Howard University - Department of Theatre Arts

Alliance Francaise presents
STYLISTIK: ENTRE DEUX
part of the Urban Corps Festival

In 2010, the urban dance company Stylistik, based in Lyon and directed by Clarisse Veaux and Abdou N'gom, creates Entre Deux <<In between>>. This solo stages a French dancer of Senegalese origin. It questions the sense of multiple belonging. While feeling neither from here, neither from there or elsewhere, and perceived on both sides as a stranger... How does one build oneself when one belongs to several cultural identities? The questioning delves into this particular <<in between>> position. This solo brings us to look beyond appearance and our sense of belonging.

Tickets: $15.00 General Admission, $10.00 Members w/Discount Code, FREE Howard University students w/valid I.D.

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STEPPIN' OUT OF THE NEGRO CARAVAN
Director: George Faison
Featuring: Debbie Allen, Avery Brooks, Lynda Gravatt, Joseph Coleman

Legendary choreographer George Faison, directs this anthology of key literary works that have greatly influenced the thinking of American Negroes. Returning to the Ira Aldridge stage, DEBBIE ALLEN, AVERY BROOKS, LYNDA GRAVATT, and JOSEPH COLEMAN will help bring the Negro Caravan back to life while presenting a truthful mosaic of Negro character and experience in America.

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Eye-opening and Unforgettable!
HU DANCE PROGRAM CONCERT
BODY VOICE: EQUILIBRIUM
Artistic Director: Denise Saunders Thompson
Rehearsal Director: Pat Thomas
April 13 - 14, 2012, 7:30pm; April 14, 2:30pm
― “The students had stamina, precision and stage presence...their sophistication allowed the artist to expand his choreography and let his ideas flow!” – The Washington Post
The production functions to encompass a variety of powerful and diverse dance styles from performers with a wide range of experience and skill level. The theme of this Spring dance concert is an edgy way to motivate the dancers to remember that when they take the stage they shouldn’t hold back on anything.

Tickets*: $22.00 General Admission, $17.00 Faculty/Staff/Senior Citizens, Alumni;
$14.00 Students with valid I.D.

A SYMPOSIUM ON PEARL PRIMUS AND THE
EXPLORATION OF THE MINSTREL SHOW THROUGH
DANCE ARTS

A Symposium on Pearl Primus and the Exploration of the Minstrel Show through Dance Arts will be held on Friday, April 13, 2012 from 11:00am - 1:00pm in the Ira Aldridge Theater. Featured panelists are Peggy Schwartz, Professor of Dance Education, University of Mass., Murray Schwartz, Professor of Shakespeare, Holocaust Leterature and Literature and Psychoanalysis, Emerson College, Camille A. Brown, Artistic Director, Choreographer of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and Lela Sewell-Williams, HU Dance Faculty, Dance Heritage Coalition and Moorland Spingarn Research Center (Moderator). The symposium will explore the impact of Pearl Primus' work on the Dance Field and the effects of the Minstrel Show on African American Performers from the past to present day.

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Written by Denise J. Hart
Directed by Otis Ramsey-Zoe
March 26, 2012
In the Environmental Theatre Space

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A Concert out of which a Play emerges!
PASSING STRANGE
Book and Lyrics by Stew
Music by Stew & Heidi Rodewald
Created in collaboration with Annie Dorsen
Directed by Eric Ruffin
Musical Direction by Darius Smith
Choreography by Princess Mhoon Cooper
March 1 - 3, 7 - 10, 2012, 7:30pm
March 2, 10:00am (school matinee, $5.00 tickets)
March 3, 10, 2:30pm
In the Ira Aldridge Theater

PASSING STRANGE is the semi-autobiographical story of a young black man who leaves behind his middle-class, church-ruled upbringing in mid-1970s Los Angeles to travel to Europe in search of his artistic and personal identity, or what he calls “the real.” There he finds he can exploit a “South Central” persona, playing the cool, black expatriate-musician who speaks for his people. Picturesque misadventures with sex, drugs, politics and art find him in a far-out Amsterdam and a hyper-militant Berlin. But in the end, he discovers that cultural complexity—and hypocrisy—are not limited to middle-class African American life, and that while to him art may be more real than life, only love is truly more than real.

Tickets: $17.00 General Admission, $10.00 Faculty/Staff/Senior Citizens, Alumni;
$7.00 Students with valid I.D.

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"A Dark Comedy comes to Life..."
OUR LADY OF 121ST STREET
Written by Stephen Adley Guirgis
Directed by Anthony Sanford
February 8 - 11, 2012
In the Environmental Theatre Space

When you think of a nun, you think of selfless acts…the women in the habits with a wooden ruler in hand…Jesus’ home girls. But rarely do we stop to think of these women were before they committed themselves to a life of servitude and what better place to find out a thing like that than at a nun’s funeral.

Howard University’s legendary student organization, The Howard Players present their Spring production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ mysterious, off-set comedy about what happens when all of Sister Rose’s former students arrive at her funeral to pay their final respects only to find that something, or someone for that matter, is missing…Sister Rose! This play is sure to be an adventure for the audience with all the brash attitude of a New Yorker and quick-witted comedy that will keep you at the edge of your seat the entire time.

Tickets: $17.00 General Admission, $10.00 Faculty/Staff/Senior Citizens, Alumni;
$7.00 Students with valid I.D.

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Written by Nina Angela Mercer
Directed by Eric Ruffin
January 14, 2012
In the Ira Aldridge Theater

In Gypsy & The Bully Door, Sara Josephine James – hairstylist, fortune teller, aspiring rock star and member of the “We Bomb Truth Over Lies” graffiti rebel movement – is haunted in the nation’s capital. The City eats its residents and exiles their spirits to her apartment. When her childhood friend Nate Bledsoe gets killed by the police after returning from the war in the Middle East, his spirit demands that she create a response that the local authorities cannot ignore. But when she gets her comrades, Roy Peoples and Khadija Freeman, to rebel with her, they are forced to disband, escaping capture by the same authorities who took the life of their friend. They set off on their own individual journeys to freedom in a country where democracy seems to be falling apart at every turn. And what they once thought was their rightful destiny becomes a dangerously perilous journey through exile, poverty, and the loss of love, funk and rhythm. It is a battle for the one truth they thought could never be lost in America – their voices and the solidarity that made them believe they had any power at all. While Sara sets up shop in NYC, using her fortune telling and hair styling expertise to pay the bills & manipulate clients for her own entertainment, Roy travels the world in search of the ever-elusive and sublime perfect beauty, and Khadija dares to continue the wandering rebel movement alive in DC alone. All hope to forget what they lost together, only to realize some doors to freedom are more difficult to pass through than they ever knew.

Gypsy & The Bully Door is fueled by the live music of the GoGo band, “The Pocket Roll Call,” and its leader, The Mayor; the often conflicting truths of the unofficial super stars of daily life – the folk who keep it poppin’, no matter what; and the spirits of our ancestors, who push and pull us, even when we doubt their meaning in our lives. It is a story of race, class, sex, dreams, and the magic we conjure to make it in America, and the world.

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Student creativity to be ‘Unleashed’!
DANCE SHOWCASE
UNLEASHED: INVENTIVE EXPLORATIONS AND INHIBITIONS
by the HU Dance Program
Artistic Director: Denise Saunders Thompson
Rehearsal Director: Pat Thomas
November 18 – 19, 2011
In the Ira Aldridge Theater
―"Well trained American dancers at the Howard University Dance Concert..". – The Washington Post
30 Student dancers — instructed by 6 student choreographers participating in the Camille A. Brown Choreographer's Workshop — will hit the stage to perform inventive explorations and inhibitions through dance in Howard University’s student-directed fall Dance showcase, “Unleashed.”

November 18, 2011 - 7:30pm
November 19, 2011 - 2:30pm
November 19, 2011 - 7:30pm

Tickets: $15.00 General Admission, $8.00 Faculty/Staff/Senior Citizens, Alumni;
$5.00 Students with valid I.D.

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Passion, Poetry, and Ambition!
FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF
written by Ntozake Shange
directed by LA Williams
choreographed by Kayah Franklin
November 2 – 5, 9 – 12, 2011
In the Environmental Theatre Space
―“Specific in its pain, Universal in its reach.” – The New York Times
Shange's Obie Award-winning play is a poetic exploration of what is to be of color and a female in this world. Poetry expresses the many struggles and obstacles that seven African-American women characters, known only by color “Lady in Yellow”, etc., face throughout their lives. The chorepoems deal with love, abandonment, rape, domestic violence, and abortion, embodied by each woman's story. The end of the play brings together all of the women for "a laying on of hands," in which Shange evokes the power of womanhood as the Lady in Red begins the mantra "I found God in myself/and I loved her/I loved her fiercely."

Presented in collaboration with The Howard Players, Office of Residence Life, and Cramton Auditorium

November 2 - 5, 9 - 12, 2011, 7:30pm
November 4, 10:00am (sold out)
November 5, 12, 2:30pm

Tickets: $15.00 General Admission, $8.00 Faculty/Staff/Senior Citizens, Alumni;
$5.00 Students with valid I.D

A Symposium on Black Women Playwrights will be held on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 from 4:00-6:00 pm at the Blackburn Center Forum. Featured panelists are Patricia Elam, Author, Professor of English, Howard University, Dr. Dana Williams, Chair, Department of English, Howard University, Dr. Sandra Shannon, Professor of English, Howard University, Jacqueline Lawton, Playwright and Visiting Professor, University of the District of Columbia, Karen Evans, Founder and President, Black Women's Playwright's Group, and Dr. Jowers-Barber, Black Women Playwright's Group. The symposium will explore the impact of Black Women Playwrights Lorraine Hansberry, Ntozake Shange, Alice Childress, Suzan-Lori Parks, Lynn Nottage, and the current status and challenges of Black women playwrights.

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A Story That Must Be Told!
MISS EVERS’ BOYS
written by David Feldshuh
directed by Danielle A. Drakes
choreographed by Katherine J. Smith
October 5, 2011 – October 9, 2011
In the Ira Aldridge Theater
―Miss Evers’ Boys is first-rate and informative. – TVGuide.com
Based on the historic Tuskegee Study, a 40-year program which studied the often-fatal progress of untreated syphilis in a group of African American sharecroppers. The story chronicles the experience of Miss Eunice Evers, the public health nurse who attempts to aid four of the men in the study but is disillusioned by self-serving doctors and Washington bureaucracy. After money is no longer available, the doctors devise the Tuskegee Study to change the direction of their work from the treatment of syphilis to the observation of the ravages of the disease; keeping the money rolling in, all in the name of science. The doctors use deceitful tactics to prevent their patients from receiving the newly developed miracle drug penicillin, which benefits others who are not in the study.

Presented in collaboration with Howard University Office of Regulatory Research Compliance and GHUCCTS-Georgetown Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science)

October 5 - 8, 2011, 7:30pm
October 7, 10:00am ($5.00 matinee)
October 8, 2:30pm
October 9, 3:00pm

Tickets: $15.00 General Admission, $8.00 Faculty/Staff/Senior Citizens, Alumni;
$5.00 Students with valid I.D.

A SYMPOSIUM ON BLACKS, MINORITIES AND HEALTHCARE: PROSPECTS OF CLINICAL RESEARCH

Pulitzer prize nominated and award-winning playwright Dr. David Feldshuh will be in attendance to jump-start the round table discussion on some of the many themes of MISS EVERS’ BOYS, that include Institutional and Social Justice, Ethical Issues, Public Health, and Clinical Trials. Eminent writers, scholars, and doctors – Dr. Leslie Hicks, HU Dept. of Psychology, Dr. Tariqa Nuriddin, HU Department of Sociology, Dr. Martin Iguchi, Dean, Professor Georgetown School of Nursing and Health Studies, and Dr. Carla Williams, HU College of Medicine will serve as panelists.

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5 WORKS WILL BE PRODUCED: A 3-PLAY THEATRE SEASON (INCLUDING A MUSICAL),
AND 2-DANCE CONCERTS

Enter into the exciting world of The Ira Aldridge Theater 2011-2012 season. The full five-production lineup continues the Department of Theatre Art’s ongoing commitment to the highest quality and thrilling performances. The coming season covers territory from the Tuskegee study to the balance of Dance through body and voice. The upcoming productions will delight, enflame and mesmerize audiences. As the Department welcomes both a new Chairperson and Producing Artistic Director into its home in August 2011, it looks forward to continue to work on its mission: to produce the best in African American Theatre and Dance Arts.

MISS EVERS' BOYS
Written by David Feldshuh
Directed by Danielle Drakes
October 5 - 8, 2011, 7:30pm; October 7, 10:00am; October 8, 2:30pm; October 9, 3:00pm
Tickets: $15.00 General Admission, $8.00 Faculty/Staff/Senior Citizens, Alumni;
$5.00 Students with valid I.D.

FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF
Written by Ntozake Shange
Directed by LA Williams
November 2 - 5, 9 - 12, 2011, 7:30pm; November 4, 10:00am; November 5, 12, 2:30pm
Tickets: $15.00 General Admission, $8.00 Faculty/Staff/Senior Citizens, Alumni;
$5.00 Students with valid I.D.

HU DANCE PROGRAM SHOWCASE
UNLEASHED: INVENTIVE EXPLORATIONS AND INHIBITIONS
Artistic Director: Denise Saunders Thompson
Rehearsal Director: Pat Thomas
November 18 - 19, 2011, 7:30pm, November 19, 2:30pm; November 20, 3:00pm
Tickets: $15.00 General Admission, $8.00 Faculty/Staff/Senior Citizens, Alumni;
$5.00 Students with valid I.D.

PASSING STRANGE
Book and Lyrics by Stew
Music by Stew & Heidi Rodewald
Created in collaboration with Annie Doresen
Directed by Eric Ruffin
Musical Direction by Darius Smith
Choreography by Princess Mhoon
February 29, March 1 - 3, 7 - 10, 2012, 7:30pm; March 2, 10:00am; March 3, 10, 2:30pm
Tickets: $15.00 General Admission, $8.00 Faculty/Staff/Senior Citizens, Alumni;
$5.00 Students with valid I.D.

HU DANCE PROGRAM CONCERT
BODY VOICE: EQUILIBRIUM
Artistic Director: Denise Saunders Thompson
Rehearsal Director: Pat Thomas
April 13 - 14, 2012, 7:30pm; April 14, 2:30pm; April 15, 3:00pm
Tickets: $20.00 General Admission, $15.00 Faculty/Staff/Senior Citizens, Alumni;
$12.00 Students with valid I.D.