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The Island
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Two men mechanically orbit around the stage in their
bare feet. Sweating, panting, sometimes grunting, they
wordlessly migrate, workmanlike, from start to finish,
seeing to obviously appointed, labor-intensive yet
meaningless tasks. |
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Only the mimicked buzz of flies suggests the oppressive
weather. Two tin cups, a bucket and otherwise-barren
dais suggests the setting is a prison, though its
whereabouts are never made clear. The year, too, is
unknown, as are the two men's crimes and the length of
their jail terms. |
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Date:
Completed |
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Starring: Kristoff Skaletl:
("Winston"), Teddy Harrell, Jr.: ("John")
Directed by: Andre’ L. Gainey
Set Design, Construction and Lighting by: : Dudley Pinder
Stage Managed by: Melissa Hunter |
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Having Our Say
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Based on the lives of Sadie and Bessie Delany Having Our Say opens as 103-year-old Sadie Delany and 101-year-old Bessie Delany welcome us into their Mount Vernon, New York, home as they prepare a celebratory dinner in remembrance of their father's birthday, they take us on a remarkable journey through the last hundred years of our nation's history |
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"The most provocative and entertaining family play to reach Broadway in a long time …" ~ NY Times
"…when the show is over, you want it to go on and on … Having our Say is a must for audiences of all races" ~ BackStage
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Date:
Completed |
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Starring: Catherine Willaims:
("Sadie Delany"), Darlene French White: ("Bessie Delany")
Directed by: Andre’ L. Gainey
Set Design and Construction by: : Dudley Pinder
Lighting by: : Apon Nichols
Stage Managed by: Quanikqua Bryant |
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Riff Raff
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It’s Halloween and Mike and his half brother Billy have retreated to an abandoned crack den on the Lower East Side in the aftermath of a drug heist gone sour. Torch has just killed one of the henchmen of the neighborhood’s reigning drug lord. |
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Having planned no means of escape, Mike summons his former colleague Tony the Tiger to help them out... |
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Date:
Completed |
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Starring: Kristoff Skalet: ("Mike '20/20'"), Andre’ L. Gainey: ("Billy 'Torch'") & Ray Lockhart: ("Tony 'The Tiger'")
Directed by: Teddy Harrell, Jr.
Set Design & Construction & Lighting by: Dudley Pinder
Stage Managed by: : Keith Wade |
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Once On This Island
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This musical is a fable of the love of a peasant girl on a tropical island, her love for a wealthy boy, and how their lives are affected by the gods of love, earth, water, and death. Weather is a prominent image. The main feature of the set was a backdrop with opaque clouds and translucent sky, which was beautifully lit by Kenton Yeager for a great variety of looks -- ranging from stormy and threatening to peaceful and romantic. |
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In the second half of the show, this drop was replaced by a fiber-optic star drop, which had a moon suspended in front of it for some scenes. This moon was very simple and very effective -- a light box with a very narrow rim to hide the lights. The rim was covered in black velour so it would disappear against the drop.
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Date:
Completed |
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Starring:
Cafidia Stuart, Mellonaise Jackson, Don Seward, Ashley St. Jean, Regina McNally, Joseph Long, Youri Jean Pierre,
Cynthia Saunders, Kevin Johnson, Danella Vega, Anthony Jerome Larkin and Eric Bendross
Directed by: Teddy Harrell, Jr.
Set Design & Construction by: Dudley Pinder
Choreographed by: Shirley Julien
Music Direction by: Lloyd D. Brockington
Stage Managed by: Melissa Hunter
Wardrobe by: Reginald Symonette
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Sizwe Bansi is Dead
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Sizwe Bansi is Dead was written in collaboration with two African actors, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, both of whom appeared in the original production. It made its debut on October 8, 1972, in Cape Town, South Africa. The play can be traced to Fugard’s
experiences as a law clerk at the Native Commissioner’s
Court in Johannesburg. At that time it was required that
every black and colored citizen over the age of sixteen
carried an identity book that restricted employment and
travel within in the country. |
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In court, Fugard saw the repercussions of this law: blacks were sent to jail at an alarming rate.
Athol Fugard has maintained that the genesis of
Sizwe Bansi Is Dead lies in an unforgettable photograph he saw hanging in a studio window. It was of a South African black man wearing his best suit and an angelic smile. He carried a pipe, a walking stick, and a newspaper.
Thus, Sizwe Bansi is Dead is built on a picture,
a concrete illusion of reality.
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Date:
Completed |
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Starring: Andre’ L. Gainey ("Styles"), Teddy Harrell, Jr. ("Buntu") and William J. Barnes III ("Sizwe Bansi")
Directed by: Andre’ L. Gainey and Teddy Harrell, Jr.
Set Design & Construction by: Dudley Pinder
Lighting by: Apon Nichols
Stage Managed by: Kevin Johnson |
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King Hedley II
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Set in 1985 in two tenement backyards in Pittsburgh ’s Hill District,
King Hedley II is an epic tragedy of the common man and the crushing weight of everyday life and our ultimate struggle to regain our sense of community and culture in a crumbling urban society.
King Hedley II takes place during a time of drive-by shootings and Reaganomics that don't trickle down as far as the Hill District. King Hedley II (Gainey)
and his friend, Mister ( Taylor), make ends meet by
fencing "hot" refrigerators until they can get the money
together to start a video store. King's wife, Tonya (
Dawson ) is pregnant but, already a grandmother at 35,
she does not want to have the baby.
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King is insistent. The arrival in town of his mother Ruby's (Johnson) ex-lover Elmore (Barnes) triggers a series of events that cause King to question his manhood and his identity.
King Hedley II continued playwright August Wilson's monumental cycle of plays chronicling African-American life in twentieth century America . King Hedley II is a still-young man who has already seen more than his share of trouble. His beloved girlfriend, Neesi , died not long ago, and his current relationship with wife Tonya seems an imperfect substitute. He also spent seven years in prison for killing a man who cut his face with a knife. Hedley bears the permanent physical scar.
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Date:
Completed |
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Starring:
Andre’ L. Gainey ("King Hedley II"), Carolyn Johnson ("Ruby"), Charles Bonamy ("Stool Pigeon"), Earlington
Valstalsky Taylor ("Mister"), Viviene Dawson ("Tonya")
and William J. Barnes ("Elmore")
Directed by:
Teddy Harrell, Jr.
Set Design & Construction by:
Dudley Pinder
Lighting by:
Apon Nichols
Stage Managed by:
Quanikqua Bryant |
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The Taking of Miss Janie
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The Taking of Miss Janie is a theatrical drama that displays the relationship between a black revolutionary and a white liberal woman whose rape becomes the play's core symbolism.
Set at a party in California; the play follows the lives of nine young college students trying to make sense of the confusion around the drastic changes
and movements of the 1960s. Janie (Robel), bright-eyed and bushy-tailed happens upon a brand new world on the Southern California college
scene when she meets Monty (Gaspard) a smooth, black revolutionary poet. Janie is welcomed into a world unlike anything she
has ever experienced. |
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The Taking of Miss Janie garnered him a Obie Award and the New York Drama .Critics Circle Award in 1975
Teddy Harrell, Jr, Director of The Taking of Miss Janie and Founder of the African American Performing Arts Community Theatre (AAPACT) shared, “My first experience with Mr. Bullins came when I was understudying the role of Butch in his musical
Storyville. He would come in and do occasional re-writes of the book and watch the rehearsal process. We at AAPACT are delighted to produce his work”.
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Date:
Mar 30, 2006 -
Apr 23, 2006 |
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Starring:
Carey Hart ("Flossie"), Matthew McCullough ("Rick"), John
Wendell ("Mort"), Dyani Batcheller ("Sharon"), Erika Robel
("Janie"), Christina N. Alexander ("Peggy"), Nicholas Velkov
("Lonnie"), Reiss Gaspard ("Monty") and Kevin Johnson ("Len")
Directed by:
Teddy Harrell, Jr.
Set Design & Construction by:
Dudley Pinder
Lighting by:
Apon Nichols
Stage Managed by:
Quanikqua Bryant
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