AAPEX Interview: Sandra A. Daley-Sharif

Sandra A. Daley-Sharif

What role did theatre and the arts play in your childhood and upbringing?

Funny, when I look back, theatre and the arts did not seem to be a part of my early life. But I will say, that the members of my family were highly creative people. They were skilled leaders, great storytellers, and they knew how to make something out of nothing. 

I was born in Jamaica, West Indies. My parents still live there. I go home quite regularly to visit my granny. She’s 94 years old.

My father is a reverend and local politician, my mother was a school teacher, my step-father was a police sergeant, and my step-mother made me beautiful dresses and shorts sets, and I remember going from town to town with her; her job was to teach people how to make crafts, in order to make a living.

My family are community activists. I grew up in my great grandmother’s house on a large piece of land that belonged to her Irish family. She’s buried on that land. And to all corners, beyond where the eyes could see, there were trees and lush mountains. We were - We are amazingly blessed. So, people were always in and out of my home, seeking work, food, shelter, and counsel.

I am not surprised that producing, directing, writing, acting… is my life. That my life is about people. It’s about leadership and transformation.

Tell us about your own evolution as an artist.

I started out as a fashion designer. Sort of “tripped” up on the idea that I had a talent for painting and illustrating. In the late 80s, I quickly made a name for myself as one of the youngest and the only black designer in a large sportswear company, in Manhattan’s garment district. 

At about that time, I took a series of Erhard Seminars Trainings (est), with the idea of transforming the experience of my life. Those trainings were influential in helping to raise my level of integrity and how I present myself to the world. My authenticity comes from that work. And I never play “small”.

I quit my lucrative job as a young designer for accounts like Macy’s, Diane Von Furstenberg, Spiegel’s and I dared to live the life I dreamed.

I studied dance with Alvin Ailey and Phil Black, started acting, producing, you name it, I’ve done it.

Today, everyday of my life is a creative process; even as a mother and a wife. I am not daunted by much. I take on new endeavors with great fervor. That’s not to say that I’m not afraid of judgement and failure, but…once I recognize the fear, I know I have to step out on and do!

What is The Silver Thread and where are you on this project at this time?

“The Silver Thread”, is an award-winning (Hudson Valley Writers’ Center 2012 awardee and a Great Plains Conference 2013 Lab Play) new play by creative emerging African-American playwright, Joslyn Housley-McLaughlin. Joslyn wrote “The Silver Thread” in Liberation Theatre Company’s Black Playwrights’ Group. It’s based on the true story of Dr. J Marion Sims, who was a surgical pioneer, considered the father of gynecology.  Today, a heated ethical debate continues about his legacy, as Sims used black female slaves as experimental subjects, much like the famed Tuskegee Experiments. Sims repaired fistula after experimenting on Alabamian slave women, without using anesthesia. It was only after the success of the early experiments on the slaves that Sims attempted the procedure on Caucasian women with fistulas, this time with anesthesia. His technique using silver-wire sutures led to successful repair of a fistula, and this was reported in 1852.

Ideally, I would love to collaborate with a theatre that has the space and funds to produce a full production of the play. Today, my producing partner, Spencer Scott Barros and I, under the auspices of Liberation Theatre Company, are raising funds ($40,000) to produce a workshop production of the play. 

If you are interested in hearing more about the project email us at info@liberationtheatrecompany.orgor visit TheSilverThreadPlay.com. If you feel inclined to donate, click here or paste this in your browserhttps://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=2885

What are your thoughts on the state of Black Theatre in our country today?

There is no shortage of great producers and storytellers across the country. Our longevity depends on our willingness to collaborate, to mentor, to seek mentorship, and to be visionaries - to look beyond our immediate circumstances, towards what is possible. I believe  that we also need to create a new paradigm for how  we produce and present our stories. We may have to break some rules or create new rules. We can’t expect to compete with the bigger theaters or tell our stories in quite the same way. I am working with playwrights who are “breaking tradition”, telling stories in a new way. Let’s get creative about how we get those stories out there. Many of us have very little resources and often, we are transient, moving from space to space. So, there is always the danger, of producing beyond our means, where the quality of the work and professionalism suffers. That should never be the case. Honoring the stories, the work and the artists involved, is first and foremost.

Sandra A. Daley-Sharif is producing artistic director of Liberation Theatre Company, established in 2009 as a home for creative emerging Black playwrights, providing resources to develop their work, nurturing and inviting them to express themselves in a supportive and focused environment. http://www.liberationtheatrecompany.org http://www.sandradaley.com

AAPEX Interview: Nathan Ross Freeman

Nathan Ross Freeman

What role did theatre, film and the arts play in your childhood and upbringing?
My mother exposed my brother and me to ... everything. My first rock and roll show, My first symphony concert. Recitals, Trips to the mission. My father harped on education, education, education. They both made a big deal about every crayola disfiguration and term paper. I made my brother tell me a story every night before I went to sleep. I was fortunate to be an African American male who was not raised as a victim. So all I knew is what I could do! Never had a tow that road background and we were lower middle class family. I was reared on constant creativity and choice.

Tell us about your own evolution as an artist.
I graduated from St. Joseph's University, Philly PA. Got my first job as a para-professional teaching reading at Tioga Community Youth Center, an alternative education school. I decided to use theatre as a vehicle for remedial reading and behavioral modification. Couldn't find a play to fit the constituency of my class, so I wrote one, Where Is Momma. The center got behind it and we performed it at my al ma mater high school, St. Joe's Prep. It was so well received, though the staging was absolutely atrocious, that the center exec. Director awarded my cast of students a week of downtown theatre and a put up at a 5 star hotel. We went to Academy Of Music, Shubert and Walnut Theater show. It was glorious. The publicity of this outing together with this pioneering vehicle of theater (then) to develop underserved youth.  Temple invited us to perform the play for 3 days and the renown Walk Auditorium ... and ... paid the youth $45 per performance. I remember the closing performance, everybody gone, stage struck, sitting mid row, alone, staring at the stage with the ghost light the only illumination. Declared I was in love and the rest is history.

What inspired the film Mr. Bones?
Debra Terry, a renowned BET comedian and dear friend, came to me about an idea of a reunion of 3 close friends after going their separate adult ways. With some controversy I amended her story of coming home to do a Christmas Play for their hometown congregation, to their becoming friends as a result of surviving a church bus crash. While playing in the park they find the skull of a missing child. Instead of reporting it they make it a totem, a shrine and bring artifacts of their childhood to share with their deceased parents who died in the crash. Their reunion is the result of someone finding the skull and all the treasures during their adult years. They come home to face the music and, thus, confront and purge their demons of grief.

What are your current projects?
I have 2 feature films in development: The Quad and Topaz D. I have one script in development The Den. And I have one short feature I wrote to shoot myself and 2 superlative actors I grew up with, in professional theatre in Philly: Donald Newton (Mr. Bones Co-Star) and Wendy Pearson (played all my leading lady roles with Bushfire Theatre). The film is The Other Way Around; a true art house film I am so proud to have written and will be a sleeper at every festival that screens it. Principle Photography in April.

Meet Angelina Grimke: An AAPEX Interview with Tosha Thompson

Tosha Thompson

Actually it's actress Tosha Thompson, who will be portraying America's first African American woman playwright, Angelina Weld Grimke - not to be confused with her great aunt, abolitionist Angelina Grimke Weld - in our Juneteenth reading of THE CARELESSNESS OF LOVE by Michael Dinwiddie at The Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, Wednesday, June 19th, 6:30 pm. It's free. Rehearsal space courtesy of Out Central - www.outcentral.org 

Here's more about our leading lady in her own words: 

1. What role did theatre and the arts play in your childhood upbringing? 
It played a huge role, even though I didn’t realize it until much later. Performance and the Arts was something that I always did or was asked to do. I didn’t realize it was the silent, patient friend in my life that was always there for me, never getting it’s proper due until much later; when I was bold enough to say, “this is not just a hobby, this is my career. This is not an optional part of my life, but a very necessary part of my life. Indeed, it is part of my purpose for being here and a huge component of the passion that helps me truly live. It all started in my community’s little country church when I was growing up. It comforted me when I was afraid, kept me company when I was lonely, celebrated with me during my victories and challenged me so that I would never become complacent. I smile just thinking about those early years. Yes, the theatre and the arts have been a patient friend, one that I will never neglect again. 

2. Tell us about your evolution as an artist. 
Well I can tell you it is ongoing! I never feel that I have evolved enough. I never really feel like I know what I’m doing. I just try to be as authentic as possible when I am communicating. Perhaps that is one thing. I realize now that actors are communicators. It doesn’t sound as glamorous, but it’s a better description of what we do. We take dialogue and communicate as effectively as we can our character’s life story through our actions, our intonations, our clothing, even our silence. We should never catch ourselves (nor let anyone else catch us) “acting” up there. Authenticity matters. 

3. How are you preparing for the role of Angelina Grimke? 
From what I’ve read, Angelina Grimke was a phenomenal woman during a time that being phenomenal was the last word that one would use to describe a woman. She was opinionated and outspoken. She was passionate, curious and creative. She lived during a time when she would be scorned for most of her positive attributes that we would so freely celebrate in her today, because she was a woman. There was always a battle Angelina had to fight just to live an authentic life during those times. Everyone can identify with struggle, oppression of some sorts, and denial of those things that make life seem nearly unbearable without them. Life is full of conflict and without conflict you have no real dramatic story. See where I’m going… 

4. Tell us about your work with the NAACP and about the mission of the organization in the 21st century. 
When I was first approached by the genius of Jaz (Dorsey), I couldn’t believe the timing of everything that was about to happen. At the time of our first meeting, we were working together on another project and I had also recently joined the NAACP as the PR/Media Chair. We struck up a conversation. He found out my association with the NAACP and by the end of the conversation we both knew that this play had to be done! It had to be done because the story’s central character is the daughter of one of the founders of the NAACP. Unbelievable! The NAACP is really putting its focus back on the community and what the community feels is important. We just wrapped up Environmental Justice Earth Day. We had an impressive panel, which included our chapter president, Dr. John Arradondo speaking on the disparities of low income neighborhoods and disproportionate amounts of landfill placement and unhealthy living conditions. We pursue any injustice in our communities and welcome any suggestions at any time regarding issues or policies that need our attention. Please know that there is always an open door at our office for any concerns. I think our mission statement sums it up best: The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. To reiterate: we are passionate about the rights of all disenfranchised or marginalized people.

Angelina Grimke is the daughter of one of the founders of the NAACP, Archibald Grimke (attorney and Harvard graduate). Angelina Grimke is a poet, a playwright and an outspoken individual during a time when women were not encouraged to be any of those things. She was the first African American female to have a play produced then publicly performed. This work has been noted as a precursor to the Harlem Renaissance. 

Filled with historical references and strong characters, we see a well woven tapestry of the struggles and joys of that era. We see Archibald's frustrations with W. E. B Du Bois, and we get to observe Angelina's struggle with finding her own way and living the life of her dreams. The only problem is, that life is strictly forbidden. Angelina has held a secret from her father and the rest of the world her entire life. For this reason, she considers leaving the only man she's ever loved since her mother abandoned her as a young girl. What is this secret? Will she leave or stay to keep the family honor? You MUST come and see for yourself! Don't miss the chance to see this free, intimate presentation before this play goes into full production! The play will be held in the 

Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center at Vanderbilt University

Wednesday, June 19th at 6:30 PM

AAPEX Interview: Nathan James

Nathan James

Nathan came to AAPEX's attention when he brought to life the lead role in DC Copeland's "Jitterbug!" (then called "Once Upon A Time In Harlem: A Jitterbug Romance") which was directed by Petronia Paley last March at the National Black Theatre in Harlem. "Nathan's the kind of actor playwrights dream of," Copeland said. "He took Billy Rhythm off the page where he had resided for so long and made him into a living, breathing, passionate and fearless man. If Billy had been embedded in clay, this would have been in Genesis, James is God, and the world would be much more different than the one we see today."

What role did theatre and the arts play in your childhood and upbringing? 

Being from my neighborhood of Beltzhoover in Pittsburgh Pa, there are not many opportunities provided that enables youth to see past the allure of street life. Many of my childhood friends are dead or in jail as a result of gang activity and drug dealing/use. Theater and good parenting literally saved me from this harsh reality. When I was promoted to middle school from the 5th grade, I had no doubt in my mind that I wanted to follow behind my brother and attend Rogers C.A.P.A middle school (which is now merged with CAPA high school in Pittsburgh). The problem was, my mother and I couldn't figure out a talent which I could enter the school with. My mother finally remembered how good she thought I was in our church Easter plays. She decided to bring me home a monologue from "You're a good man Charlie Brown" in order for me to audition for the acting program. I was accepted in and immediately fell in love with the craft of acting. At our 8th grade performance at the Fulton Theater in Pittsburgh, my comedic character brought the audience to their feet for a standing ovation. I immediately gave up my childhood dreams of wanting to be a scientist, and knew from that moment I wanted to be in this business for the rest of my life 

Tell us about your own evolution as an artist? 

I often found myself living in two completely different worlds as a kid. On one end, I grew up in the hood. On the other end, I was fortunate enough to have parents who scraped together what little money they had to involve me in acting classes and conservatories to keep me too busy to get into trouble. This gave me a unique opportunity to gain a social education by becoming an observer of the two different ways of life (especially since I had never been able to completely fit in to either environment because of my affiliation with the other). I wasn’t “Hood” enough to be completely “Hood” because of my interest in the arts, yet I was too much of a product of my upbringing to be completely accepted among the “Privileged” in my acting classes. The inability to fit completely in to both worlds transitioned from childhood resentment to a sociological advantage in my artistic endeavors. I'm able to see things from both ends of the spectrum when I take on roles, and in my writing 

How do you prepare for a role? 

I first read the entire script to gather all the given circumstances. Then I sit down and create a list of similarities/differences between myself and my character in order to compliment him and find his heroics in the world of the play. After all table work is finished, I put my self on foot and begin to establish some mannerisms and rhythm. 

What's on your agenda for 2013? 

I've recently been granted an August Wilson Center fellowship with the August Wilson Cultural Center, and I will be commissioned to create a new piece of work to be produced at the center. I'm cast in the Off-Broadway production "Easter" with the August Strindberg Repertory Theater at the Gene Frankel Theater (3/3 - 3/31). In march I will be performing in the reading of Michael Dinwiddie's play "The Carelessness of Love" at the Spiral Theatre Studio. Also, for Valentines day, I will be hosting a poetry performance/open mic with fellow poet Ayo "The NigerianNightmare" in SOHO. 

What are a couple of your dream roles? 

My dream roles are: "Citzen" from "Gem of the Ocean," "Othello", and Sgt. Waters in "A Soldier's Play". I would also love to portray "Tupac". 

Website link: http://www.officialnathanjames.com 
Blog: http://nathanjamespoet.blogspot.com 
Twitter: @ImNateJames 
Agent contact: Mary Anne Claro (215) 465-7788  http://clarotalent.net/

AAPEX Interview: Melissa Maxwell wins AAPEX Filmmaker Award

for her satirical short FETUS ENVY.

(See it screened at ArtLightenment 2012)

 Please click image to enlarge.

Here's what Melissa has to say about herself and her film.

 Melissa Maxwell

What role did theatre, film and the arts play in your childhood and upbringing?

Truthfully, very little. As a child, though I had a very vivid imagination that kept me entertained for hours (and occasionally caused my parents great concern), theatre, film and the arts were not on my radar. In fact, I had been accepted to three different schools for fashion design until junior year of high school when, needing an elective, I signed up for Mrs. Gunion’s "Play Production" class. It was then that I got “bitten by the bug". 

Tell us about your own evolution as an artist. 

I graduated from Boston University with a BA in performance in classical theatre and immediately moved to NY where I spent the early part of my career acting in regional theatres, commercials, voice-overs, TV and some film. Along the way I started writing and then eventually directing. The past eight to ten years my focus has been primarily on directing. I believe it is the discipline that best utilizes my talents, and that my years/experience as an actor and playwright were necessary to my development, informing who I am as director and how I approach that craft.

What inspired FETUS ENVY and what are the adventures you have had on this journey? 

Fetus Envy was originally written as a one-act play in 2003. At the time, I was a member of the now defunct theatre company called Urban Rock Project. In response to the Bush administration’s Patriot Act, founder Rich Cole challenged company members to write plays that addressed the many ways in which our rights were being infringed upon (one addressed criminal justice, another marriage and civil unions, another capital punishment, right to privacy, etc). We ended up with ten one-acts, which were produced in the NY International FringeFestival under the title, Patriot Acts: The Constitution Project. Earlier this year, however, with the trans-vaginal controversy and Congress refusing to let women speak on a panel about contraception (are you kidding me!), I got angry all over again and realized that my play was more pertinent now then when I first wrote it. So I decided to shoot it as a film in hopes of it being a call to action. At some point during the filmmaking process, we discovered an article about the criminalization of pregnant women due to the personhood bill (and one article led to another). It was at this point that we realized that the film, while a work of fiction, was more life-like and less satirical than we’d thought and that “the not too distant future” was NOW. Making the film has been both the scariest and most exhilarating experience of my career to date. Scary because, having never made a film before, I was on a HUGE learning curve. I was stretched so far outside my comfort zone there were days I thought I was going to spontaneously combust. And yet, those very same reasons made it exhilarating: standing in the face of all of my fears, overcoming all the overwhelming challenges and not backing down gave me a tremendous sense of accomplishment. This year has been about growth for me. 

Whas'up next? 

For the film: enter it into festivals, screen it where/whenever possible and continue to get the word out. For me: I’m always working on several projects at any given time. I am the director of AmericanSlavery Project’s “Unheard Voices”, a collective work by African-American playwrights, which brings to life some of the 419 anonymous men, women and children who lived in colonial New York and are buried at the African Burial Ground. I am also currently directing a rehearsal project at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting for their third year students. In December I begin rehearsals for a children’s musical at Vital Theatre called, SHOW WAY, an adaptation of Jacqueline Woodson’s award-winning children’s book by the same title. Then I head to University of Texas where I will be directing a production of Intimate Apparel. That will keep me busy through the first of March. 

Melissa Maxwell 

Writer/Director FETUS ENVY It's not just a film; it's a movement!

Director UNHEARD VOICES 

Speaker TEDx Talk: "Taking Ownership" 

AAPEX Interview: Paula J Riley

What role did theatre and the arts play in your childhood and upbringing?

Being the child of performers, I was exposed not only to the external environs of the Borscht Belt circuit of the 1940’s, but the constant shenanigans of my comic father, who would bounce me upon his knee while trying out many a song or funny new routine. For attention I would dance for the inevitable weekly crowd of relatives who’s accolades have never quite been matched.

I went to a performing arts camp in the Berkshires called Stissing Lake where a young Jerry Herman was the musical director. I performed as a little ballerina in Finian's Rainbow , A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I did the traditional school plays where I would sing, act and dance. I studied at several of the day’s foremost acting schools and with teachers such as John Stix, at The Herbert Berghof Studios. As a New Yorker growing up in the 60’s, I was privy to the likes of many struggling young actors, comics and singers. I hung out at the original Improvisation begun by Bud Friedman and his wife Silver on West 44 Street in Manhattan. I would occasionally get up to sing but I preferred hearing the humor of Robert Klein, Richard Prior, Rodney Dangerfield or Stiller & Mera trying out their latest material. Or I would listen to the melodious tones of Bette Midler, Leslie Uggums or Liza Minnelli. Their nightly piano player was Charlie Smalls who would later write the Broadway musical The Wiz

As it was the rise of Off-Broadway, many of the smaller houses were playing some of America’s greatest – and still unknown – playwrights of the century such as Edward Albee and Sam Shepard. I worked part-time at the famous Village Gate – again rubbing elbows with a young Neil Diamond or Stacy Keach who played the title role in MacBird!, an Off-Broadway anti-war satire by Barbara Garson staged in 1966.

In that same year, I met and began studying with Iza Itkin and worked with her until 1970. I was a charter member of Iza’s repertory theatre company in Manhattan, The Chamber Theater. Iza was the daughter of David Itkin of the famed Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Some of Iza’s directorial accomplishments were: The Infernal Machine produced Off-Broadway and The Prisoner at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC. She also wrote a poetic memoir called A Becoming, I Iza. I believe her greatest talent was directing and her contribution to theatre is the creative structure I now call The Spiral Theatre Studio.

At the Chamber Theatre, I studied the art of improvisation, which led me to a deeper understanding of myself as well as the intricacies of acting. This would have a lasting and profound influence upon how I would later teach. Working with a closely-knit group of actors for an extended period of time gave me great insight into the acting group dynamic. This is where my true grit was challenged as an actor. By osmosis I began my tutelage in directing. I feel I need to honor her teachings on that structure. I want to fulfill her dream (and mine) by recreating this magical venue.

Tell us about your own evolution as an artist.

During the period that followed my studies, I married and divorced, wrote, directed and sang in several nightclub acts, an early love of mine. I even returned to college for Interior design, looking for the creative part of myself I was yet to fulfill.

I had always been the one that adults would come to for advice when I was as young as seven. And being the good little child I would somehow find an answer that would satisfy them and it would be right on.

I now know it was my intuition that gave me a sense of others, a perception that has grown and helped me “know” through feelings not intellect. Of course this has been a great factor in a career in which I can gratefully apply this gift. And so it seemed clear and natural for me to coach, teach and direct.

I became active in a neighborhood theatre company and directed a couple of productions. I had begun to scratch the surface of my intended destiny. But life was hard financially and I had to take in roomers in order to make ends meet. A friend who worked for a popular modeling agency recommended that I house out of town models and their mothers, M & M’s as I called it. I also worked as a bartender which supplemented my income but also made it too tempting to have “just another drink” before I went home. I had a monkey on my back that I didn’t address until many years later. Meanwhile, I picked up whatever jobs I could as an actor, director or singer.

My directorial credits include: A Fake Fiasco by Fred Timm, I Feel Swell, by Henry Meyerson, Wednesdays by Sue Brody, Extreme Unction (Reading), by Marvin Cotlar, Traffic Jam by Bonnie Corso, The Reading by John C. Davenport, Come Back, Little Sheba by William Inge, Golden Boy by Clifford Odets, The Wreck on the 5:25 by Thorton Wilder, From Lindsay by Monica Raymond and The Stronger by August Strindberg.

Some of the plays from which I directed scenes for my 3-month “From Scratch To Script” workshops are: Beautiful Clear-eyed Woman by Diana Amsterdam, Little Murders by Jules Feiffer, Come Blow Your Horn by Neil Simon, A Few Good Men by Aaron Sorkin, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Glengary Glen Ross by David Mamet, The Member Of The Wedding by Carson McCuller, Laundry & Bourbon by James Mclure, Lie Of The Mind by Sam Shepard.

Throughout my acting career I have portrayed such characters as: Daisy Werthan in Driving Miss. Daisy, Amanda in Glass Menagerie, Edna in Prisoner of Second Avenue and Thelma in ‘Night Mother, just to name a few.

Another love of mine is writing. I started to write a play and then another. I also wrote many short stories and poems. They were reflections of my inner burnings. However, one of the plays, which took me three years to complete, had actually been plagiarized. I can’t reveal more on this because I won’t expose names but it appeared on a major TV network with a star-studded cast. This was a double-edged sword since it was good enough for that venue but I was never credited with its creation. I am still hoping to produce the play that was made into a TV movie, on The Spiral Theatre stage. I still write poetry – it’s a great outlet.

What is the "spiral stage"? What is you mission here, and why?

I am prepared to carry on the tradition of this sustainable poetic construct I call “The Spiral” which was originally conceived and built by Iza Itkin. I am now partnered with a prolific playwright, Coni Koepfinger, and will be directing her play Coffee House Magik which will be The Spiral’s inaugural performance. While I continue teaching, coaching and directing, my legacy is to resurrect the stage I learned how to act upon – which now bares the name The Spiral Theatre Studio.

The stage is a synthesis of the free organic and the structured geometric. Working on this stage helped me create an organic teaching process that insures the actor/student the most nuanced, and unselfconscious performance as possible. I call this the Primary Principles of Acting (PPA). I am writing a guide by the same name for actors, which describes my process and offers several effective exercises to create an in-depth character core for scene work, auditions and performances.

It is my goal to create this stage in a sustainable way and therefore become the first truly “Green” theatrical performance space in New York City. We can achieve this mostly with the ability to stage all our productions on this environmentally friendly construct. By not having set load-ins and load-outs, we can function in a controlled environment.

We can dictate what comes into our space, which will be green-optimized from the ground floor up.

One of the important elements of this theatre is to introduce “essential theatre” to both the general public at an affordable price and to have a specific department which conducts educational outreach for public and high school students.

For more information please go to:

www.pjrileystudio.com

http://www.thespiraltheatrestudio.com/

www.indiegogo.com/thespiraltheatrestudio

AAPEX Interview: Dr. Henry Miller via Cultural Weekly

Dr. Henry Miller

Check out Jaz Dorsey's interview of Dr. Henry Miller, author of Theorizing Black Theatre at Cultural Weekly.

AAPEX Interview: Linda James-Johnson

Linda Johnson

While actors, directors and playwrights may be plentiful, a good choreographer is hard to find, which was why I was pretty psyched to connect with Linda James Johnson, a native of NYC who is now down in Atlanta, Ga. Figuring other folks would like to know a good choreographer, I asked Linda - what's up with you? Here's what she has to say for - and about - herself.

Jaz Dorsey

Theater and the Arts played a very very significant part in my childhood. At the age of 8, I was enrolled in dance, singing, piano, and sewing lessons. My life was filled with creative activities, and I loved every moment of it. My parents always said that they wanted to expose me to the things they were not exposed to.

My evolution as an artist? I knew by the time I was 13 that this was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Usually around that time of your life, folks are always asking you what do you want to be when you grow up. I always said either a dancer or an entertainer. But I was always discouraged. "We mean what do you want to do to make a living?" My answer was always the same: I want to be a dancer or entertainer. I tried to convince my parents that I wanted to go to the High School of Performing Arts in NY. They said No. I even had my dance teacher (the late great Bernice Johnson) speak to my parents to let them know. Attending this school would mean that my academics would have to be up to A, or B average. My parents would not even consider it! "No performing arts school for my daughter!" It was all about the academics. So off to a public high school I went.

I thought, OK when I graduate from High School, I'll go to Howard University where Debbie Allen went and they have a great arts

program. Again the answer was No. "You're going to school in NY."

So I went to Queens College. I started out majoring in Math. My third year in I saw this Dance Company - Fred Benjamin Dance Co. - perform at my school. After the performance, I immediately went to my guidance counselor, and changed my major to theater/dance. I graduated from school in 1977 and started hitting the pavement.

I actually started choreographing in College, but I knew then I really wanted to perform, so I focused all my energies on performing. I figured I could always teach and choreograph in my later years. I had a strong desire to perform at 22yrs of age. As I continued to perform, I gradually became interested in the entire productions and started looking at the production a little differently. After about 10 years of performing, I began to assist different Choreographers and Directors. I Liked it and then Loved it! So Here I AM!

Once I read over a piece, I identify the era and the music and dance style of the era, then apply that in designing and developing the choreography. Then there are:

Dancers

Dancers that sing

Actors that move

Singers that dance

Singers that move

So after the audition process, I see what I'm working with and, based on the performers' fortés, bring out their best through choreography.

My process is simple: Follow your dream-- and Study! Study! Study! Learn All You Can About Your Profession/Business!

Why Atlanta? I'm born and raised in NY, lived there for almost 50 years. Atlanta is close enough to NY for me to return when I need to for work and it also affords me the opportunity to live in an environment in which I can comfortably exist and artistically create!

AAPEX Interview: Michael Aman

Michael Aman

What role did theatre and the arts play in your childhood and upbringing?

I grew up on a farm in upstate New York with 5 brothers and sisters. My mother played the piano and my father had a tendency to sing everything “We’re coming to a stop sign. Look at that cow.” There was no special thrust on my parents’ part to expose us to art. It just happened. Spontaneously, we’d go to an outdoor concert, travel to Art Park outside of Buffalo, whatever was free or cheap to drag their brood to. My love for theatre started when my older brother was forced to audition for the role of the boy in Bye Bye Birdie when he was in high school. (He was short and they needed someone small.) He didn’t get in, but we went to see it and I was smitten with the magic. Soon thereafter, I spent every moment I could on listening to showtunes and reading plays that I would find in the local library – a great free source of entertainment when you have 6 kids. I stumbled into writing first writing poetry as an undergraduate. Later, I became a music teacher for a small Catholic school and needed a performance piece for my 4th and 5th graders – so I wrote them a show. That’s how I got into this very odd business.

Tell us about your own evolution as an artist.

I started writing children’s plays and musicals. I was afraid to write. “I can’t do that. That’s something that special people do.” But a friend saw my children’s shows and encouraged me. I joined the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in the early 90s and realized with some trepidation that I wanted to write plays as well. I started out by writing one act plays. I was (and am) drawn to themes that illuminate the complexity of who we are. My one-act Keys – my first play – is about a father having to dress his severely mentally handicapped son for the funeral of the young man’s mother. My first full-length (The Tool Shed) examines society’s reluctance to allow for anyone to change – specifically regarding Meghan’s Law. I love the challenge of getting into the mind of complex characters and puzzling out how to dramatize them – “How can I make a musical of Bonnie and Clyde and have the audience care about these murderers?” The result of that question was The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde. I’m presently doing research on Margaret Sanger – again a complex historical figure.

What inspired you to write THE UNBLEACHED AMERICAN?

When I was working on my Ph.D. in theatre I focused on 19th century African American theatre and the performance of race. I am also passionate about the history of the American Musical Comedy. And when I started reading about Ernest Hogan, a man who was profoundly influential in both of those realms, I was dumbfounded that he is essentially overlooked in history. Here was a man who was once considered the funniest man in the world and he is all but forgotten today. And like many of the brilliant African American comedians in the early 20th century, he died tragically young (Bob Cole, George Walker, etc.). I wanted to write a play of language and contrasts. The language of The Unbleached American is that of two highly sophisticated wits who would have been judged at the time by the plethora of stereotypes. Even in hindsight, most people today would judge an African American man from the rural south and a poor Irish American woman through the plate glass of stereotypes. I wanted to show two people who can utilize these stereotypes when they want, but are able to reveal their true selves as well. As far as the contrasts, I am drawn to the meeting of opposites, and this play is chock full of them: rich/poor; black/white; healthy/dying; male/female. The two characters of the piece are complex, funny and rich in their passions – but Sharon, Ernest’s Irish American nurse, would have been considered on the lowest rung of the social ladder, and Ernest, as an African American – despite his wealth – would have been not much better off than Sharon. The challenge for me was to write a convincing piece in which we really believe these two people fall in love over the course of the four scenes.

What is your personal mission as a playwright?

I seek out challenges. I don’t like doing the same thing twice. As for a mission? I guess it’s to take audiences on an emotional journey using the medium of theatre – which is a medium of language and structure, unlike film which is a medium of image and realism. I feel that as a playwright, it is my job to listen carefully to the voices of characters and to try to capture those voices as they work out conflicts in pursuit of their wants. Whether I’m writing a lyric, the book to a musical, a sex comedy, or a drama, the tools are basically the same: stay honest to the character and don’t compromise. It’s about problem solving. I try to avoid shortcuts (imperfect rhymes in lyrics, a character has to leave the room to answer a phone call so that we can hear the other two characters talk without the other one around, a less-than-plausible coincidence that neatly ties things up). But a mission? I guess I want you to feel something.

Calvin Ramsey wins AAPEX Book Award for 2012 for RUTH AND THE GREEN BOOK

Calvin Ramsey

AAPEX is proud to announce that Atlanta playwright Calvin Ramsey's children's picture book Ruth and the Green Book, has won our AAPEX Book Award for 2012. Stunningly illustrated by Floyd Cooper, it follows

elementary school-aged Ruth on her first vacation in the early 1950's from Chicago to her grandmother's house in Alabama through a very segregated America. The journey exposes her to the ugly Jim Crow laws that made it nearly impossible for black people to travel freely through their own country. Encountering one "Whites Only" establishment after another, it's not until they stop at a friendly Esso service station (one of the few franchises at that time that allowed African American ownership) on the Georgia border that they learn of "The Green Book." Originally written by Victor H. Green in 1936 (and used through 1964), "The Negro Motorist Green Book" was a pamphlet that listed businesses and homes that would serve African Americans as they traveled around the country. Although Ruth's eyes have been firmly opened to the mean-spirited reality of her world, in the end Grandma saves the day with a loving, warm, never-to-be-forgotten reception. This book is a wonderful companion to Ramsey's play The Green Book and a great way of introducing children through elegant prose and magnificent art to a nearly forgotten period in African American history. No matter what your color or age, AAPEX highly recommends it to everyone. To buy the book on Amazon.com, please click the post's title.

AAPEX Interview: Jacqueline Lawton

Jaqueline Lawton

Interview with Jacqueline Lawton by Jaz Dorsey

Washington DC based freelance dramaturg Jacqueline Lawton has had the kind of career that might make up many a dramaturg's fantasies and daydreams. Her artistic and administrative adventures in our nation's capital have allowed her to work with such legendary theatre companies as Woolly Mammoth, Arena Stage, African Continuum Theatre, Theater of the First Amendment, and the John F.Kennedy Center, to name but a few. She lists some 30 productions on which she has served as production and new play development dramaturg over the past decade, and from the stunning spectrum of activities on her CV, she is also clearly a serious force in the DC theatre community.

In addition to that, I have discovered that as a playwright Jacqueline has made a major contribution to the materials that we so urgently need to investigate and better understand the history of the African American contribution to the theatre.

Thanks to another fabulous DC lady, Jewell Robinson, who is the Director of Public Programs at The National Portrait Gallery, Jacqueline was commissioned to create a work for the stage based on the life of 19th century Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge, who rose from the ashes of the African Grove Theatre to an astounding career that made him a sensation in England and Europe and ended with his death in Poland.

AAPEX will have more to say about Aldridge, who we choose as our muse for 2012, but right now I'd like to introduce everyone to Jacqueline Lawton:

What role did theatre and the arts play in your childhood and upbringing?
Theater and the arts have always been a part of my life thanks to my mother’s love of MGM movie musicals. Amazing artists like Judy Garland, Gene Kelly,Debbie Reynolds, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Bing Crosby, and Danny Kaye taught me the ins and outs of show business. I’d watch these movies over and over again. I learned the songs, dance steps, and dreamed of one day becoming a performer. I read Shakespeare before I learned it was hard to read. I wrote plays to entertain my family, especially my younger sister. Also, my mother had these amazing craft books. My sister and I made decorations, puppets, and costumes based on different holidays, fairy tales, and traditions. We didn’t dress up for Halloween, but a part of our Thanksgiving tradition was to make costumes, sing made-up songs and act out little made-up plays. In elementary school, we took field trips to see plays at the local civic center. The first professional play I remember seeing was Jack and the Beanstalk. I fell in love with the Harp. My family remains incredibly supportive of my theater career.

Tell us about your own evolution as an artist.
In Junior High and High School, I continued to write and found opportunities to perform through UIL Poetry Interpretation and One Act Play Competitions. In college and graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, I studied theater, playwriting, solo performance, performance studies and screenwriting with Amparo Garcia Crow, Jill Dolan, Fran Dorn, Ruth Margraff, and Suzan Zeder. Each of these women encouraged me to find my voice and tell my stories. I was also a part of The Austin Project, a writing group comprised of women artists, activists,and scholars and led by Sharon Bridgforth and Joni Jones. It was a deeply profound and lasting experience that taught me how theater could be used as a tool for social justice. During grad school, I traveled to Europe (Dublin, Ireland and Venice, Italy) to write and participated in the Kennedy Center’s Playwrights’ Intensive (2002) and World Interplay (2003). At the Kennedy Center, I met the fabulous Gregg Henry and a whole slew of professional directors, designers, actors, and playwrights. From them, I learned firsthand what was possible for me. At World Interplay, I was introduced to performance styles and traditions from around the world. It was amazing and cracked opened my world view! After graduating with an MFA in Playwriting in 2003, I made my way to the east coast seeking adventure and wanting to be a part of an artistic community. In 2005, I did an internship in Literary Management and Dramaturgy at Woolly Mammoth Theater Company and learned how to be a dramaturg from Mary Resing. From there, I worked at the Folger Shakespeare Library and Arena Stage, where I began working as a teaching artist. As far as who I'll be in the future, I see myself growing, traveling and pushing myself beyond who I am right now. I envision myself prolific, writing plays and continuing to work in the theatre, contributing to the magic that happens in every performance.

When and how did you discover Ira Aldridge and what has your journey with him been?
Ira Aldridge is a much lauded and highly celebrated 19th century Shakespearean actor. He was born in America in 1807 and began performing at the African Grove Theatre. In 1833, he made his London stage debut, toured all over Europe and Russia, and is the only black stage actor honored with a bronze plaque at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon. He is an absolute legend. However, very little is known about him, owing to racial prejudice of the time period. I was first introduced to Ira Aldridge in college and learned more when I began teaching at Montgomery College and the University of the District of Columbia. Then, in the spring of 2010, Jewell Robinson, the Director of Public Programs for the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), commissioned me to write a play about Ira Aldridge for NPG’s Culture in Motion Series*. I give great thanks to director and playwright, Jennifer L. Nelson, who recommended me for the gig! With Ira Aldridge: The African Roscius, I chose to the tell Aldridge’s story from the point of view of his daughter, Amanda, who was a professional singer,composer and teacher. Ira Aldridge died before she was born, so all she had of him were diary entries, photographs, theater reviews, his guitar, and letters. My absolutely favorite letter was written to Ira from his son, Ira Daniel, an excerpt of which reads: “My Dear Papa, - Mamma is not very well today. Dr. Popham was here on Monday last to see her. We are very dull without you. Mamma and I send our best love and kisses, and I remain your affectionate son, Ira Daniel Aldridge" The post script, which always touches my heart, reads: "I send kisses for you, Papa. Send us some, don’t forget.” It’s a remarkable story of a great man who began his life as a poor boy from Lower Manhattan and emerged as one of the world’s finest artists. Avery Brooks, a celebrated Shakespearean actor in his own right, played Ira Aldridge and Jewell Robinson played his daughter Amanda Aldridge. The play was presented twice at the National Portrait Gallery in collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Recently, it was presented as part of the Savannah Black Heritage Festival at Armstrong Atlantic State University. My hope is that we can continue presenting it at colleges and universities throughout the Unites States.

What are your thoughts on DC as a theatre town?
DC is a diverse, talented, vibrant, and passionate theater town! Yes, we struggle with sustaining funding for our artistic institutions as other cities have in this current economy. We struggle with presenting racial and gender parity on our stages. We struggle as local playwrights to see our plays staged.Yet, for all that, I've been working nonstop since moving here in 2006. I’ve worked as a freelance dramaturg, playwright and teaching artist and even as an actor, director and producer on occasion. As playwrights, we’re surrounded by brilliant and ambitious theater artists and arts administrators who are committed to working on new plays. For instance, in 2008, Active Cultures, a Maryland based company that creates locally-based worked for a multicultural and multigenerational audience, commissioned and produced my play Mad Breed. The next year, under the auspices of the Hegira, I produced a workshop production of Anna K as part of Round House Theatre's Silver Spring Series and co-produced Deep Belly Beautiful as part of the Mead Theater Lab at Flashpoint. Last year, my play, Love Brothers Serenade, received a reading at the Kennedy Center's annual Page-to-Stage new play festival and then received a workshop and reading at Howard University. This year, Theater J, one of the nation's premiere Jewish theater companies, commissioned me to write, The Hampton Years as part of their Locally Grown Festival. What's more, the audiences in DC are diverse, savvy and intellectual; where better to grow and develop your plays! Living here for the past 8 years has been an amazing experience!

*Ira Aldridge:The African Roscius was commissioned by the Cultures in Motion Program of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The Portrait Gallery tells American history through the individuals who have built our national culture, using the visual arts, the performing arts and the new media. Established by an act of Congress in 1962, the Portrait Gallery opened to the public in 1968. The museum’s collection of more than 20,000 works ranges from paintings and sculpture to photographs and drawings. Cultures in Motion is the National Portrait Gallery’s performing arts series. Broad in scope, the series is designed to educate, entertain, and promote mutual understanding of the diverse cultures that make up both the NPG collection and the mosaic of American heritage. The series uses the medium of portrayal to interpret the lives of the sitter via theater, music, and the literary and visual arts. The script for Ira Aldridge: The African Roscius was commissioned by the Marc Pachter Fund for Commissioning and was originally produced in collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture. As Director of Public Programs at the National Portrait Gallery, Jewell Robinson conceives, writes, produces, and occasionally performs in the Cultures in Motion series, where in her twenty year tenure she has produced over 100 original programs about the sitters in the Portrait Gallery collection. A professional actress, Robinson has worked in New York, Japan, and at virtually every professional theater in the Washington region. She has received three Helen Hayes nominations for her work as an actress; in 2001 she received the Helen Hayes Award for her work in the Arena Stage production of Blue and New York’s Audelco Award for the Grammercy Theatre’s (Roundabout) production of the same show. In addition to being a recipient of the Mary Goldwater award for the body of her work as an actress, she is also the proud recipient of an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from her alma mater, Goucher College, for her contributions to the arts and her efforts in furthering diversity in American society, and is the honoree at Goucher’s annual Jewell Robinson Dinner.

Portrait of Ira Aldridge as Othello (c. 1830) by Henry Perronet Briggs, courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

To learn more about the National Portrait Gallery, please click the post's title.

AAPEX Interview: Max Désir

Max Désir

Picture by Stanley Louis from www.3imagespro.com

Interview with Max Désir by Jaz Dorsey

The Foreign Language Acting Group is proud to recognize Haitian born multi-talented and mulit-lingual actor/singer/model Max Désir as our Artist of the Year for 2012. Max joins the cast of Circle Players production of TITANIC in the role of Joseph Laroche, which runs at TPAC April 5th - 8th.

I asked Max to tell us about himself and his work, and here is what he has to say:

What role did theatre and the arts play in your childhood and upbringing?
Growing up in my childhood church in Haiti, theater and the arts were dormant in my life due to the fact that I was taught that I couldn’t be a Godly man and an entertainer at the same time. I was taught the two were opposites, so I suppressed my innate ability to create a reality that alters life through possibly one of the most transforming apparatuses on earth, the arts. I remember watching movies as a child and reiterating lines and facial expressions of actors as I got to the parts I really liked. As an adolescent, the mirror became my best friend not because I was practicing modeling faces, which became part of my career, but because I wanted to see how convincing and mesmerizing I can be as an actor. Interestingly enough, I still practice in the mirror nowadays

Tell us about your own evolution as an artist.
After years of suppressing my ability as an actor, in 2005 my university (Medgar Evers College CUNY) held auditions for a short film featuring Danny Glover and I landed my first supporting role. Landing that role gave me the confidence and the audacity that I needed to embark on my journey an actor. From that point on, I took continuous classes, workshops and voice lessons. I partook in a lot of student and Independent films, theatrical works, commercials, voiceovers, modeling in different cities.

What brought you to Nashville and what are your "Nashville" objectives?
In 2006, I went to Las Vegas to compete in a nationwide acting/modeling/singing competition called Talent Rock founded by Lou Pearlman. I won in some categories, and received a few offers from agencies. One of these offers came from a Nashville agent. Ever since then, I have been moving between New York and Nashville looking for gigs. Nashville has been very good to my career and has built my resume in more ways than one. I hope to continue to grow as an actor in Nashville whether it is in theater or film and hope to create a triangular relationship between Nashville, New York and Los Angeles. I am also looking forward to working together with my fellow actor, business partner, and friend Stanley Louis as we periodically merge my production company, S.T.A.R. Productions, which stands for Spiritually Renewed And Trained Productions with his all inclusive videography/photography company, imagesProductions to put together independent films, commercials, and original stage plays within the community and abroad.

What are your thoughts on Circle Players and the work they do?
I became familiar and active with Circle Players back in October 2010 when I landed my audition with them for the role of George in “Raisin in the Sun.” From that point forward, it has been an exciting ride working with them. Being the oldest community theater in Nashville, Circle Players stands on its own as a pivotal force in the community. As now a proud member of the board of directors, I count it an honor to be part of an organization that keeps on reaching new heights. As I learn about the history of Circle Players, I have noticed that it is becoming stronger and better than ever before under the leadership of its President Tim Larson and Vice President LaTonya Turner, who exemplify the caliber of the board as a whole. Each board member brings their own artistic historical background that contributes toward the steps forward that Circle Players is taking. And now we are daring enough to embark on this current audacious journey where we are having a Broadway quality production of “Titanic, the Musical” at TPAC April 5th through the 8th for the one weekend only. It is also worth mentioning that Circle Players will make history as they feature the
only black passenger on the Titanic (Joseph Laroche) whom I will have the honor of playing. The Laroche family has quite a fascinating story and the director and producer of the show thought it was worth featuring in the musical. Circle Players also reaches out to the youth in our community by having workshops that focus on refining their abilities as young performers.

Career wise, what's on your to do list now?
I have quite a few things on my list due to the eccentricity of abilities I’ve been blessed with in my life. The more immediate ones happen this summer 2012; I have a few short film projects lined up and am shooting potential commercial ideas on dvd to submit to big corporations. I hope to hit a music studio by end of summer to start working on a Worship CD in Creole/French and English. I’m working on finishing my first motivational/inspirational book “Just Like a Tree” by the beginning of 2013 and last but certainly not least I will start traveling the country again on certain weekends to churches and other organizations as a traveling evangelist and a motivational/inspirational speaker. I’m just going to stay busy and prepare myself in and out for bigger things.

Don't miss Max and the other fine actors of the cast of Circle Players TITANIC at TPAC April 5 - 8.

To learn more about the Circle Players, please click the post's title.

Come to Nashville and Go to the Theatre!

Jaz Dorsey
The Nashville Dramaturgy Project