Celebrate Fats Waller's 112th Birthday with Jitterbug!

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To learn more please click: http://bit.ly/1L0Ugwi

DC Copeland's JITTERBUG! now has National CORE Arts Standards HS/College teaching aids

DC Copeland's Jitterbug! the dancical now has National CORE Arts Standards HS/College teaching aids. "Jitterbug! in the Classroom" is an extensive Educator's Manual and Student Questionnaire for DANCE, THEATRE, and LITERATURE. All the items are free and can be found here.  

AAPEX 300 Playwrights

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Who knew six years ago and 1,592 posts later that today we would be listing the 300th active* African American playwright? That's when dramaturg Jaz Dorsey, founder of the African American Playwrights Exchange (AAPEX), published the first AAPEX post on April 4, 2007 to promote the works of African-American playwrights, playwrights of African-American stories, and African American theatres across the country. 

Did you know there are at least 91 African American theatre companies? Neither did we but-- like our playwrights who we added over the years to our roster once we discovered them-- you can find these theatres with just one click on the right below our playwrights list.**. 

That's why we consider this to be the "Golden Age" of African American theatre. 

Of the 300 playwrights, 256 have direct links to their websites/play publishers so that anyone looking for a playwright can find him or her with just one click-- and hopefully buy a play or arrange a reading or full-production. 

Over 40% of the playwrights are women and some, like multi-hyphenate Petronia Paley, are also actor/directors.

AAPEX promotes new productions across the country (and now London, England with Michael Bradford's Olives And Blood) and acts as an open forum for discussions on theatre (as an example, see Owa's call for a Theatre Central here).

AAPEX also permanently lists 4 African-American Theatre college programs, over a dozen black cultural organizations, and over 50 resources for playwrights ranging from links to playwriting contests to play publishers and groups associated with playwriting and theatre. 

All of these free offerings are just one click away. 

Since 2007 AAPEX has posted 36 AAPEX Interviews spotlighting playwrights, producers and other people involved in theatre. These interviews are just a click away when you click the AAPEX Interview "Label" below each AAPEX Interview post.

Considering AAPEX has never charged anyone for anything and has never received any kind of grant whatsoever to support its work, it's quite remarkable-- and a testament to its founder Jaz Dorsey-- that AAPEX has been responsible for over a dozen productions from NYC to London. It's also pretty amazing when you realize AAPEX is based in Nashville, TN and Jaz is the ONLY one setting these things up.

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I have been a recipient of that largess with two NYC readings for my dancical Jitterbug!, none of which would have been possible without AAPEX. I use AAPEX to stay on top of the latest news re African American theatre, call for plays, and to make connections. I encourage all playwrights to do the same.

To paraphrase the words of that late great Spartan leader: prepare for glory, playwrights!

DC Copeland
AAPEX Blogboy

*Active in the sense that, although he or she may be dead, their plays are still being read and performed.
**There may be more AA theatres, but without a website it's pretty hard to find them. 

Harvest Moon Ball Saturday, October 19th (Harlem)

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The Harlem Swing Dance Society is puttin' on the Ritz this Saturday with its Harvest Moon Ball celebrating Harlem's impact and influence on culture and dance. Free dance lessons by the Last of the Best Savoy Ballroom Harvest Moon Ball Winners: Sugar Sullivan and Barbara Billups (see below). 

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7-11:30 PM

Saturday, October 19th

Joseph P. Kennedy Center

34 W 134th Street

$20.00

For those not familiar with the Harvest Moon Balls, please watch the video below. 

For those interested in the award-winning dancical Jitterbug!, please click here.

The roles of Revision and Serendipity in DC Copeland's JITTERBUG!

DC Copeland's award-winning dancical Jitterbug! has been in rewrites since it's 3/23 reading in the New Works Festival in NYC. The three-act is now a two-act with the addition of new historical characters and one new/old song. Legendary bad girl Madame Stephanie St. Clair and her faithful henchman "Bumpy" Johnson have been added. The song is Irving Berlin's 1936 hit "Let's Face the Music and Dance."          

Ella Fitzgerald

"Flipping channels brought me to an episode of the Great American Songbook on PBS where I rediscovered Irving Berlin's Let's Face the Music and Dance," Copeland said. "I was looking for inspiration for the final scene in the first act and this song put it all together for me. The lyrics and the mood of the piece mirrored what I had written so it was a no-brainer. The fact that it was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald was chocolate icing on the cake. It was one thing to have been recorded during the dancical's time period (a must for me), but it also had to reflect one of the play's themes, i.e., the uniquely American collaboration of black and white creatives. Stumbling upon this program last week was serendipitous to say the least."

You can learn more about the process at the dancical's website. Copeland has also updated the dancical's music list which includes YouTube links to the music and some facts about the songs and the songwriters.

Jaz Dorsey

Khalil Kain and Peter Jay Fernandez "trade fours" in DC Copeland's dancical "Jitterbug!" (NYC)

Here's a video clip shot by Benja K Thomas during the sold-out 3/23 NYC reading. Khalil Kain, in the starring role of Billy Rhythm, takes on Bojangles (Peter Jay Fernandez) in the Hoofers Club, the legendary "unacknowledged world headquarters of tap dance." The Hoofers Club was basically a storage closet in the Comedy Club, the Jolly Fellows' Harlem hangout. It was just big enough to squeeze in an upright piano and a bench and still have enough floor space left over for two tap dancers to work their stuff. Bojangles challenges the desperate, injured and impetuous Rhythm to "trade fours." If he dances as well as he says he can, Bojangles will call off the Jolly Fellows who are bent on beating him up good. Pamela Monroe is reading the stage directions. Directed by Petronia Paley at the Tada! Theater. Music is based on the "Buck Dancer's Lament," a turn-of-the-century little riff in the public domain aka "stop-time." You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.

Sneak Preview: Jeffrey Page's "slow drag" choreography for JITTERBUG! with Khalil Kain and Afi McClendon

Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page's rehearsal footage of the dance he's creating for the Jitterbug! slow drag scene with Khalil Kain and Afi McClendon. Music: Jitis Blues by  Memphis Minnie (1930). Tickets are still available for the Saturday, March 23rd reading in NYC. You can buy tickets and learn more at www.ouatih.com.

Hope Harley cast in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! (NYC)

Hope Harley

Hope Harley has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug!  She'll be playing multiple roles and age ranges from a wisecracking Jolly Flapperette to an old woman landlord. Ms. Harley is pursuing her lifelong dream to become an actor after a long and suc-cessful corporate career. Last year she appeared as Lena Younger (Mama) in the Gallery Players production of A Raisin in the Sun. She has appeared in productions at the Polaris North Theater Cooperative, the Strawberry One-Act Festival,  and in two episodes of the Biography channel’s Celebrity Ghost Stories. She is a student at I The Actor, led by Petronia Paley.

Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by USA Projects and Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com. 

Clinton Roane cast in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! (NYC)

Clinton Roane

Clinton Roane (AEA) has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug!  He'll be playing multiple rolls including that of Cab Calloway.  Clinton is excited to be a part of Jitterbug! Some theatre credits include The Scottsboro Boys  on Broadway, Hello! My Baby and My One And Only. He is a graduate of Howard University and CAP21.
Here's a clip of Clinton singing "If She Were Coming Home" from the musical Next Thing You Know by Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham (with Salzman on piano).
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by USA Projects and Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com. 

Jim Bray cast in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! (NYC)

Jim Bray

Jim Bray (AEA) has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! He'll be reading multiple rolls including that of mobster Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll. Jim's credits include tours in Grease as Doody (Euro tour); New York Theatre: Daisy in The Great Pretender, Daniel in It’s Karate, Kid! The Musical. Regional: Plaid Tidings, Chicago, Man of La Mancha, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Singin’ in the Rain, Avenue Q, The Producers, Hair Spray, Sweeney Todd, Forever Plaid, All Shook Up, Bat Boy, Blood, Drive, Fallen Angel; Film/TV: Mona Lisa Smile (Columbia Pictures), CAMP (Killer/Jersey Films); Strangers With Candy (Comedy Central); Recordings: Sympathy Jones, It’s Karate, Kid! The Musical. 

Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographerJeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by USA Projects and Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com. 

Pamela Monroe cast in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! (NYC)

Pamela Monroe

Pamela Monroe, a co-producer for the 3/23 reading at the Tada! Theater in Manhattan, has been cast by Petronia Paley to read the stage directions to DC Copeland's Jitterbug! Her most recent credits include Pearl’s Gone Blue (NYC International Fringe Festival 2011 winner for the “Award of Excellence for Best Musical Production”), A Long Last Poem Before Dying; Mina by OBIE Award winning and TONY nominated playwright Leslie Lee; What Would Jesus Do?; The Vagina Monologues; Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery.  Film credits include:  Doing the L.A. Thing (HBO Best Feature at Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival); Pieces of a Puzzle,  Kali’s Vibe and the short film Mateo’s Room featuring Anthony Laciura (Boardwalk Empire).

Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographerJeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by USA Projects and Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com. 

Mark Lang cast in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! (NYC)

Mark Lang

Actor Mark Lang has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! Mr. Lang will play multiple roles including that of Cotton Club mobster "Big Frenchy" DeMange, a role he previously played to great acclaim in last year's shortened "radio" version at the National Black Theatre in Harlem. Mark is a 12-year Harlem resident who has appeared on stage, film and television. Recent credits include ‘Roy Bryant’ in Whistle in Mississippi: The Lynching of Emmett Till, ‘Dag Hammerskjold’ in A Season in the Congo, ‘White Cop’ in The Bronx is Next and ‘Capt. Zuelke’ in Camp Logan and Lepidus/Euphronious/The Clown in Take Wing and Soar’s production of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Other film and TV credits include multiple guest star roles on The Young Riders (MGM/UA) and Hey Dude (Cinetel). Mark has also had principal roles in a number of low budget thrillers and regular spots on CollegeHumor.com. He has performed in more than 40 stage plays and worked as a stunt man at Old Tucson Studios. 

Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographerJeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by USA Projects and Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com. 

Richard Vincent Weber cast in DC Copeland's JITTERBUG! (NYC)

Richard Vincent Weber

Richard Vincent Weber has been cast by director Petronia Paley as the Radio Announcer at the Savoy Ballroom dance contest and as mobsters Harry Block and Owney Madden in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! He has worked off-Broadway and regional theatre across the country, including: Classical Theatre of Harlem, Manhattan Theatre Source, Theatre for the New City, Park Theatre, NJ; Prometheus Fire, CT; and Matrix Theatre, LA. Last seen in Neil Labute's Stand Up and is currently working on an adaptation of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Marlowe The Poet for the Spring.  Film: Melvyn Van Peebles’ Confession of an Ex-Duffus. TV: Silk Stalkings, Fade Out, Rolling Thunder, Vanishing Son, Renegade. Special thanks to the memory of Jack Colvin and Chris Seina for their inspiration.

Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographerJeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by USA Projects and Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com. 

Cezar Willams cast in DC Copeland's Jitterbug!

Cezar Williams has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! He will be playing two characters: Candy, the lead character's best friend, and Charlie Buchanan, part owner of the world-famous Savoy Ballroom. Theater credits include James and Annie, by Warren Leight at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (dir: D. Lynn Meyers) and the Williamstown Theatre Festival (dir: Jack Hofsiss), Ascension at The National Black Theatre Festival (dir: Petronia Paley) and Yanagai! Yanagai! at La Mama (dir: Harold Dean James and Karen Oughtred). Television appearances include Law and Order, NYC 22, Blue Bloods and What Would You Do?

Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographerJeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by USA Projects and Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com. 

Nashville theatre producer Ted Swindley does playwright "Speed Dating" in NYC

Ted with noted director and actress Petronia Paley

representing D.C. Copeland's "dancical"

Once Upon A Time In Harlem: A Jitterbug Romance

at the recent TRU playwright "Speed Date" in NYC.

Our good friend theatre producer Ted Swindley recently participated in a "Speed Date" for playwrights to pitch their stuff in NYC. For over twenty-five years, Ted has directed and/or produced over 200 plays. He is nationally known for creating the hit musical ALWAYS... PATSY CLINE, which opened in New York in June, 1997, while continuing to play throughout the world. Some of his outstanding directorial credits include World Premieres, Classics and Musicals including CARNAL KNOWLEDGE, PACIFIC OVERTURES, FOLLIES, and CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, and rotating repertory projects such as Thornton Wilder's OUR TOWN and THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH and DANGEROUS LIAISONS with THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.

Once Upon A Time In Harlem: A Jitterbug Romance makes the cut!

Noted director and actress Petronia Paley will pitch D.C. Copeland's "dancical" Once Upon A Time In Harlem: A Jitterbug Romance to a dozen Broadway producers this Sunday, July 22nd at the legendary Players Theatre in NYC. Sponsored by Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU), this is an invitation-only event for selected playwrights. At least one producer has won a Tony and many have been associated with Tony nominated productions including The Scottsboro Boys, The Gershwins' Porgy & Bess, Radio Golf, Clybourne Park, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Legally Blonde, and many more.

D.C. Copeland's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM: A JITTERBUG ROMANCE is now a book

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DC Copeland's award-winning play Once Upon A Time In Harlem: A Jitterbug Romance is now available as an annotated play book. Based on the "radio" reading version, this book is perfect for students and actors because it includes definitions of period slang, historical facts, and a map to help them better understand the times and places of swinging 1930's Harlem. Copeland has made a cued special effects mp3 soundtrack available as a free download with each purchase from the play's website. The book will make a great edition to any college Black Studies program but it will also afford high school teachers an interactive and fun experience for their students by assigning parts and reading the play aloud in the classroom. The book will soon be released in an eBook format which offers a unique use of technology: when tapped, the annotations in the play "open up" automatically on the page that is being read without needing to go to the back of the book.

Once Upon A Time In Harlem: A Jitterbug Romance is available as a screenplay, a three-act full-length play, and a shortened "radio"/reading book.

To learn more about the dramaturgy behind the play, please click the Harlem Dramaturgy Project label below.

The radio reading version was first performed March 30, 2012 at the prestigious National Black Theatre in Harlem and directed by Petronia Paley.

Harlem Dramaturgy Project: Digging deeper

Part Two

Once I started learning about the legendary people and places of Harlem for my play Once Upon A Time In Harlem: A Jitterbug Romance, it became important for me to keep track of them. I did this through index cards and by creating a map of Harlem, circa 1931.

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In retrospect, I wish I had included Manhattan in the map to pinpoint the locations of the gangland murders that are relevant to the play's story. Those actual addresses however are found in the play (as is the above map in the playbook). This is a process I used to keep the fictional aspects of the story plausible. As an example, when my main characters Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson are walking down Lenox Avenue in Harlem and see white gangsters from the Cotton Club taking hatchets and sledge hammers to the rival Plantation Club and then throwing the debris into a bonfire in the middle of the street, I wanted to see if it was plausible for them to have walked to the Harlem River within a reasonable amount of time for the next scene. I discovered it was. My research also found a secondary source-- a newspaper article written about that incident recalled in a book (my first source)-- that backs up the story. As an added bonus, that article gives a voice to the African American perspective of what happened, revealing an underlying resentment to the white gangsters and others who came into their community and opened businesses that would bar Harlemites at the door. That info is included in the annotations found in the playbook. The annotations are there for the actors and the readers to help them better understand the time, place and psychological make-up of the characters in the play. Like the final sentence on the back cover of the playbook, it helps remind everyone that "it all happened in an almost forgotten time in America's most mythic city: Harlem."

DC Copeland

You can follow this series by clicking the "Harlem Dramaturgy Project" in the Labels section below.

Jaz Dorsey

Casting complete for DC Copeland's "Once Upon A Time In Harlem: A Jitterbug Romance" (Harlem)

Please click post's title for a readable version.

Directed by

Petronia Paley

National Black Theatre

2031-33 National Black Theatre Way

5th Avenue between 125 & 126th Street

Harlem

7PM

Friday, March 30th

Please RSVP for the free reading of the play to

212-722-3800

or email info@nationalblacktheatre.org

To learn more about the play and NBT, please click the post's title.

National Black Theatre presents DC Copeland's "Once Upon A Time In Harlem: A Jitterbug Romance" 3/30 (Harlem)

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What: The "radio" reading version of
D.C. Copeland's

award-winning full-length play

"Once Upon A Time In Harlem: A Jitterbug Romance."

Directed by Petronia Paley

When: 7pm, Friday, March 30th

Where: The National Black Theatre

(celebrating its 44th year of "keeping soul alive!")
5th Ave., Btwn 125 and 126th Streets, Harlem

Cost: Free

RSVP: info@nationalblacktheartre.org or call 212-722-3800.

Seating limited.

For more information, please play the video.

Please click the post's title to visit the National Black Theatre website.