Theatre Talk Live Featuring Ifa Bayeza on August 27th
Live Cast Production of THE BALLAD OF EMMETT TILL by Ifa Bayeza on August 28, 2020.
The online reading will take place on the 65th anniversary of Till’s murder at 4.p.m. PT. / 7 p.m. ET and be available for viewing at HERE.
The original director and cast of The Fountain Theatre‘s 2010, multiple award-winning production of The Ballad of Emmett Till by Ifa Bayeza will reunite for a live-streamed reading of the play on Friday, Aug. 28, which marks the 65th anniversary of Till’s murder. Tickets are $20.00.
In August, 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi when he was accused of whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman who was a cashier at a grocery store. Four days later, Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam kidnapped Till, beat him and shot him in the head. The men were tried for murder, but an all-white, male jury acquitted them. Till’s murder and open casket funeral galvanized the emerging Civil Rights movement. Bryant recanted her story in 2017, admitting that the court testimony she gave more than six decades prior was false and stating “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him.”
“As America is now being challenged to face its racist history, I can think of no project more worthy,” says Fountain artistic director Stephen Sachs. “In addition to being the 65th anniversary of the murder, Aug. 28 also marks the 57th Anniversary of the historic March on Washington in 1963, and a 2020 march on Washington is being planned this year, on that date, as well.”Part history, part mystery and part ghost story, Bayeza’s lyrical integration of past, present, fact and legend turns Emmett’s story into a soaring work of music, poetic language and riveting theatricality. The Fountain’s 2010 West Coast premiere was twice extended and won a combined total of 14 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Ovation, Backstage and NAACP awards for production, direction, playwriting and ensemble. Bernard K. Addison, Rico E. Anderson, Lorenz Arnell, Adenrele Ojo and Karen Malina White will reprise their roles for the online reading, with Shirley Jo Finney again at the helm.
Read the full article from Broadway World here.
Psalmayene 24 is Busy Imagining a Post-Pandemic Future
Theater artists and audiences will return to the brilliant dark eventually, but it’ll be a different world by then. Acclaimed playwright and director Psalmayene 24 is already busy imagining that post-pandemic future, as it relates to both his art and his life as an artist. “Now that the present has been so dramatically transformed, I’m looking at the future in a much different way,” says the Helen Hayes Award-nominated talent, whose spring production of Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over at Studio Theatre was suspended due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
“I think we were only open for like a week and a half, and then we had to shut down,” he says. “And then I had another play that was running, Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth at Imagination Stage in Bethesda. That was in the middle of its run. Had to close that. And then I was getting ready to open another show at Theater Alliance — a new musical that I’m writing called The Blackest Battle that was going to open in May.”
The Blackest Battle — a musical that, according to the playwright, “explores so-called black-on-black violence through two warring hip-hop groups” — was postponed. But, as artists are wont to do, Psalmayene 24 saw an opportunity in the setback. He decided that Battle, set in the future, should reflect the life-changing effects of our strange here and now. “So it’s more about looking ahead and trying to create a world that is somehow connected to this new reality, which is so starkly different than anything we could have ever imagined. In some ways, real life has written a rich and compelling backstory to the play that I’m going to write.”
By real life, Psalmayene means not just the pandemic, but the almost equally transformative Black Lives Matter protest movement that’s sparked what he calls “a new awakening.”
“A lot of people are all of a sudden realizing that Black people’s lives have been in jeopardy in a very severe way in this country for a long time,” he says. “And for many of us, this is nothing new. So I’m really thinking about how my work now responds to the response of this moment, because my work has always been infused with a level of consciousness about the struggles and the obstacles that Black people have had to overcome and endure in this country.”
Psalmayene brings these issues and more to the fore as host of Psalm’s Salons at Studio, a virtual venue that allows Studio Theatre’s Artist-in-Residence to connect with the audience, and with guests like actor Justin Weaks, Galvanize DC founders J.J. Johnson and Jefferson A. Russell, and Jjana Valentiner, executive producer of the Making Space to Breathe/Gathering to Grieve vigil. Joined by frequent collaborator DJ Nick tha 1da spinning original music, Psalmayene 24 bills the Salon as a space for artists to discuss their craft, for the community to share their experiences, and for audiences to kick back and enjoy the party. “The whole idea was to create this jubilant vibe,” he says, “and create an energy of celebration even in the midst of all this chaos.”
Psalm’s Salon at Studio streams on Thursday, July 23 at 5 p.m., and on Thursday, August 20 at 5 p.m. Visit www.studiotheatre.org/psalm-salons.
Article by Andre Hereford for Metro Weekly.
Ifa Bayeza Announced as American Theatre Critics Association Finalists for 2020 Francesca Primus Prize
The American Theatre Critics Association has selected three finalists for the 2019 Francesca Primus Prize, which recognizes an emerging woman playwright. The prize, administered through ATCA, is named in honor of Francesca Primus, a playwright, dramaturg, theater critic, and ATCA member who died of cancer in 1992.
The Primus Prize has been adjudicated by ATCA since 2002. The award includes a $10,000 honorarium given through the generosity of the Primus Foundation. The winner, selected from this year’s three finalists, will be announced by early August. This year’s finalists are: Jennifer Barclay for Ripe Frenzy, which had its rolling world premiere through the National New Play Network at Boston’s New Repertory Theatre, Atlanta’s Synchronicity Theatre, and Greenway Court Theatre in Los Angeles; Ifa Bayeza for Benevolence, which premiered with Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul; and Stephanie Alison Walker for The Madres, which also had a rolling world premiere with the National New Play Network with Chicago’s Teatro Vista, Skylight Theatre Company in Los Angeles, MOXIE Theatre in San Diego, and Shrewd Productions in Austin, Texas.
Read more from Broadway World here.
Tina Tippit Brown, Who Wrote for the Stage and for Stars, Dies at 94
Christina “Tina” Tippit Brown, writer, photographer, performer and longtime wife and collaborator of The Wiz librettist William F. Brown, died at her Westport, CT home on July 2. She was 94.
Brown started her writing career at the age of 19 while still attending Texas Tech University, seeing her comedic pieces published in The New Yorker and performed on The Tonight Show, and going on to develop material for performers including Imogene Coca, George Gobel, Hermione Gingold and Virginia Graham. Over her long career, she authored screenplays, television projects and worked on TV’s As the World Turns.
With her late husband of 38 years, William F. Brown, she was co-librettist of the musical Have a Nice Day, co-author of the comedy Mixed Doubles and a musical revue, Cole. She also contributed material to his musicals Twist and The Wiz. Brown wrote her own full-length musical, Gringo, and also wrote material for many musical revues: Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know; Style, Baby, Style; Playboy on Broadway; Any Number Can Play; More Sweet Reason and Straight Up with a Twist, among others.
A well-loved bon vivant on the theater scene, Brown also counted among her careers fashion model (for Oleg Cassini), TV guest star (on The Merv Griffin Show) and photographer (serving as official shooter for The Lucille Lortel Theater in Manhattan and The White Barn Theatre in Westport).
Brown is survived by her daughter Terri Ranck, grandchildren Sara Fitzpatrick, Emily Smith, Katy Johnsen and Cristin Jameson and seven great-grandchildren and sister Betty Wheeler. She was predeceased by her son Stephen Tippit and brother Wade Eller. In lieu of flowers, the family requests you celebrate her life with a donation to Westport Country Playhouse.