Breaks are few and far between
? African-Americans find they just can't
get a break on Broadway or in Hollywood
By SHERIDAN HILL
Managing Editor
African -American playwrights
and actors face tremendous obsta
cles in getting even the First oppor
tunity to showcase their talents.
While Maya Angelou says she
was able to interest Broadway
agents in And Still I Rise , (but did
not like their offer) she is the excep
tion to the rule.
Larry Leon Hamlin, the founder
of North Carolina Black Repertory
Company and the National Black
Theatre Festival, is a playwright/pro
ducer/direc tor/actor who knows full
well the difficulties faced by
African-Americans in theatre.
The problem is we don't have
lot of African-American producers.
1 get inundated with demands to
produce the works of African
Americans. I get scripts every day.
"African-American playwrights
aren't at the top of anyone's agenda."
Being black makes a difficult
business next-to-impossible.
In fact, the National Black
Theatre Festival is one of the few
places that black playwrights can
have their work produced: 20 dif
ferent plays are selected for the
festival.
Rosalind Cash, an original
member of the Negro Ensemble
Company, broke many color barri
ers in theatre and carries the battle
scars to prove it. Cash was in town
last week for the opening night of
And Still I Rise.
"Actors of color are given no
regard in Hollywood," she says. "It
takes a certain kind of fiber to with
stand the assault on your person. I say
this not out of bitterness, but out of
triumph. My feelings arc forged from
an "up in your face" experience."
Cash has an impressive record
of stage, television^and motion pic
tures, including starring with Charl
ton Heston in The Omega Man. At
one point in her career, she was told
that blacks weren't being used in
theatre or television anymore.
"I asked them, how could a
race of people go out of style? I
hung in there. I've had some lean
days. I've gone to Vienna, done
movies, had no work for a year,
then worked on A Different World ,
had a play that was a flop, a play
that was a hit, and went to play
Cleopatra."
Cash says Hollywood "throws
away" white female actors when
Rosalind Cash, a veteran actress and an original member of the
Negro Ensemble Company, attended And Still I RIs ? last week.
they're 35: "what do you think they can finally make a movie, but we
do to us?" she asks. can't get it distributed. Once we get
But she is adamant that the only the distribution^ gears in place, it
way to make it is to never say die. will be all over. The African- Ameri
"We as a people, it came hard can is so talented, they gotta do
for us to get to where we are. We everything to restrain us."
Concert series features blues women
"Women of the Blues" will be
the theme for the Piedmont Blues
Preservation Society's 1992 fall
concert series. The first show of the
series will take place Saturday,
September 19, at Central Station, in
the Sheraton Hotel, 300 Green
Street in downtown Greensboro.
Chicago blues singer Valerie
Wellington and her band will per
form at 9 p.m.
Wellington has played the
Chicago Blues Festival and virtual
ly all the major blues festivals
across the country. She has four
blues albums to her credit, includ
ing her latest Ljft in the
Big City. The QpSSSTifidve has
also captured Tour W.C. Handy
nominations, for female blues artist
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of the year.
Valerie Wellington is also an
Emmy award-winning actress, hav
ing won that distinction in the PBS
presentation, Precious Memories
(A Stroll Down 47th Street) .
Tickets for Valerie Wellington
I
are $7 for Piedmont Blues Preserva
tion Society members, and $8 for
the general public. They can be pur
chased at Bump's Blues Shack and
Schoolkids Records and Tapes in
Greensboro, or by calling 272-5837.
The "Women of the Blues"
concert series continues Saturday
October 10 with Melvia "Chick"
Rodgers and Masheen Company.
The series wraps, up Saturday,
November 14 with Big Time Sarah.
These shows will also be held at
Central Station starting at 9 p.m.
mmm
Goodtimes"
Leon
tor of the North
y^'X
ag':
Performances
September 10, 1 1 and 12 at 8:00 p.m.
September 13 at 7:00 p.m.
September 14 and 15 at 8:00 p.m.
Tickets are $20, $15, $12
and $ 1 0 (students/senior citizens)
A Benefit
for the
J 993 National
Black Theatre
Festival
Music Director
baurin De Teige Poydras
Maya Angelou
Internationally known poet,
actress, playwright and
professor at WFU
AssistanfiPIStei
_ . mzMM
Defoy^C
? ??? -4/fr/ &
-Jpw
and Musical Staging
>inson
Hooper Funeral Home
is pleased to announce the addition
of Miss Jeanette A. Davis to Us stctff.
The management and staff are pleased to welcome
Jeanette A. Davis to the staff of Hooper Funeral Home
said the manager, Gregory T. Burrell. Miss Davis has
been employed as a Funeral Directress and Embalmer.
She is a 1986 graduate of Winston-Salem State
University, and a 1988 graduate of Gupton- Jones College of Mortuary Science
in Atlanta, Georgia, and formerly employed by Russel Funeral Home. Miss
Davis is also an autopsy assistant at Forsyth Memorial Hospital.
"I am happy that Hooper Funeral Home is giving me the opportunity to
expand my career in this industry," said Miss Davis. "She will be working very
closely with me to help us provide the most professional service in the city of
Winston-Salem," said Burrell. She is a member of New Jerusalem Baptist
Church, and Beauty of the West Chapter 36 Order of Eastern Star Prince Hall
Affiliation. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jessie Davis Jr.
r
WAYNE'S
Lou nge
I t iiln \f, Sept. 1 1
Joe Robinson
' 9:30 -Wl)
Stiturthuf, /2
Moments Notice
A):Ui 1:U ) j
128 N. Cherry Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
Phone: 919-723-1150
Fu 1 1 J^qocLSeryjcc Av jj ftibLe
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