The African Company Presents Richard III, which opened this week in Yulman Theater, is based on the real story in 1821 of the first black
theatrical group in America
as it battles racial prejudice with violent interpretations of white theater. The troupe's motto: “Say ya Shakespeare like ya want.”
African Company continues Friday, March 7, and Saturday, March 8, at 8 p.m. Last performance is Sunday, March 9, at 2 p.m.
Written by Carlyle Brown, the play
is directed by Joanne Yarrow.
The seven member cast includes
Phil Chorba, Jamera Simmons, Ijeoma Genevieve Mbamalu, Charles Holiday, Jhulian Newell-Little, Andre Lake and Vanya Konn.
“The play is not about the black
experience,” said Yarrow. “It's about the perseverance of the human spirit.”
In 1821, the first black
theatrical troupe in the country, the African Company of New York, was putting on plays in a downtown Manhattan
theater to which both black and white audiences flocked, according to the
playwright's notes. Shakespeare is the chosen cultural battleground in this
retelling of a little known, yet pivotal event in American history. Knowing they are always under prejudicial pressures from white society, and facing their own internal shakeups, the African Company battles for time, space, and audiences and togetherness. Their competition, Stephen Price, an uptown,
Broadway-type impresario, is producing Richard III at the same time as the African Company's production is in full swing. Price has promised a famous English actor overflowing audiences if he plays Richard in Price's theater. Fearing his large white audiences will be lost to the African Company, Price manipulates the law and closes down their theater.
For more on the Yulman production
of African Co. see: http://idol.union.edu/~simmonsj/theater/africanco.html
For tickets and information, call
the Yulman Theater box office at (518) 388-6545.