On June 15, Project1Voice will mark the fifth year that it has presented their international salute to American theatre, 1Voice/1Play/1Day. The mission of Project1Voice is to strengthen and promote African American theatre and playwrights. Project1Voice will have more than thirty performances, always on the third Monday in June, and they are expanding their mission this year to celebrate.
HOME by Sam
m Art Williams is a lyrical play that tells the coming of age story of orphan Cephus Miles of small town Crossroads, North Carolina. Even though Cephus lives what cannot be described as anything less than a whirlwind life, he is still joyous and full of optimism that his quest to discover something deeper will be fulfilled. Cephus eventually leaves Crossroads for the big city after learning that his betrothed Pattie Mae has decided to marry another man, a more well off professional. Throughout his struggles in the big city, being a Vietnam war resister, and returning home to his small town after desegregation, we see the story of a man gaining wisdom in a world that does not always make sense.
HOME by Samm-Art Williams NYC-Manhattan Monday June 15th at 7PM
directed by Michele Shay
Starring Elain Graham, S. Epatha Merkerson, Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Harlem Hospital Pavilion
On the same day Project1Voice will hold another reading for afternoon theatergoers:
Just when you thought going HOME was enough on Monday, June 15th here’s your HAPPY ENDING. This NYC ONLY staged reading of HAPPY ENDING is especially for the capitalistically efficient daytime theater goer.
HAPPY ENDING and DAY of ABSENCE–two one act plays–premiered at St. Marks Place November 1965. This was the genesis of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC).
Arthur French (A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL w/Cicely Tyson) one of the original 13 NEC members–reprises the role he performed 50 years ago. Also featuring Lizan Mitchell, Brandon Gill and NEC alum Ebony Jo-Ann.
Directed by Timothy Douglas
Now that’s a real HAPPY ENDING at 2PM!
Project1Voice also did Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf last year. The piece is a series of twenty poems that are choreographed to music (hence, “choreopoem”) performed by seven African American women that are only named by the color that they are assigned. The subject matter includes abandonment, rape, abortion, domestic violence, and HIV/AIDS. This play first debuted on Broadway in 1976 and Shange was the second African American woman playwright to be produced on Broadway, second only to Lorraine Hansberry with A Raisin in the Sun.
To find out more about how to view the Manhattan staged reading visit Project1Voice.org or the Project1Voice: HOME Facebook event page and listen to the Founder/CEO and President of Project1Voice, Erich McMillian-Mcall, here:
