29
Sep/20

NEW FEDERAL THEATRE PRESENTS OCTOBERFEST

29
Sep/20

Who: New Federal Theatre (NFT)
What: Retrospective reading series
Where: New Federal Theatre online
When: Fridays in October, free (donations accepted), 7:00 (available through the following Sunday at midnight)
Why: Recently named a “Legend of Off Broadway,” Woodie King Jr. has been a New York City theater fixture since founding New Federal Theatre in 1970. As part of its fiftieth anniversary, during the pandemic NFT is looking back at its history, presenting readings of several rarely performed plays that deal with such issues as racism, slavery, and the civil rights movement. As it explains in its mission statement, NFT seeks to “integrate artists of color and women into the mainstream of American theater by training artists for the profession and by presenting plays by writers of color and women to integrated, multicultural audiences — plays which evoke the truth through beautiful and artistic re-creations of ourselves.” The “Octoberfest” series takes place every Friday night at 7:00 and is dedicated to the late Chadwick Boseman, who began his career at NFT, winning an AUDELCO Award for his performance in Ronald Milner’s Urban Transitions: Loose Blossoms in 2002 and serving on the board of directors; each play will be available for viewing through the following Sunday at midnight. The works explore the friendship between Mary White Overton and Dr. W. E. B. DuBois; tell the story of rape survivor and civil rights activist Endesha Ida Mae Holland; use WPA recordings to dramatize remembrances by former slaves; examine PTSD in a Vietnam veteran who received the Black Congressional Medal of Honor; and focus in on a blues singer and a church congregant facing loneliness and a loss of faith. Below is the full schedule, along with the year the show was originally staged by NFT; tickets are free but donations will be accepted.

Friday, October 2
Do Lord Remember Me, written by Jim De Jongh, directed by Regge Life, starring Ebony JoAnn, Barbara Montgomery, Roscoe Orman, Kim Sullivan, and Glynn Turman (NFT, 1996-97)

Friday, October 9
Dr. Du Bois and Miss Ovington, written by Clare Coss, directed by Gabrielle Kurlander, starring Kathleen Chalfant and Peter Jay Fernandez (NFT, 2014)

Friday, October 16
From the Mississippi Delta, written by Endesha Ida Mae Holland, directed by Ed Smith, starring Brenda Denmark, Elain Graham, and Verniece Turner (NFT, 1987-88)

Friday, October 23
Medal of Honor Rag, written by Tom Cole, directed by A. Dean Irby, starring Royce Johnson, Micah Stock, and Beethovan Oden (NFT at Theater De Lys, 1976)

Friday, October 30
Stories of the Old Days, written by Bill Harris, directed by La Tanya Richardson Jackson, starring Pauletta Washington and Michael Potts (NFT, 1986)