about your latest work, Stop. Reset.

RT: Stop.Reset. is about 70-year-old Black bookstore owner Alexander Ames. He is trying to determine how to keep his business from being extinct. He is a lover of books. What they hold, their weight, smell and feel. Memories from the ancestors is what they hold. How they are transferred, palm to palm. He’s trying to figure out how that moves forward in the digital age. What does he need to hold onto and what does he need to let go? All of Ames’ bookstore workers are over 40 except one, J the 19 year old, who is semi-literate. So there is a generational conversation about the present and the future. Ames sees promise in J and recognizes himself, but J is interested only in the present and the future, not the past. 

It’s about books but also about how we deal with change. There are so many changes we’re grappling with in the present moment. People don’t change easily. People dig in their heels to figure out where they stand and fight for what they believe in and what they know, as the terrain is shifting, and we can’t trust the dirt under our feet. People either dig in or dive headlong into the unknown and embrace it. Stop. Reset. is not just about technology, but about where we are. It’s about race, gender, sexuality, the economy, all of these issues as they are shifting right now in terms of how we look at things. Who are we becoming? Who do we want to become?

The play is about what the audience brings to it in terms of their own history. What I set is conversations, arguments, dialogue, about how you deal with change. I try to give equal weight to various perspectives. Some will enter and be moved in terms of where they stand. Others may dig in and not move. What I hope to spark, to provoke, is the dialogue to look at the world and themselves. The question of the ground that we stand on. That’s the first spark of change. Or not. {Referencing Dr. Martin Luther’s Speech after the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965}: How long? Not long. How long has it been? We keep coming back to that phrase in different increments in time. Is it possible to escape one’s past and all that it brings? To escape the shadows that we drag behind us? I present the question for the audience to answer for themselves.

BB: Stop. Reset. is, in part, about the digital age and how that reflects the information we receive from various sources. How do you perceive the role of digital technology, especially as it relates to breaking news that reflects the African American community?

RT: There is great possibility. Digital technology has changed how we talk about race. Who owns the narrative? How Black males have historically been presented in the media. Here and now, there’s a transformation in terms of the tongue. Who’s speaking about it, who gets to frame the narrative? There is a “Stop and Reset” in the narrative that came from the ground, meaning the grassroots and social media. Once the floodgates opened, the mainstream had to follow. So there were more layers to that story than we expected. We’re seeing how these devices are being harnessed for our community, like #BlackLivesMatter. This is where we want to talk.

We are the ones who should be telling our stories. There is an opening for books. We have the spoken word and people would gather around the fire for the gatekeeper to tell the story. When books came along, we the masses would hold the knowledge with the ability to read. The hierarchy has been toppled. Who are we becoming with people alone with a book, cut off from the world? On the contrary, people are talking to their devices and these worlds open up to the masses. The gatekeepers are being toppled. Whose voice should be voiced and heard? Everyone has access. That’s the powerful part. How do we harness this power? How do we learn how to learn from this device? How do we teach ourselves the weight of each piece of the information without someone over us telling us which way to go? The opening is amazing. We can and have been telling our own stories. It’s about how we harness them.

BB: One of the questions that Stop. Reset. asks is whether books are obsolete. There are so many fewer African American newspapers and bookstores than there were twenty or fifty years ago. Is it just as important in what medium our stories are told?

RT: I look at adaptation and meeting new audiences. What does this technology bring? Who are these new audiences and how one shapes the others? Ebony, Jet, Haki Madhubuti are all examples of those who champion the written word. And what doors those magazines opened to me as a child in Dallas, Texas. Looking at how they framed the discussion of Black is Beautiful and how powerful those images were to me as a Black female moving forward. The diversity of identity opening that lens in terms of the world and how I saw myself. How those stories weren’t the same as those in the mainstream that reflected who I was, am, and can be. The importance of periodicals giving a reflection of self. How do you reflect that here within? Certain things can be erased if not held in a book. How do you pass that on so the legacy isn’t lost? What do we need in terms of that legacy? We need certain parts of our past, the understanding of how we’ve adapted all along. We will continue to adapt. We have continued to adapt and survived against all odds.

BB: You’ve described yourself as a purist when it comes to books, yet the StopReset.org website is revolutionary in what it offers theatregoers and the community at large with in-theater tweeting and live community discussions. What is your response to those who say that attending the theatre should be a static, as opposed to an interactive, experience that Stop.Reset provides?

RT: We continue to update the StopReset.org site. The audience gets to have the choice, according to their perspective. They can choose where they enter the play: before the show happens, while at the theater, and afterward. It’s organic in that it’s the melding of reality. We are meeting Chicago audiences on their own ground. Stop. Reset. is a piece about Chicago and the dialogue converges so the audience is a part of the play itself, wherever they are. I’m finding this liberating. I’m growing so much. 

BB: There were two Outside the Box events this week in which those involved with Stop. Reset. interacted directly with the Chicago community. What did you glean from those discussions?

RT: The symposia are about change. Everyone has been hit by technology in some way. Having these conversations with people from diverse backgrounds and to engage with artists around Chicago, professionals, and, importantly, students, that they take the themes of the play and create their own pieces and do it through their own medium: play, spoken word, music. All of that we’re doing in these live interactions.

A chord has to be struck that people need to be dealing with what is going on at this time. I don’t think we’ve seen such overall social and technological change since the 60s, when people were walking on the moon and sitting on the ground. All things are erupting at this moment. The LGBT community’s rights still, still gender, still race. Haven’t we been through this? When will we move forward? What do we need to move forward with? Do we cut away the ghosts and leave the past behind? What do we need to retain? What are the tools that we need to move forward?

BB: Stop. Reset. is, in part, about legacy. With your decades at the Goodman Theatre and as the only member of the theater’s Artistic Collective to generate work in all three creative capacities as playwright, director and actor, how are you defining your legacy and what advice could you give young Black women creating their own work?

RT: There is a passion and tenacity to it. A seeking of truth to it. An unstoppability in terms of claiming ground and being heard and being seen. To claim the ground that sheds light to your existence. That’s what my work is about, in terms of reaching out to the community to give platforms to people who would not have visibility. That Stop. Reset. is set in Chicago and my relationship to audiences who have witnessed these markers in my life. The challenge is to see how I can extend these portals of storytelling as an artist to work along with the community. It permeates every part of our lives. How to challenge audiences and interact with new audiences.

Regina Taylor is a Golden Globe and NAACP Image Award winner and two-time Emmy Award nominee currently starring in DIG, a new television series on USA Network. She was the first African American to play Romeo and Juliet’s title young lover on Broadway, and gained wide public recognition for her performance on the television series, I’ll Fly Away. Taylor’s latest stage production, Stop. Reset. can be seen at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre from May 23 – June 21.

The post Regina Taylor Examines Legacy & Digital Technology In Stop. Reset. appeared first on Broadway Black.

Now, I interviewed these two gentlemen over two weeks ago, before there were the stories of #EricHarris and #WalterScott flooding all of our news sources. The images and the video from those high profile stories and the thought of there being cases we know nothing about made me take the time to really listen to what these two gentlemen had to say about the stage our country is on/in and how much August Wilson really knew about the reality of the world then and what we were facing.

“August Wilson is one of our great American playwrights. As an actor it isn’t very often you get dialogue this rich.” says Gregory “I wanted to really get a chance to live in the world and in the language of Wilson.” He also goes on to talk about how the entire show was blocked in 3 days so they could really focus on living the words and even though it’s taking place in 1969, and the first production was mounted in 1990, it felt very relevant to 2015. “Civil rights, racism, the relationships black men have with the police, the struggle to find good work, protests and rallies, there’s a lot of information that is poignant for today. It feels like he wrote it in the past year but that’s why it’s a classic piece because it’s just that timeless. But hopefully 20 years from now it will resonate in a different way.”

Chester Gregory portrayed Sterling. A personable young man who appears to be somewhat “unbalanced,” Sterling has recently been released from jail. He does not show any remorse for his crime, which was robbing a bank because he was tired of having no money, and he seems poised to go back to prison. The play suggests that work is very difficult to find for poor black people, and Sterling continually looks in vain for a job.

Ernest Perry Jr., who portrayed Hambone in this production of Two Trains talks about how his character has a special significance. Even though Hambone has a physical impairment it doesn’t effect his mental capacity and that a lot of time we dismiss people like him because of the way we perceive them. This character represents us as a people, in a way.  No matter how someone may think of us, that doesn’t distract us from our mission of justice and equality.

The Hambone story line is based upon the white owner of the meat market who promised to reward Hambone with a ham if he painted his fence well, but then agreed only to give him a chicken. Hambone repeats the same phrase of wanting his Ham over and over again. He wants and deserves what is owed to him and will not focus on anything else but that.

“That’s why he says “I want my ham. He’s going to give me my ham” because until he is compensated for the work he has already done he’s not going to focus on anything else. And that’s the way we have to be, and some of us are, as a people. Which is the reason African-Americans have accomplished so much because we have that type of attitude today. You’re going to give us our due!” – Ernest Perry Jr.

To be honest, listening to this interview back the first time, I understood but I really didn’t get it. It wasn’t until I woke up to the story of #WalterScott and thought about some the things that were said here that it stung me. I just began to cry and couldn’t revisit it until now. I understood what Chester Gregory felt when he told me about his on stage experience in sharing this story. In how he felt the realization of telling someone else’s story, that it was lived. That someone actually lived the life of being a janitor locked inside of a building overnight to clean and let out in the morning only to make sure they didn’t steal anything. The pain of knowing an injustice, even if you’re unaware of anything else, just wraps itself around you like a boa constrictor and chokes the hell out of your soul.

“Look, is there any difference between what Wilson was writing about in 1969 and today? Every line could really be taken out of today’s headline. The whole thing. Everything is still relevant. That’s why it’s very difficult to believe that we’ve made any real progress or any change. So you have to ask yourself where is the progress if we’re still dealing with the same problems?” says Perry. Then he leaves us with this. “You’ve got to roll up your sleeves and get to work because there is so much work to be done. We’re all human beings and we’re so far away from that concept of being human beings to and with one another. Yeah, they’re not hanging us up in the trees but they’re singing songs about it on a bus. And if we don’t realize our common humanity we will all perish.”

“There are always and only two trains running. There is life and there is death. Each of us rides them both. To live life with dignity, to celebrate and accept responsibility for your presence in the world is all that can be asked of anyone.”
―August Wilson

ABOUT CHESTER GREGORY

Broadway star and Gary, IN native Chester Gregory appears in his very first August Wilson play—Two Trains Running, directed by Chuck Smith, in the role of Sterling—at Goodman Theatre, where he previously appeared in Regina Taylor’s Drowning Crow (2002). His Broadway credits include Hairspray, Tarzan, Cry-Baby and Sister Act and has received an NAACP Theater Award for his performance as Jimmy Early in the national tour of Dreamgirls; his performance in The Jackie Wilson Story earned him a Joseph Jefferson Award, Audelco Award, Black Theatre Alliance Award (BTAA) and Black Excellence Award. Mr. Gregory toured his one-man show, The Eve of Jackie (Wilson), at venues across the country, including in his hometown—where he was presented with the key to the city and made an Honorary State Representative. He will receive an honorary doctorate from Columbia College Chicago this spring.

Critical acclaim for Chester Gregory in Two Trains Running

“A grand return from Broadway” –Chicago Sun-Times

“Endearing, dynamic” –Daily Herald

“Gregory imbues Sterling with charm and potential” –Chicago Critic

ABOUT ERNEST PERRY JR.

The post Are There Still Only Two Trains Running? A Talk With Ernest Perry Jr. & Chester Gregory appeared first on Broadway Black.

The civil rights movement is sweeping across Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1969, but the promise of a better tomorrow hasn’t quite reached all of the city’s residents, some of whom gather daily at Memphis’ diner to gossip about the neighborhood, dream about their futures and confront the brutal realities of the present. Now Memphis must decide if he should allow the government to take over his building or sell the property to a ruthless businessman. In one of his most affecting plays, legendary writer August Wilson explores a time of extraordinary change—and the ordinary people who get left behind.

This powerful work is lead by a dynamic cast that are telling this story, lead by a diligent and thorough director, Chuck Smith. With Terry Bellamy as Sterlinh, Chester Gregory as Sterling, Anthony Irons as Wolf, Nambi E. Kelly as Risa, Ernest Perry Jr. as Hambone, A.C. Smith as West, and Alfred Wilson as Holloway, you will get a well rounded experience that will have you leaving the theatre different than when you arrived. Get your tickets before it’s too late!

The post Don’t Miss It: Two Trains Running At Goodman Theatre appeared first on Broadway Black.

Newcomer Tosin Morohunfola portrays Cephas, the youngest Sykes son and med-school hopeful with an itch for adventure. The always phenomenal E. Faye Butler portrays Sister Juba, a tough-as-nails blues singer with a few secrets. Also, Claire Kander makes her Goodman Theatre debut in the role of Lutie, a stowaway. The musicians aboard the train include Jmichael (Keys) on piano, Anderson Edwards (Shorty) on bass, Chic Street Man (Professor Slick) on guitar and Senuwell Smith (Twist) on drums.

It’s June of 1937, and the Panama Limited Pullman Train is speeding from Chicago to New Orleans on the night of the Joe Louis/James Braddock world heavyweight championship. Three generations of Sykes men—African American train porters—wrestle with ghosts of the past and dreams for the future as they eagerly await word of the Brown Bomber’s victory. Set to timeless Blues tunes performed by a live, on-stage band, Pullman Porter Blues is a spirited, music-infused ride you won’t soon forget!

“I remember being enamored with the smiling Pullman porters on my first train ride. Little did I know about the horrific
working conditions they faced; and yet they persevered to become the first organized black labor union, a feat that cost
many of them their jobs and their lives,” said playwright Cheryl L. West. “I have the incredible opportunity to bring this play to
Chicago, my hometown, where so many Pullman porters lived. With the Sykes men as guides, audiences are invited to both
explore the dark world behind the porters’ smiles and to recapture that initial fascination with a long train journey.

Make sure to get your tickets ASAP! Show started previews this past Saturday (September 14) and runs thru October 20, 2013 In the Albert
Approximate running time: 2 hours and 40 minutes with one intermission

There is still time to get tickets for the special Blues & Brews night on September 19 at 6pm; an evening of food, music and fun before a performance of Pullman Porter Blues. Enjoy a pre-show beer tasting, light hors d’oeuvres and the tunes of live Blues classics. Then, hear E. Faye Butler (Sister Juba) talk about her role in the play. Tickets are $49

for this event

.

Check out The Goodman Theatre for more information

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