AMERICAN THEATRE | On Holy Ground: The National Black Theatre Festival

Ben Vereen sat throughout from us one August morning at breakfast within the Winston-Salem Marriott, enthusing about his first go to to the National Black Theatre Festival in North Carolina; the earlier he night time he had been given the pageant’s Sidney Poitier Award. “I was so touched,” he stated. “When my buddy Stokes started reading the introduction, I thought he was talking about someone else. I’m sitting here with Black theatre royalty, and what can I possibly say? When I looked up on the screen and saw all my friends who had passed in recent years being acknowledged, I said, we have to give them a standing ovation, because it’s their spirits in this room that are carrying us.”

Actor and playwright Regina Taylor advised us she involves the pageant to be impressed, to community, to seek out and provides assist. “It’s like one long party,” she stated. “I’m seeing people I haven’t seen in ages and meeting new folks. It’s about bridging past, present, and future, and it’s always exciting. It’s called holy ground, because we look back on the shoulders we stand on.”

Coming to each pageant since 1991 has been Eileen J. Morris, inventive director of Houston’s Ensemble Theatre, who spent the early gatherings asking recommendation from such theatre giants as New Federal Theatre’s Woodie King Jr., Penumbra Theatre’s Lou Bellamy, and St. Louis Black Repertory Company’s Ron Himes. Over the years, as Morris discovered and commenced producing and directing performs for the pageant (a complete of 10 by 2022), she’s change into somebody others may search recommendation from. When requested what the occasion meant to her, she received emotional. “Lord willing, I will never miss a festival, because it rejuvenates me,” Morris stated. “It makes me feel whole and lets me know others are there in my culture. The festival uplifts in ways that make the world a better place.”

Actor and singer Chester Gregory (Hairspray, Motown) has been coming because the early festivals, and stated he discovered from pageant founder Larry Leon Hamlin to not disguise behind modesty. “Allow your talent and hard work to shine,” he was advised. “Being humble is a great thing, because you are acknowledging that you are sharing with people. But don’t ever be modest, because you downplay the hard work that you put into it.” Gregory retains coming again to the pageant, this time with The Eve of Jackie, about R&B/soul pioneer Jackie Wilson.

Petri Hawkins-Byrd, who co-chaired the 2022 pageant together with Lisa Arrindell, identified that the National Black Theatre Festival is a misnomer, as a result of it’s so rather more than theatre. This week’s pageant, which ran Aug. 1-6, included spoken phrase, singing, dancing, oratory, artwork installations (with works by Lonnie Robinson and others), a craft truthful of 100-plus distributors, movie screenings, and extra. “I’ve been coming here since 1999,” stated Byrd. “I first came with a friend for two days. The friend left and I stayed, and have been coming back ever since. Every time, I feel this is a once-in-a lifetime experience. So we work together to continue the legacy.”

Similarly, actor Fay Hauser hails the pageant for “plays that stimulate you, that give you a sense of history, that give you laughter and tears and prospects for the future. You can find groups of people who want to read plays and hear something new and creative. You can expand your possibilities by being part of the midnight poetry jam. And you can do that all night if you want.”

How did we get to this second the place such names as above, in addition to the likes of Tommy Hicks, Roscoe Orman, Vivian Reed, Ted Lange, Lamman Rucker, Tonya Pinkins, Harry Lennix, Charles Dumas, Chuck Cooper, Starletta DuPois, Lillias White, and Hal Williams, come to Winston-Salem each different yr to be uplifted and energized? Let’s return to the start.

It was St. Louis in 1987. “I want to create a national Black theatre festival,” stated Larry Leon Hamlin, who had based the North Carolina Black Repertory Company in 1979, to Herman LeVern Jones, producer for the National Black Touring Circuit, as they each lit up cigarettes in a theatre foyer throughout intermission. This was the recollection of Jones as he sat throughout from us on the Marriott. He continued by recounting his reply to Hamlin: “I know what national means. And I know what the words Black and theatre and festival mean. But what do you mean when you put them all together?” Hamlin thought for a second and stated, “It’s about the spirit of our ancestors, the African Americans, and their storytelling. We stand on the backs of those ancestors, and if we can put it in the South, this will be a holy place to gather. This is not New York. This is not L.A. This is not Chicago. This is not any of those big, grand cities. I want it to be in the South, where slavery ruled. We’re going to unite Black theatres and do it in Winston-Salem every two years, and we’re going to have people celebrate this city, and we’re going to change the dynamic of the very racist environment in this city.”

Hamlin pushed for engagement with the town of Winston-Salem in 1989, and was met with quite a lot of skepticism from the City Council. “People were concerned, with so many Black people descending on the city, what would happen—after all, it was the South in 1989,” famous Jackie Alexander, the pageant’s present inventive director.

Planning for the primary pageant was something however sure. By May, with simply 10 weeks to go earlier than the pageant was to start, all that they had raised was $5,000. Jones began contacting folks. First on the checklist was Maya Angelou, who was a professor at close by Wake Forest University. She stated she was however that 10 weeks was simply not sufficient time—regardless that she lastly agreed. Jones in flip requested her to contact Oprah, who additionally stated sure. “That’s when we had a National Black Theatre Festival,” Jones advised us. They additionally lined up assist from Cicely Tyson, Antonio Fargas, James Earl Jones, and Mario Van Peebles. After an intense PR push, the pageant was throughout quite a few newspapers, together with the entrance web page of The New York Times Arts & Leisure. Once they began promoting tickets, they may hardly sustain. They received to 12,000 and determined to cap it at 17,000 tickets.

Winston-Salem’s present mayor, Allen Joines, was concerned to start with as a part of the town’s financial improvement council. He admitted to “a lot of skepticism when the idea was first pitched. But when Hamlin landed Maya Angelou, Oprah, and James Earl Jones, we saw the validity.”

Sylvia Sprinklin-Hamlin, who had labored with Larry on the National Black Repertory Company not lengthy after they had been married, was appointed to the pageant board of administrators in 1991. When Larry died in 2007, Sylvia stepped in and have become govt director. According media director Brian McLoughlin, Sylvia knew she needed to proceed the pageant’s sturdy tradition, so she known as a gathering to carry everybody collectively and introduced, “Larry’s gone, but the festival will continue.” Then she directed everybody to introduce themselves and to say what they needed to do going ahead. McLoughlin thought he’d be cute and stated, “I’m media, I’m broadcast, I handle PR, and Larry Leon Hamlin hand-picked me for this.” Showing her authority, Sylvia replied, “And I can unpick you.” That was McLoughlin’s first assembly with Sylvia, however over time they each grew to respect one another skills. “With Larry, it was, ‘Shoot first and ask questions later.’ Everything was about creativity. With Sylvia, it was all done methodically.” By their third pageant collectively, that they had constructed enough belief that Sylvia simply gave him his finances and let him work, he stated.

COVID meant that the 2021 pageant was cancelled, and even doing it in 2022 was unsure, because the pandemic continues to be current. When Sylvia died in January, organizers needed to make a giant choice. Newly appointed inventive director Jackie Alexander had little time to fill his predecessor’s large footwear—or, as McLoughlin joked, “big pumps.” By March, although, the pageant was a go, which meant solely 5 months for planning. Just like the primary one in 1989!

Alexander, who is targeted on the aim of serving the legacy and maintaining it rising, advised us, “Larry Hamlin was bigger than life. I only met him once, but at that moment, I got what everyone else got. So it takes all of us to try and keep things going. With all the challenges of Sylvia’s passing, COVID, gas prices—it’s a lot.” But as quickly because the pageant started once more, Alexander stated, “That energy was back. Everyone was hungry for the reunion. It’s been beautiful.”

Still, he admitted: “It’s not recommended to organize it in five months! Luckily, we had contractors who’ve been doing the festival for years, and they know where everything is and how it all runs. But the festival really operates on the strength of volunteers. In 2019 we had 1,300, including drivers, PR folks, event organizers, and backstage teams.” Their technical director will get 30 reveals up in 5 days: 15 up on Tuesday, with units struck on Thursday, then one other 15 the subsequent night time. The crews, nicknamed Grizzlies, are largely school college students, introduced in for the week as a part of the volunteer cohort. “They’re not just volunteering,” Alexander stated. “They’re volunteering for something that’s very personal and dear to them.”

Said Mayor Joines, “Today I see the festival as a combination of excitement and reverence. The city of Winston-Salem has become the biggest contributor over the years, each time giving $150,000. And it’s worth it, because we are enhancing our culture. As the largest and most dynamic Black theatre event in the world, we get a lot of international press. Plus, financially it makes sense. Our convention bureau reports the 60,000 visitors have an economic impact of $13 million, spent on hotels, restaurants, retail, and so on. Finally, we believe the positive impact of this being the home to such a great event helps us recruit businesses and industries to locate here.”

Indeed, folks within the metropolis welcome the pageant every time. As Alexander stated, “When I talk to people on the street, regardless of race, they love it. They know that Winston-Salem is seen as the city of arts and innovation, and the National Black Theatre Festival is the crown jewel.”

But the pageant isn’t only a gathering of individuals; it’s additionally a market for brand spanking new materials and Black theatres. This yr, NBTF instituted the Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin Rolling World Premiere Award, which brings collectively 5 nonprofit theatres, thus giving a playwright 5 productions of their new work “right away,” as Alexander put it. “If we can give the playwright reviews and coverage in five major cities, then we’ve created a hit, with buzz about the playwright and the theatres. We want to keep connecting the companies, keep them working together. We are all nonprofit theatres. It’s easy to get stuck in that bubble, because you’re just trying to survive from day to day. That’s why that collaboration helps, because we can’t make a hit here by ourselves, but five of us?”

Another approach the pageant nurtures writers is the Garland Lee Thompson Sr. Readers Theatre of New Works, run by poet and producer Garland Thompson Jr., whose father began the Frank Silvera Writers Workshop with Morgan Freeman in 1973. Thompson and Freeman needed to supply a possibility for playwrights of all colours to showcase their work and to have interaction the viewers in vital evaluation, in an effort to assist playwrights develop their craft. At the 2022 pageant, Readers Theatre of New Works premiered 30 performs, solid and directed by pageant attendees.

It’s not simply nonprofits who come to scout. Broadway producer Stephen Byrd (MJ, Ain’t Too Proud, Trip to the Bountiful) attended for the primary time this yr, and known as it “the most incredible experience—a spiritual awakening.”

That echoes the superlatives of many. Frequent attendee Tonya Pinkins known as it the most important and finest household reunion you would think about. Ed Smith, who helped set up Black theatre in Buffalo, N.Y., urged all to attend: “If you like people, come. If you like laughter, come. We have all of that.” Said producer Garland Thompson: “You walk down the same hallways as a Black legend did. You can see what they saw and draw strength from it. You know you are connected to a very, very rich history.” And as a result of the pageant was introduced so late this yr, Off-Broadway author, director, and actor Layon Gray rearranged his whole schedule to be there. He’s been coming because the starting, he stated, including, “I’ll be here until my ghost is set free.” To Jackie Alexander, the NBTC is “the greatest Black theatre event on the globe.” The subsequent one is deliberate for July 29-Aug. 3, 2024.

And Ben Vereen? He got here to the pageant for sooner or later to obtain the award, however was so positively impacted by this system and the attendees that he cancelled all different plans and stayed for the complete six days. “I have to stay,” he advised us. “Everybody needs to be here. And when you come, you’ll come back and you won’t want to leave.”

Hinton Battle is a three-time Tony winner whose Broadway credit embody The Wiz, Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, Dreamgirls, Sophisticated Ladies, Chicago, Miss Saigon, and The Tap Dance Kid. He is at the moment the co-founder and director of the Hinton Battle Dance Academy (HBDA) in Tokyo.

Dorothy Marcic, Ph.D., is a Columbia University professor, Fulbright Scholar, and playwright of Respect: The Musical and Sistas: The Musical. She’s the author of 21 bestselling books and award-winning screenplays, and is co-creator of the Wondery podcast “Man-Slaughter.”

Kimberley LaMarque Orman, a professor at Fordham University and govt producer of the video sequence Fordham Road, has produced, acted, and directed in quite a lot of productions throughout the U.S., together with Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Jar the Floor, Macbeth, In the Blood, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Romeo & Juliet, Three Sisters, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and The Old Settler.

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