Suzan-Lori Parks Center Stage
De La Soul and the Schoolhouse Rock crew knew exactly what they were talking about; three is indeed the magic number, but you don't have to take Code Z's word for it. Just ask Kenny Leon and the good people of the True Colors Theatre Company. In conjunction with the summer-long cultural juggernaut that is the National Black Arts Festival (Atlanta, USA), True Colors is slated to present three productions: Ceremonies in Dark Old Men (July 11- 28), Emergence-SEE! (July 26-29), and "Week 37" of the cycle 365 Days/365 Plays (July 25-27). Leon, a national player, and fresh off his stint as director of August Wilson's Radio Golf, is holding the reigns of all three works. The brain-children of such playwrights as Georgia native Lonne Elder III, Daniel Beaty, and Suzan-Lori Parks, this selection of works does damage to the notion that cross-generational dialogue doesn't exist, and that critical thinking is out of vogue in popular culture.
Parks, a highly regarded triple-threat (MacArthur Foundation "Genius" being #1 on the list), was supposedly urged to write plays by the great James Baldwin. That advice led her eventually to write the screenplay for Spike Lee's Girl 6 (hey, we love Spike, really). And while that isn't a crime punishable by death, it's good that she was redeemed with later works such as Getting Mother's Body: A Novel, and Topdog/Underdog.
All in all, it appears that TCTC is aiming to cook up some hot (intellectual) fun for the summertime. Each production tackles the issue of freedom struggles, which is presented through meditations on upward mobility, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and war. And boasting such featured players as Glynn Turman (Cooley High anyone?) and Daniel Beaty (who earned Ruby Dee's stamp of approval), True Colors all but ensures that those in attendance will get caught up.
2 July 2007