NATE JACOBS,
FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
By Nate Jacobs
December 3 – December 21, 2014
WBTT presents this joyous holiday gift to the community. It’s a celebration of the Nativity story with gospel, blues, spiritual, and Christmas music, paired with the poetry of Langston Hughes and the creativity of WBTT. Children and adults of all races and backgrounds will be enthralled by this high-energy, theatrical wonderment. Black Nativity is not included in the season subscription.
Directed by Nate Jacobs
Choreographed by Donald Frison
| VIDEO: Open up this holiday video "card" to see our Christmas celebration! |
Did you know . . .
The original title of Black Nativity was: Wasn’t it a Mighty Day?
Since 1961 Black Nativity has been performed nearly every year somewhere in the world
During the holiday season, Black Nativity is recognized as the African-American Christmas card to the nation
Langston Hughes spent time in Harlem’s jazz and blues clubs and collaborated with artists like Duke Ellington
Langston Hughes promoted the phrase ”black is beautiful”
Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett star in the 2013 movie of Black Nativity
Cast
Christopher Eisenberg - Singer/Ensemble
Tarra Conner jones* - Archangel
Alyssa White - Singer/Ensemble
BAND
Music Director, Bass - James E. Dodge, II
Keyboard – J.L. Cash, Jr.
Percussion – John Walker
Production Staff
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
Black Nativity is the retelling of the birth of Christ from an Afrocentric perspective. It’s based on the Gospel of St. Luke, paired with the poetry of Langston Hughes. Hughes developed a late-in-life interest in African-American spirituality and the oral traditions of their churches. His script for this “gospel song-play” developed as a result of that interest.
Black Nativity opened for a limited run of 57 performances at Broadway’s 41st St. Theatre on December 11, 1961. It was one of the first plays by an African-American to be staged there.
The preliminary title was: Wasn’t it a Mighty Day? When the title was changed before it opened, two of the lead performers, Alvin Ailey and Carmen deLavallade, quit the show in protest. They were concerned that including the word “black” in the title would be too limiting and divisive for a Broadway show.
Rave reviews by critics and audiences alike proved that black in the title was not an issue. After closing in NYC, Black Nativity was performed at President Kennedy's International Jazz Festival and then was invited to make its European debut at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. A New York Times critic attending the latter festival wrote, “Sophisticated Italian audiences greeted Black Nativity with enthusiasm, taking part in the singing and hand clapping and insisting on curtain call after curtain call.”
After Spoleto, Black Nativity opened in London where it was taped for a television special by Westinghouse Broadcasting Company. Since its opening, the show has been performed nearly every year somewhere around the world.
A film version starring Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett hit movie theaters in 2013.
Many of the contemporary productions of Black Nativity are adapted by the directors to reflect the cultural interests of the times. Although a few songs were created for the original show, the rest are any combination of traditional Christmas carols, gospel, blues, spiritual, funk, and jazz music that the producer/director chooses. The “griot-style story-telling” from an ensemble cast can also vary among productions.
Langston Hughes (Playwright) was one of the most important literary figures of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. His poems, plays, musicals, operas, essays, films, and adult and children’s books promoted equality and black pride, condemned racism, and celebrated African-American culture, humor, and spirituality. He is particularly known for his dignified and insightful portrayal of ordinary black life in America from the 1920s through the 1960s. This Lincoln University graduate received many awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for distinguished achievements, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.
Reviews and Interviews
Theater Review: 'Black Nativity' launches holiday season with spirit - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
http://arts.heraldtribune.com/2014-12-06/featured/theater-review-black-nativity-launches-holiday-season-spirit/
"The Gift of Gospel" - The Observer (feature)
http://www.yourobserver.com/news/sarasota/A-and-E/1203201437488/The-Gift-of-Gospel
"Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe revives and revises Langston Hughes' 'Black Nativity'" - Sarasota Herald-Tribune (preview)
http://arts.heraldtribune.com/2014-11-29/section/theater/westcoast-troupe-revives-revises-langston-hughes-black-nativity/
Westcoast Troupe revives and revises Langston Hughes' 'Black Nativity'
http://arts.heraldtribune.com/2014-11-29/section/theater/westcoast-troupe-revives-revises-langston-hughes-black-nativity/
World Premier by Nate Jacobs
February 25 - March 29, 2015
In this hot musical revue, Nate Jacobs salutes the great women performers of the jazz era such as Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson, Etta Jones, and Peggy Lee. They rose to stardom, broke barriers, and left a legacy few can match. Their phenomenal voices, style, and grace won over audiences around the world. Don’t miss this sensationally sizzling show!
Cast
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
Nate Jaobs - Director/Choreographer
songs by George C. Wolfe; music by Chic Streetman; Adapted for the stage from three short stories by Zora Neale Hurston
April 15 - May 17, 2015
"I git to the git with some pain n' some spit n' some spunk." The rich, earthy language of writer Zora Neale Hurston is evident in these three tales of love, revenge, and redemption. Spunk, with its music and dance, humor and intensity, breathes new life into her remarkable short stories from the Harlem Renaissance. They are “tales of survival told in the key of the blues,” with a common theme of hope for the future. An award-winning, Off-Broadway show.
| VIDEO: See excerpts from this lively, spirited show! |
By Charles Smith
January 7 – February 8, 2015
Knock Me a Kiss is a fascinating, but fictional account of the 1928 marriage of W.E.B. DuBois' daughter to one of Harlem's most talented poets. The marriage marked the height of the Harlem Renaissance and was viewed as the perfect union of African-American talent and beauty, but the union of man and woman failed. This powerful play exposes the tragically flawed error in judgment by one of the greatest intellects of the 20th century.
| VIDEO: Director Chuck Smith and playwright Charles Smith share their insights into the play, Knock Me A Kiss and the WBTT version. |
Cast
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
^Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
Director’s Note
Smith & Smith’s Celebration Kiss
On the stage of the American theatre, there is little to no room for two characters with the same name. Even so, for over 25 years, playwright Charles Smith and I (director Chuck Smith) have managed to remain on the boards, both of us in major roles.
Charles and I are both from the south side of Chicago and have been close friends since first working together on an award-winning local television project in the mid-1980s. Charles was a professor at Northwestern University and I was artistic director of a small professional black theatre company located in Chicago’s “hood.” Our first theatre project together was in 1999 workshopping his play, Knock Me A Kiss, at the Victory Gardens Theatre. This led to a successful January 2000 production. Charles had recently left Chicago for a major position at Ohio University and I had been appointed to the artistic staff at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. While the Chicago “Kiss” world premiere was a critical and box office success, even drawing Oprah to the theatre, it never sparked another major production. After ten years of waiting, I decided to risk an Off-Off Broadway production in New York that produced the same results: great reviews, including a rave in the New York Times; full houses; and literally sweeping New York’s ADULCO Black Theatre Awards, but still no interest from Off Broadway producers. Fortunately the production was invited to the 2011 and 2013 National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, where it was seen by a multitude of African-American theatre companies. The play has enjoyed productions across the nation ever since.
I am extremely grateful to Nate Jacobs and the WBTT organization for inviting me to direct this production, which will, upon its January opening, mark the 15-year anniversary of the Charles and Chuck Smith Knock Me A Kiss collaboration. It also will give us a very special reason to celebrate our birthday this year, I’m older but Chuck and Charles were born on the same date,
March 7.
Thank you Sarasota,
Chuck Smith
Director
Theatre Location
1012 N. Orange Ave.
Sarasota, FL 34236
Mailing Address
1012 N. Orange Ave.
Sarasota, FL 34236
All Rights Reserved.