Brecht’s play follows trader “Anna Fierling” as she pulls her canteen wagon and her children through the carnage of Europe’s religious wars. According to the Classic Stage Company’s web site, “She’ll do anything to hold onto her money-making wagon, even if it means the loss of her children. Experience a timeless tale of war updated to the modern-day conflagration in the Congo, with a new and vibrant score by Tony Award-winning composer Duncan Sheik.”

Pinkins, who was last seen in Joel Drake Johnson’s Rasheeda Speaking, has enjoyed a long and successful career on the stage. She has been nominated for three Tony Awards, winning one for her performance as “Sweet Anita” in Jelly’s Last Jam. She also has won the Obie, the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards among many others. Pinkins has appeared on Broadway in Merrily We Roll Along, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The Wild Party, House of Flowers, Radio Golf, A Time To Kill, and Holler If Ya Hear Me, the musical inspired by the work of Tupac Shakur.

Although Broadway has become a second home for Pinkins, Mother Courage isn’t her first appearance in an Off-Broadway production. She’s also performed in the role of “Mopsa, the Shepherdess,” in The Winter’s Tale in 1983. And, in 2012, Pinkins starred in the Off-Broadway production of Katori Hall’s Hurt Village, the gritty drama about life and change in a Memphis housing project.

Joining Pinkins on stage in Mother Courage will be Joshua Boone, Curtiss Cook, Jr., Kevin Mambo, Jacob Ming-Trent, Geoffrey Owens, Michael Potts, Deandre Sevon, Mirirai Sithole, and Zenzi Williams.

Mother Courage opens on December 9. For tickets, visit here.

The post Tonya Pinkins Stars in Great Anti-war Drama, Mother Courage appeared first on Broadway Black.

“Arkabutla,” a short film written and co-produced by Hall, follows “Chauncey,” a contemporary “cowboy,” who is reunited with his 10-year-old daughter (“an old soul with a fast mouth,” according to casting notes) and 7-year-old son (a “brat” with charm) after a long stretch away from home on the rodeo circuit.

To give his kids something of the elation he feels as a bull rider, he buys a jet ski for a family visit to DeSoto County’s Arkabutla Lake. When a white lake official sees Chauncey with the jet ski, he assumes the recreational watercraft is stolen, leading to a confrontation that causes anger and disillusionment — “the sense of hopelessness you take from a situation like that.”

The film was inspired by an incident that Hall witnessed as a teenager and marks her first attempt at filmmaking. The award-winning playwright plans to employ an entirely local cast and crew on the project with shooting scheduled for October 20-23 in Memphis-area locations.

She hopes to follow the short by directing a feature adaptation of her Memphis-set play Hurt Village, which debuted off-Broadway in 2011 and starred Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins.

Hall’s most recent production was The Mixed Blood Theatre‘s Pussy Valley, which closed a successful run on May 10th. The play centered around the lives of four women working in a Mississippi strip club, a world that Hall describes as “the intersection of hip hop and strip club cultures.”

Katori Hall was the first African American playwright to win the Olivier Award, for The Mountaintop. Since her rise on the Broadway scene, her work has been produced at acclaimed theatres across the nation, bringing her signature style to the forefront of the theatre scene.

The post Katori Hall To Make Directorial Debut with “Arkabutla” appeared first on Broadway Black.

Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City)  directs this tense workplace thriller by Joel Drake Johnson (The Fall to Earth), examining the realities of so-called “post-racial” America. Academy Award® winner Dianne Wiest and Tony Award® winner Tonya Pinkins star as co-workers who are driven apart by the machinations of their boss. A chilling power struggle ensues that spins wildly out of control. Rasheeda Speaking is an incisive and shocking dark comedy that keeps you in its claustrophobic grip until its final moment. Also featuring Patricia Conolly (Is He Dead?) and Darren Goldstein (The Affair).

“Stripped of costumes and props, today’s best-known artists from the Broadway stage and Carnegie Hall offer intimate and thrilling performances for the camera.”

That’s the description for one of my favorite features from The NY Times — their In Performance series. I absolutely love the stripped down, simplistic presentation of these performances.

Recently In Performance featured Tonya Pinkins and Dianne Wiest in their series.

Tonya and Dianne’s portrayal of ‘Jaclyn’ and ‘Ileen’ is so mesmerizing. Tonya’s confident, playful knowing coupled with Dianne’s quirky, awkward discomfort is fodder for beautiful theatre.

I’ve been in love with Tonya’s craft since I became familiar with Caroline, Or Change and Noah’s Arc: Jumping The Broom.

She has the ability to disappear so seamlessly into characters. From Caroline in Caroline, or Change (Eugene O’Neill Theatre, 2004) to Big Mama in Hurt Village (Signature Theatre, 2012), Tonya Pinkins’ chameleon-like transformations as an actor are a joy to behold.

Watch Tonya and Dianne in their In Performance feature of Rasheeda Speaking below — then get to The New Group at The Pershing Square Signature Center TODAY to see them tell the entire story on stage.

The post Tonya Pinkins In Performance: Rasheeda Speaking appeared first on Broadway Black.