TONIGHT AT ACADEMY THEATRE: Shirlene Holmes's Pathways, performed by Brenda Porter

The Academy Theatre's been up to some pretty exciting things since their move from Avondale Estates last year. With two new homes, one in Stockbridge and one in Hapeville, the iconic Atlanta theater is growing so fast it makes your head spin.

This weekend, they're hosting a long-time Essential family member, Brenda Porter, as she performs the one-woman show, Pathways, written by Shirlene Holmes. Pathways takes audiences on a journey through the lives of some of the most engaging, dynamic and successful African American women in our history, women who have often been overlooked or marginalized by history text books. Sometimes funny, always daring, these stories are exciting, fun and inspiring for people of all ages.

You'll get to know the engaging characters in this story when you see the show tonight or Sunday afternoon -- which, having seen it, I highly recommend. Let's take a moment now to hear Brenda's story, bringing Pathways and Essential Theatre together.

What is your connection to Essential Theatre?

My connection with Essential Theatre began as so many others' - with Peter Hardy. When I was just a wee lass, I worked one summer at Unto These Hills...Years later, I was honored to be asked by Betty Hart to do movement at Essential for Darker Face of the Earth by Rita Dove, which she was directing...And the rest is history!

How long have you been performing Pathways?

Over 12 years. Wow, time flies!

What is your connection to Shirlene Holmes?

We met in the early '90s when I was cast in her show, A Lady and a Woman, which Carol Mitchell Leon directed at SAME Theatre, no longer in existence.

What are yoru feelings about this play? Why should people see it? Why should you be performing it?

While I was teaching a group of young girls many years ago, I asked my class to identify African American women of note. To my surprise, very few were named. Of course Harriet Tubman, but the remainder of the list included Janet Jackson and Salt and Pepper (both of whom had hits on the top ten chart at the time). The girls did better with African American males, naming Martin Luther King, Hank Aaron, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and others. It was at that time that it became apparent to me that young African American girls were not being exposed to the people in their past that laid pathways for them to have the freedom and privileges that they now experience. At that moment the idea of Pathways was born.

Brenda Porter has a degree in Drama from the University of Georgia and began her career as an actor over twenty-five years ago. Her stage credits include The Story, Wit, for colored girls..., The Art of Dining, So Long on Lonely Street, El Hajj Malik, Home, The miracle Worker, among others. She has appeared in television and directed staged productions as well over the years, and she currently co-facilitates The Practice, along with Jen Harper and Donna Biscoe. Brenda is teaching theatre this spring at KIPP South Fulton Academy. She presently serves as a Suzi Awards Board Member and is the Artistic Director of Impact Theater Atlanta.

 

Pathways is showing tonight at 8pm and tomorrow at 2:30pm at the Academy Theatre in Hapeville. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door. For reservations, go to ImpactTheatreAtlanta.org or AcademyTheatre.org.

Congratulations to Karla Jennings and Theroun D'Arcy Patterson, Winners of the 2014 Essential Theatre Playwriting Competition!

ESSENTIAL THEATRE ANNOUNCES TWO WINNERS FOR THE 2014 PLAYWRITING CONTEST

Atlanta, January 2014 – Essential Theatre has just announced Theroun Patterson and Karla Jennings as co-winners of the 2014 Playwriting Competition.  “It’s taken us a long while to come to a decision this year,” observes Peter Hardy, Founding Artistic Director of the theatre, “because of the large number of strong submissions we received.  But we feel that both of these plays are worthy of the prizes and will be excellent contributions to our Festival this summer.” Both playwrights will receive a $600 cash prize and a full production in this summer’s Essential Theatre Festival.

Having two contest winners in one year is not unprecedented, as this was also the case in 2006, when both Valetta Anderson’s “Leaving Limbo” and Larry Larson and Eddie Levi Lee’s “Charm School” shared the prize.  Since that time there has continued to be an increase in both the quantity and quality of plays submitted to this competition.

Karla Jennings’s play, Ravens and Seagulls, is a heartfelt story about four sisters going through the process of losing one of them to illness. “It’s often painful,” says Hardy, “but also has a lot of humor and some hope at the end.”

That Uganda Play, by Theroun Patterson, was written in reaction to Ugandan Parliament Member David Bahati’s “Kill the Gays” bill of 2010. “With the virulent anti-homosexual sentiments and violence in Africa and recently with the legislation signed into law in Russia, this play is timely and sheds light on a very American involvement with such a controversial figure like Bahati,” states Patterson in a 2013 interview. “My hope is that [this play] provokes debate and conversations late into the night long after it’s over.”

Both plays were previously workshopped by Working Title Playwrights, and That Uganda Play was also featured in the Bare Essentials Reading Series during the 2013 Essential Theatre Festival. Both Karla and Theroun have had other plays produced by Essential, Images in Smoke by Karla in 2000 and A Thousand Circlets by Theroun in 2011.

About Essential Theatre

Essential Theatre has been supporting Georgia playwrights and presenting new plays to Atlanta audiences since 1987. Since 2011, the Essential Play Festival has presented all world premieres by Georgia playwrights. Dates and venue for the 2014 Festival will be announced soon. For additional information about the festival, the contest or Essential Theatre, visit www.EssentialTheatre.com.

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For media inquires
Jennifer Kimball, Managing Director

jennifer@essentialtheatre.com

(404) 587-3853

Interview with playwright Theroun Patterson

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Learn more about actor and playwright Theroun Patterson, winner of the 2011 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award and author of this Wednesday night’s Bare Essential play, That Uganda Play

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About That Uganda Play: I originally wrote the play in late 2011-early 2012 with a staged reading of the original draft with Working Title Playwrights and Academy Theatre in January 2012.  The play started as a sort of knee jerk reaction to reading an NPR interview with David Bahati, a Ugandan Member of Parliament that introduced his Anti-Gay Legislation, causing an uproar with Gay Rights groups because the Bill essentially criminalized homosexuality and would have allowed for unprecedented governmental persecution of gays.  The article simply made me angry.  I started writing to try and understand that type of hatred, to know where it came from, and perhaps to feel better about a my own frustrations about a prejudice that I can't control; that I can't stamp out on my own. With the virulent anti-homosexual sentiments and violence in Africa and recently with the legislation signed into law in Russia, this play is timely and a sheds light on a very American involvement with such a controversial figure like Bahati.  Not only that, but I wanted to ground the play within two families and show how a global problem works its way down into our most personal relationships.  Honestly I hope a theatre with an interest in starting a community dialogue about social issues will produce this play. My hope is that it provokes debate and conversations late into the night long after its over. 

About Theroun: I started as an actor, working for eleven years on Atlanta stages.  I started seriously writing plays in 2005, producing and directing my own readings with the help of generous peers that donated their time and talents.  In 2009, I joined Working Title Playwrights and wrote the first of four plays that year.  I've written a dozen full lengths since 2006.  I'm pleased to be working with Essential again after the production of my play A Thousand Circlets.

On the Bare Essentials Series: The reading series allows me the opportunity to refine the play and find new audiences for it to continue a dialogue generated by art.

What is it like to transition from acting to writing? As an actor, there was always an underlying anxiety about performing, but as a writer I have absolutely no fear.  I'm willing to learn in front of others, to continue to grow and experiment with story and structure.  Playwriting is the form of expression that fits me best as an artist. Acting is secondary to that.

Where can you look for Theroun’s next work? Next for me, is a production of fugitive:EROS and The Chemicals Between Us with Out of Box Theatre next season, as well as the production of Origin Story with Academy Theatre in their new home. I'm also about to start on a new commission with Pinch N Ouch Theatre as well as Mad Hope Theatre Project.

The Bare Essentials series is free and open to the public. Donations graciously accepted. Complimentary wine before and after the show. For more information on all the readings as well as the other plays in the festival, visit www.essentialtheatre.com