Marcia Pendelton

In association with Project1Voice and Harlem Hospital, the free event took place in the Herbert Cave Auditorium of Harlem Hospital Center. Act 1 – entitled “Sip, Shop and Bid” – featured Pendleton’s favorite fashion and accessory designers, with silent-auction proceeds benefiting designated theatre companies. Act 2 – titled “Show Out!” – was 90 minutes of special performances by artists and organizations among the rolodex of Walk Tall Girl Productions.

Featured artists were: Darius Crenshaw; Tony nominee André De Shields (The Wiz, The Full Monty); Eden Duncan-Smith (Fences, The Lion King); Marva Hicks (Motown The Musical); Ebony JoAnn (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom); Jamal Story (Motown the Musical, The Color Purple 2005); and Rema Webb (The Lion King, Violet, The Book of Mormon, The Color Purple 2015). Organizations included: Classical Theatre of Harlem; Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn; Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre; Sounds of Praise of Emmanuel Baptist Church; and The Designers Corner.

Founded in 2000, Walk Tall Girl Productions is a boutique marking, audience development and group sales agency dedicated to bringing diverse audiences to the arts on Broadway and beyond. The company, which specializes in theatre and reaching communities from the African Diaspora, has a client list that includes The Public Theater, The New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, National Black Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and Urban Bush Women Dance Company. Productions receiving Pendleton’s services have included: Motown: The Musical; the Debbie Allen-directed Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Fences (with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis); and Fela!

Born and raised in Philadelphia and now a resident of Brooklyn, NY, Pendelton holds a bachelor’s in sociology (St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia) and a master’s in theatre management (University of Maryland, College Park). She is a member of the Harlem Arts Alliance and the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce.

The post Walk Tall Girl Productions Celebrated 15 Years With A Taste of My World appeared first on Broadway Black.

HOME by Samm Art Williams is a lyrical play that tells the coming of age story of orphan Cephus Miles of small town Crossroads, North Carolina. Even though Cephus lives what cannot be described as anything less than a whirlwind life, he is still joyous and full of optimism that his quest to discover something deeper will be fulfilled. Cephus eventually leaves Crossroads for the big city after learning that his betrothed Pattie Mae has decided to marry another man, a more well off professional. Throughout his struggles in the big city, being a Vietnam war resister, and returning home to his small town after desegregation, we see the story of a man gaining wisdom in a world that does not always make sense.

HOME by Samm-Art Williams NYC-Manhattan Monday June 15th at 7PM
directed by Michele Shay
Starring Elain Graham, S. Epatha Merkerson, Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Harlem Hospital Pavilion

On the same day Project1Voice will hold another reading for afternoon theatergoers:

Just when you thought going HOME was enough on Monday, June 15th here’s your HAPPY ENDING. This NYC ONLY staged reading of HAPPY ENDING is especially for the capitalistically efficient daytime theater goer.

HAPPY ENDING and DAY of ABSENCE–two one act plays–premiered at St. Marks Place November 1965. This was the genesis of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC).

Arthur French (A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL w/Cicely Tyson) one of the original 13 NEC members–reprises the role he performed 50 years ago. Also featuring Lizan Mitchell, Brandon Gill and NEC alum Ebony Jo-Ann.

Project1Voice also did Ntozake Shange’s  choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf last year. The piece is a series of twenty poems that are choreographed to music (hence, “choreopoem”) performed by seven African American women that are only named by the color that they are assigned.  The subject matter includes abandonment, rape, abortion, domestic violence, and HIV/AIDS. This play first debuted on Broadway in 1976 and Shange was the second African American woman playwright to be produced on Broadway, second only to Lorraine Hansberry with A Raisin in the Sun.

To find out more about how to view the Manhattan staged reading visit Project1Voice.org or the Project1Voice: HOME Facebook event page and listen to the Founder/CEO and President of Project1Voice, Erich McMillian-Mcall, here:

The post Project1VOICE Presents Its Annual Celebration 1VOICE/1PLAY/1DAY June 15 appeared first on Broadway Black.