Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / Sept. 11, 1982, edition 1 / Page 19
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'Home" Comes To Central's 6.N. Duke Auditorium A Broadway play, that is as "black as a multi-move hand shake," and as soul-stirring as an O'Jays love song," comes to ? NCCU Wednesday, September 14. "Home," the story of a North Carolina man who grew, up on a farm, pulled time in prison, and ran north to find1 freedom, but returned homcK to find peace and content-' raent, will be performed by a national touring company in B.N. Duke Auditorium on. campus. . ' The curtain rises at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $1 for students and $3 for everyone else. Tickets are on sale in Room 125 at the Student Unions The plays NCCU ap pearance is sponsored by the Student Union. The play, which opened on Broadway in May 1980 and later garnered several awards after playing to rave reviews, tells a story that almost everyone black can identify with. . It is the story of Cephus Miles, a bright, playful character who loves the simple lifethe field work on his grandfather's farm, the fiery kick of homemade whiskey, and the rirMoaring Saturday; night fish fries. But as a young man, he loses his girl, his grandfather loses the farm, and Miles, who firmly believes people shouldn't kill each other, mar? ches off to prison for refusing , to jo to .Viet Nam. ; ..; Sunday September 12, 1982 ; WFM Y WPTF , WTVD WUNC WTTC WRAL WTBS WGHP CH. 2 CH. 28 CH. 11 CH. 4 CH. 5 CH. 5 CH. 17 CH. 8 Cable 11 I Cable 3 I Cable 6 Cable 9 I Cable 10 Cable 12 Cable 13 I 700 Kenneth Jerry MightyMouse Jimmy World James Dr. D.James 15 Copetand Falwetl HeckleJeckle Swaggart Tomorrow Robison Kennedy 30 " ' " Blackstar r' Spiritual It Is. 45 I " I " , I " I " I Awakening Written I ' f00 Rex Kenneth Visitation Frederick Robert Three Gospel Expo H 15 Humbard Copetand Mystery K. Price Schuller stooges 1 30 Oral Gospel Hals & Friends Show My 45 I Roberts " ".. 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"... 45 " " " " " " " f 00 Archie Chips Archie Nova Lawrence Modesty Modesty H 15 Bunkers ' Bunker't " Welk Blaise " Blaise U 30 OneDayAt . " OnoDayAt " " " 45 A Time I " A Time I " I " 1 " T I " 00 Alice Theatre: Alice Masterpiece Men Griffin ABC Movie: ThlsWeek ABC Movie: 15 " "Skyward" "" Theatre " "Death m Review "Death 30 Jeffersons ' " " " " On The On The 45 v " I " " I " Nile" I " I mm" f00 Trapper John " Trapper John Rubensteln News TBS News I U 30 " " ' " " Heatthbeat " '' 4 jl 00 News Montage News I Twilight Sports News 5 Jerry News 7 7 13 CBS News Zone Wrapup ABC News: Falwell ABC News ''.30 Mo Forte Mm Bakker Mary Tyler Twilight Movie: Late Movie: " Barry 45 Show " I Moore I Zone I "The " i " I Farber's j f00 Movie: Recktord " Deadly " Open Op Entertain 7 V 15 "Charlie " ': . Flies Game" " " ThlsWeek ' 30 Chan In Insight "' " " " 45 RIO" I " " I I " -, I "'I " I Upon his releaset-;- from prison, he. runs north to. New York to find freedom, but in stead finds the hard times of ; welfare handouts and street corner drug deals. Finally, ; like the prodigal son he'd often read about in the New Testament, Miles takes the long bus ride home to North Carolina where he finds love, peace and content ment. This causes him to say that the God he's accused of being on vacation in Miami I has returned, and Miles says ' simply "Welcome back." The play is the work of Samm-Art Williams, 36, a native of Burgaw, N.C., a small farming town in eastern North Carolina that claimed some degree of noteriety several years ago as the site of the Wilmington 10 convic- tions. Burgaw is just like the ! country town where the play takes place. Williams' mother, a drama and literature teacher, en couraged him to develop an in : tefest in writing as early as his high school years. After graduating from Baltimore's Morgan State College .in 1968, Samm-Art set out for New York to launch a career in both acting and playwriting. He adopted his hyphenated name when he found an actor in New York, already on stage, who name is also Sam- my Williams. Though Samm-Art enjoyed reasonable success as an actor, his playwriting career was go ing no place fast. "Home" went through many rewrites before I reached the final draft. From December 22, 1976 until the summer of 1978, I was con stantly withv the play. Having readingsTrying to find a pro ducer. Beating the pavement to drum up interest, he said. "At times it seemed so dif i ficult and hopeless and rejec tion of the script soiconstant, I began to wonder if I was the only person in the fcorld who considered "Home" a great play. "Maybe it's too simple,' I thought. 'Not complicated enough. Positive endings are old-fashioned.'" : Williams also thought about how far from the roots of ."Home-'' he-had come, "it all 'began on Greyhound. Being ' afraid to fly, I usually travel home to Burgaw, by bus. This one particular Christmas. 1976 WW Vour it was, rolling south from New York City, I began to daydream about old friends and times past. I anticipated with joy, being home with my family for the holidays, seeing my old buddies, nd getting my hands on some good home-made wine. Little did I know, as my thoughts : wandered, that I was planting the seeds of a Broadway Play." Back in New York, the romance was over. Once William had the script, he then had to get it produced. Finally, after A Jong seige, Douglas TurnerWard, the ar tistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company, put the. play in a staged reading series. Williams had been a member of the company's Playwright's Workshops for some time, and so his play had found a niche, however small, at NEC. Next came a full produc tion. ' "I cried. All the ejections and turn-downs going from producer to producer just melted away," Williams said. First, the show opened off Broadway to rave reviews. It was happening! Then when I found Out that the major pro ducing team of McCann Nugent (the sponsors of "Dracula" and "The Elephant Man") wanted to move the play to Broadway, I was practically struck dumb. Surely I must be receiving so meone else's blessings!" The play opened at the Cort Theatre on May 7, 1980 and again received rave reviews. The play ran for over 400 per formances in New York that season, an exceptional record for a non-musical presenta tion. In addition, "Hme", nominated for two Tony Awards and the Cmter Circle Critics Award for Best Play of the Year, won the 1980 Audelco Award for the highest achievement in the craft of black playwriting and theatre production. Since then "Home" has been seen in Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh practically every major city in the country. "Home," a tale whose beginnings hark back to an actor-writer's holiday bus ride dowa. Souths, has. joined "For Colored Girts" and "The River Niger" as one of the most successful and best loved black plays of the past j .decade. -': SENTRVZ FteaiTickCdllar (3
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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Sept. 11, 1982, edition 1
19
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