By Susan King
Audra McDonald is the most lauded Broadway performer winning a whopping six Tony Awards in both musical and dramatic categories. And she may be receiving her seventh for the revival of “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair du Lune” when the 74th annual Tonys take place Sept. 26th at the venerable Winter Garden Theatre.
Despite that record, it took a long time for Black artists to be acknowledged by the Tonys, which were first handed out in 1947. It wasn’t until 2004 that a Black actress won for a lead performance in a play: Phylicia Rashad broke this barrier with her win for a revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.” Hansberry was the first Black artist to be nominated for Best Play in 1960 for the original production of “A Raisin in the Sun” as were its director Lloyd Richards and stars, Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil.
Audra McDonald is the most lauded Broadway performer winning a whopping six Tony Awards in both musical and dramatic categories. And she may be receiving her seventh for the revival of “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair du Lune” when the 74th annual Tonys take place Sept. 26th at the venerable Winter Garden Theatre.
Despite that record, it took a long time for Black artists to be acknowledged by the Tonys, which were first handed out in 1947. It wasn’t until 2004 that a Black actress won for a lead performance in a play: Phylicia Rashad broke this barrier with her win for a revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.” Hansberry was the first Black artist to be nominated for Best Play in 1960 for the original production of “A Raisin in the Sun” as were its director Lloyd Richards and stars, Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil.
- 9/3/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
director Wendell B. Harris Jr.
As most of you know, Tambay and I are curators of an independent Black film series that has recently expanded into a five-day festival as well – ActNow: New Voices in Black Cinema.
The festival itself starts next Friday, February 4th and runs until Wednesday February 9th, and while we’re showing mostly new cinema the closing film is what we’ve dubbed one of the ‘New Black Classics’, a film most of you are intimately familiar with, Wendell B. Harris Jr.’s Chameleon Street (see Quadree’s ’09 fantastic writeup if you’re unfamiliar).
With most of our lineup, ActNow’s blogger Tanya St. Louis has interviewed the directors or producers of the films, and her first is with the esteemed Mr. Harris himself.
Please read it below and help spread the word about this important new film festival.
———————————————————————————————————————-
Wendell B. Harris Jr. is the...
As most of you know, Tambay and I are curators of an independent Black film series that has recently expanded into a five-day festival as well – ActNow: New Voices in Black Cinema.
The festival itself starts next Friday, February 4th and runs until Wednesday February 9th, and while we’re showing mostly new cinema the closing film is what we’ve dubbed one of the ‘New Black Classics’, a film most of you are intimately familiar with, Wendell B. Harris Jr.’s Chameleon Street (see Quadree’s ’09 fantastic writeup if you’re unfamiliar).
With most of our lineup, ActNow’s blogger Tanya St. Louis has interviewed the directors or producers of the films, and her first is with the esteemed Mr. Harris himself.
Please read it below and help spread the word about this important new film festival.
———————————————————————————————————————-
Wendell B. Harris Jr. is the...
- 1/29/2011
- by Curtis the Media Man
- ShadowAndAct
Jasmine Guy (Dead Like Me, A Different World) is set to direct the upcoming stage production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf from July 12 to August 9 at The Soutwest Arts Center in Atlanta, Ga.
Jasmine Guy, right, is the director of the True Colors production
Here's how True Colors Theatre Company describes the production, which will preview on July 12 and 14:
Directed by Broadway star and television actress, Jasmine Guy, Ntozake Shange's legendary choreopoem about the African-American female journey through America is portrayed through the poetry, dancing and narrative of a slate of women who become the colorful ladies of the rainbow. Both a joyous celebration of a unique culture and a wrenchingly real portrait of the struggle of an oppressed minority, For Colored Girls… tells the timeless story through 20 beautiful vignettes that inspire laughter and tears for the passion and pain of the black woman's experience.
Jasmine Guy, right, is the director of the True Colors production
Here's how True Colors Theatre Company describes the production, which will preview on July 12 and 14:
Directed by Broadway star and television actress, Jasmine Guy, Ntozake Shange's legendary choreopoem about the African-American female journey through America is portrayed through the poetry, dancing and narrative of a slate of women who become the colorful ladies of the rainbow. Both a joyous celebration of a unique culture and a wrenchingly real portrait of the struggle of an oppressed minority, For Colored Girls… tells the timeless story through 20 beautiful vignettes that inspire laughter and tears for the passion and pain of the black woman's experience.
- 6/26/2009
- by sarahwarn
- AfterEllen.com
Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre will present the final reading in the Gurfein Foundation/Ntozake Shange Play Reading Series: Derek Walcott's new play Marie Laveau, with music by Galt MacDermot. The reading will take place Sunday, June 28th at 3pm, at Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42nd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues). Clinton Turner Davis directs a cast that features Arthur Bartow, Trazana Beverley, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Gerard Catus, Lia Chaing, Dk Dyson, Stu Richel, Martin Shakar, and Marie Thomas as Marie Laveau.
- 6/11/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
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