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July 13, 1988, Portland Observer, Page 3
f
.V iN T E R T A IN M E N I
a
BROADWAY BOUND
REPORT
For tic k e t inform ation call the IFCC,
243-7930 or Connie Carley, Company
Manager, PassinArts, 282-0003.
By: Garland Lee Thompson
P layw rights in Dialogue
The PassinArtss Theatre Company
is currently offering the C ity of P ort­
land, the only w orld w orkshop pre­
miere of a new Black play o f the 1988-
89 season, "W ells, W is h e s , and
H e a rtfe lt D re a m s ," by the com ­
pany’s founder, Michael J. Grant.
The original play w ill run July 8th- 17th,
1988, at the Interstate Firehouse Cul­
tural Center, 5340 N. Interstate (o ff
Killingsworth), 8 p.m . on Fridays,
S a tu rd a ysa n d 2 p .m ., Sundays.
'W e lls , W is h e s ," according to the
author, 'Is a re-creation o f African-
Am ericans w ho might be term ed as
ordinary people, w ho are directed by a
vision of the future, hard-w on, but
free. The story revolves around "Jo ­
shua, a m inister," w ho is w orking on
w ritin g his annual Juneteenthh sermon
(the annual black holiday of Black
Emancipation). W hile doing so, he
experiences various interruptions and
flashbacks in the course of completing
his scrip t.
The cast includes Henry Melson
("S plit S econd," "Ceremonies in Dark
Old M e n ," "Spell Number Seven"),
Wanda W alden ("Ceremonies in Dark
Old M e n ," "M a Rainey's Black B o t­
to m ," and she is currently designing
the costum es for Langston Hughes
"Sim ply H eavenly" opening August
18, 1988, at Lincoln Hall Theatre,
Portland S ta te U niversity, Michael
Holiday ("L ittle Shop of H o rro r," "Split
Second"), Gennar For land ("S plit Se­
cond"), and Korie Mayes.
A t the playw rights symposium,
w hich w as sponsored by the first New
York International Festival of the A rts
on Thursday, June 16, 1988, at the
graduate Center of the C ity Univer­
sity of N ew York, the auditorium
w as crow ded w ith theatre fans w ho
had come to hear Tom Stoppard (w ho
w on the 1984 Tony A w a rd for "The
Real Thing"), A rth u r M iller ("D eath of
a Salesm an"), August W ilson (w ho
w on both a Pulitzer Prize and Tony
A w a rd last year in 1987 fo r "Fences"),
Athol Fugard ("M aster Harold and the
Boys") and Tina Howe ("C ostal Disur-
bances.")
Mr. Wilson was upset about
inadequate compensation for many
theatre artists. 'W hen you say you're
going to do a play on B roadway, in what
they call the "com mericial area," M r.
Wilson said, "Ithink of the Christians and
the lions. Everyone shows up w ith their
lawyer.
You take the w ord com-
merical, meaning commerce, and you
take the w ord artist, and when you try
to wedge the tw o together, you're going
to have problems.''
Mr. Miller asserted that if he were to
w rite "Death of a Salesman" today, it
would not succeed. The otehrs did not
agree because they felt that it is still a
good play.
Athol Fugard said that he would like to
believe his plays reflected a certain
comment on the Apartheid South
African society, on which he has been
writing for years (He is one of only a fe w
white South African playwrights whose
works have been presented successful
without protest in the U .S .A .). He
feels that this country is now more
educated about the subtleties and com­
plexities of the situation in South A frica .
Mr. Stoppard had a somewhat more
optimistic view of other opportunities
provided by nonprofit and regional
theaters in America and the subsidized
theatre of Britain.
Ms. Howe said, "Audiences are dying
to see real-life emotion happen in front of
their eyes.
There is an enormous
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283-3171
N ew Book Available
Black Classic Press, the Baltimore
based publishing company operated by
Paul Coates and his w ife Cheryl
W aters, and specializing in obscure and
significant w orks by and about African
descendants, has recently published 100
Years o f Lynching by Ralph Ginzburg,
noted journalist, author, ecftor and
publisher.
First published in 1962, Ginzburg's 100
Years o f Lynchings uses primary
sources to accurately and vividy depict
a history of racial atrocities perpetuated
by whites against Black people in the
United States. Seemingly countless
newspaper articles selected from a wide
range of papers create a documentary
of lynchings that began in the early
Nineteenth Century and continued well
intothe Twentieth.
Incidences of racial violence against
Black people in the United States are in­
creasing.
An understanding of the
nature and scope of this historical
problem as provided by Ginzburg's news
articles should offer a healing response.
100 Years o f Lynching is available in
paperback for $9.95 from bookstores or
drectly from Black Classic Press, P. O.
Box 13414, Baltimore, Md. 21203.
hunger. I think the challenge of writing
for the theatre has to do w ith facing your
ow n demons and decorating then^ in a
w ay that w on't be a profound em­
barrassment to you. I don't think about
the audience; I think about w hat I'm
trying to dredge up. I think this is a w on­
derful time to w rite for the theatre in this
age of V .C .R . and flickering images." (I
couldn't agree w ith her more. W rite
on...)
From the "I missed it" dept., it ran
here in Portland last season, but, "Ma
Rainey's Black B ottom ," by Black Pulit­
zer Prize and Tony Aw ard winning play­
wright, August Wilson ("Fences"), is
currently playing in Seattle, W a ., at the
Pioneer Square Theater Firststage, 107
Occidental S t., thru July 24th.
The Rank Silvera W riters Workshop
of New York, in its sixteenth season, is
launching a national search for a new
Executive Director for the coming 1988-
89 season. The workshop is one of the
leading black playwrights and women
playwrights developmental theatres in
the country that has presented such
writers as Charles Fuller (Pulitzer Prize
playwright, w ho w rote the play "A
Soldier's Play" and the film) and Richard
Wesley (who w rote the film "Uptown
Saturday Night" and "Native Son.");
Ntozake Shange (who w rote the play,
"For colored girls..."). More than 3,000
w riters and their works have been
presented to date by the FSW W . For
information contact the Search Com­
mittee of the Rank Silvera W riters
Workshop, 317 W est 125th Street,
New York, Ny 10027, (212) 662-8463.
For reactions, comments or added
theatre information, please w rite to us
at
B ro a d w a y
Bound
R e p o rt,
P .O .B o x 3137, P o rtla n d , O r., at the
Portland Observer, (503) 288-0033,
(which by the w ay has moved into new
quarters on Killingsworth street across
from the Red Meyer Shopping Center
and Post Office) Congrats to the staff of
t
H a ir p ie c e s
and
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