Lewis makes successful
transition from stage to television
BY T. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
This week, Norm Lewis
caused grown women to
shriek and leap with excite
ment; one feverish young
lady even followed him a
few steps into a men's rest
room at the Benton
Convention Center. Such is
the life of an actor with a
role on one of television's
most popular shows.
As Sen. Edison Davis
on the ABC hit "Scandal,"
Lewis has been one of the
points in television's most
salacious love triangle.
"It's been great," he said
of the role. "Luckily, I had
the honor of being on the
hottest show, and I had a
chance to be with the hottest
woman on television."
That woman, of course,
is actress Kerry
Washington, who recently
garnered an Emmy nomina
tion for playing Olivia Pope
on the drama - the latest
offering from "Grey's
Anatomy" and "Private
Practice" creator Shonda
Rhimes.
Lewis is no stranger to
stardom. Solid performanc
es over the past two decades
in a string of Broadway
shows have made Lewis -
who is also a singer with an
acclaimed baritone - a
bonafide stage star and gar
nered him Tony and Drama
Desk nominations. But
international television
exposure has increased the
Eatonville, Fla. native's
name and face recognition
tenfold.
"The recognition has
been fantastic," said Lewis,
whose first public perform
ances were from the choir
stand in his boyhood
church. "People stop me in
airports all the time and say,
'Hey, I know you; you're
that guy from that show.' So
it's been cool."
Lewis is enjoying the
National Black Theatre
Festival for the very first
time. He had long heard
great things about the bien
nial gathering, but other
commitments kept him
away.. Now that he's stepped
onto what's been dubbed
"Black Theatre Holy
Ground," Lewis is hooked.
"I am loving it, and
want to come back. I am
going to tell everybody 1
know to come down here,"
he said.
Sen. Davis was MIA for
much of the last season of
"Scandal," but Lewis says
fans shbuldn't write the
character off just yet.
"I think there might be
some history with Sen.
Edison Davis on that show,"
he said, alluding to the
show's frequent use of
flashback stories. "We are
negotiating that right now.
In Shondaland (also the
name of Rhimes's produc
tion company), you never
know what's going to hap
pen."
Suff Photo
A fan snaps a photo of Norm Lewis as he enters the
Stevens Center Monday night.
Scholars9 indelible mark left on Mack theatre
BY LAYLA GARMS
THE CHRONICLE
Black Theatre Network (BTN) founding members Drs.
Carlton and Barbara Molette have spent a lifetime promot
ing, enriching and contributing to the world of black theater.
T1 t 1 1 1 !_ J
ine coupie, wno nave Deen mamea
for more than 53 years, were honored
for their efforts with Living Legends
Awards at the Opening Night Gala
Monday evening.
When the Atlanta residents began
teaching theater more than four
decades ago, black theater was largely
considered as an "exotic appendage"
of white theater, and rarely recognized
as an independent entity, said Carlton
Molette.
"There was actually very little
black theater being done, even in pre
dominantly black or all black theater
companies," recalled the Morehouse
College alumnus. "The popular myth
was there weren't any black plays."
Early in their careers, the Molettes, who are both retired,
vowed to debunk the myths about black theater and bring
the unique talents of African Americans in the industry to
the forefront.
"Our first research grant as college professors was to
compile a bibliography," Carlton Molette said. "We found
over 1,200 plays that were available in somebody's library
written by African Americans ... nobody had bothered to
disprove this thing that professors were saying (about it not
existing)."
Higher education degree programs and support net
works for African American thespians were also severely
lacking in those days, the Molettes said. The BTN traces its
own roots back to the American Theatre Association's Afro
Asian Theatre Project, which began in 1965. Despite its
name, the project did little to promote
true black theater, Carlton Molette said.
"There was really no outlet, no
organized outlet, that was available at
that time," added Barbara Molette, an
alumna of Florida A&M University. "...
We turned the comer when a group of us
read the constitution of the organization
and discovered that we could have our
own program."
"The couple, who have written more
than a dozen plays together, assembled a
small contingent of fellow theater educa
tors and others with a stake in the busi
ness to petition the association's leader
ship to allow them to create a new black
theater program during the organiza
tion's annual conference in Washington,
D.C. Though reluctant at first, the association's board of
directors consented, and the African Theatre Project was
bom. When the ATA collapsed in 1986, the Molettes and
others led the charge to create an autonomous organization,
known as the Black Theatre Network. The Molettes. who
released their second book. "Afrocentnc Theatre." during
the 2013 BTN conference, are the latest in a long line of
BTN members who have been honored with NBTF awards
for their leadership and contributions to the field.
Photo by Layia Harms
Dr. Carlton Molette poses with his
wife, Dr. Barbara Molette.
5l?ff Photo*
Tommy Ford speaks as his friend and co-star
Dorien Wilson stands beside him.
Annie
Hamlin
Johnson,
the mother
of NBTF
founder
Larry Leon
Hamlin,
poses with
"The Eve
of Jackie"
star
Chester
Gregory.
Actresses Kim Coles and Vanessa Bell Calloway
pose together.
St?fT nwo
Broadway legend Chapman Roberts escorts Starletta
DuPois to the Opening Night Gala.
DuPois
from page A1
"She was fighting her way back," DuPois said of
Houston, who had battled substance abuse for years.
"What a sweet, sweet spirit she was and is."
DuPois' return to Winston-Salem and the National
Black Theatre Festival is extra special this time. After
lending her support to the NBTF for more than a decade,
she was honored at Monday's Opening Night Gala with
a Living Legend Award for a career that stretches back to
the 1970s.
"1 am overwhelmed. 1 am full. 1 am exhilarated," said
the actress - whose long list of credits also include films
like "The Notebook," "Big Momma's House," "Wolf'
and "Friday After Next."
The NBTF plaque comes just months after she was
honored for her body of work with the Los Angeles
Women's Theatre Festival's Eternity Award.
The Tony Award nominee can't exactly pin down her
secret to career longevity, but she thinks her faith is a
major factor.
"I could not do it without God," she said.
DuPois also believes that she has flourished by reach
ing back to help up-and-coming performers. She cherish
es her role as mother hen. often accepting short term
artist-in-residence positions at universities to help mold
burgeoning talent. This week, she was also slated to lead
a Festival workshop - "The Business of the Business" -
to offer young performers keys success.
"Any of us could be the flavor of the month, but (the
goal is to be here) 30 years later," she said.
DuPois also planned to address the pitfalls of star
dom, a subject she thinks is especially relevant in the
wake of the deaths of Houston and other celebrities.
"You have to be so careful about fame and fortune,
because literally it can kill you," said DuPois, who is
soon slated to shoot a project with Victoria Rowell,
another 2013 NBTF celebrity guest.
Notes
Celebrity readers
The National Black Theatre Festival is offering a
slew of free events this week. Among them is the Mid
Morning Matinee, a program where celebrities read
from their own books or those of their favorite writers.
The program is sponsored
oy uie Mississippi-oasea liter
acy promotion foundation
SonEdna in conjunction with
the NBTF and the Forsyth
County Public Library.
The series will welcome a
number of notables who are
expected to read at local
library branches.
Yesterday, "Sesame |
Street" star Roscoe Orman
and Pauletta Pearson
Washington (Mrs. Denzel
Washington) were slated to appear at the
Malloy/Jordan East Winston Heritage Center, 1110 E.
7th St. Both of them are performing this week in the
staged reading of "Power Play."
Today (Thursday, Aug. 1), the Malloy/Jordan East
Winston Heritage Center will welcome Tony Award
winning actress Tonya Pinkins, one of this year's
NBTF celebrity co-chain*, from 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Tomorrow, Friday, Aug. 2, from 11 a.m. - 12:30
p.m., "The Young and the Restless" star Victoria
Rowell will be at the Central Library, 660 W 5th St.
All the FREE mid-morning sessions will be fol
lowed by a brief question and answer session and a
book-signing.
Pearson
Washington
?ML. ?? > ,A il 1
Press Photo
Jones conies full-circle
NBTF Media Relations Director Brian
McLaughlin introduced Bianca Laveme Jones as a
"Festival baby" Tuesday.
The actress is among many second-generation
NBTF performers and volunteers whose parents
immersed them in the biennial festival from a very
early age. Jones' father, Herman LeVem Jones, was
Larry Leon Hamlin's nghthand man long before
Hamlin started the NBTF. In fact, it was Herman who
created the business model for the NBTF
Jones, who was raised in the Raleigh area and
graduated from the high school program at UNC
School of the Arts, was but a girl when she took in the
very first NBTF in 1989.
"I was a little-bitty kid, and I saw Antonio
(Fargas), Denzel Washington, Oprah," Jones said.
Jones is more than a mere observer and fan at this
year's NBTF. The "festival baby" has come full-cir
cle. She and show business veteran Stephanie Berry
are staging "Iced-Out, Shackled and Chained: Still
Looking for the North Star." an engaging performance
piece that juxtaposes slave narratives with the situa
tions that many blacks find themselves in today.
"Iced-Out" has been a labor of love for the two
actresses. They self-funded the first stagings of it;
positive word of mouth garnered the show a producer
and prominent performance venues.
Jones, who studied acting at the SUNY Purchase
Acting Conservatory and Yale School of Drama, has a
slew of television and stage credits and will next be
seen in Charles Fuller's "One Night." which will
debut this fall at New York's Rattlestick Theater.
"Iced-Out" will be staged at Wake Forest
University's Ring Theatre today (Aug. 1) and tomor
row at 8 p.m. and Saturday. Aug. 3 at 3 p.m. and 8
p.ip Tickets are $38 and available at the Benton
Convention Center Box Office.
The Great Guillory
As an African American in theater, 2013 Larry
Leon Hamlin Producer Award winner Ben Guillory
says he has always known he had a proud tradition to
uphold.
The co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Robey
Theatre Company said being in the company of fellow
actors, directors
and writers at this
week's National
Black Theatre festi
val gave him a
renewed sense of
purpose.
"Understanding
our legacy and the
shoulders of whom
we stand on, I
never really
believed that 1
needed more inspi
ration than I
already had, given
our history," con
fessed Guillory,
who has worked on
stage and screen as an actor, director and producer.
"But being here tonight, in this room with all of you, I
am doubly inspired to continue to work as a contribu
tor... Thank you so much. I hope 1 can continue to do
the work that we started."
Guillory co-founded the Robey. named for legend
Paul Robeson, in 1994 with actor Danny Glover, whom
he co-starred with in the film version of "The Color
Purple." Fans of the film had a bit of ddjii vu this week
as they saw Guillory interacting with NBTF guest
Margaret Avery, who earned an Oscar nomination for
playing Shug Avery in the film. Guillory played her
husband, Grady.