Renaissance Women
Five Plays
by
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ETHEL WATERS
HOT SNOW, the musical story of Valaida Snow, reveals the story of one of America’s little known African American stars. She came to fame in Europe, taking over the Blackbirds of 1928 role for the mortally ill Florence Mills. She was already famous in the Far East having toured there with the Jack Carter Orchestra during the 1920’s. She is known as L’il Louis and Queen of the Trumpet, because of her extraordinary trumpet playing. She was a dancer, singer, and acted in several films. As World War II was beginning she found herself trapped in Denmark and she was sent to a concentration camp as a non-Aryan where she remained incarcerated for almost 2 years. This is her story as she makes her way back to the top of the heap, back to Broadway. The play had a world premiere in Detroit, Michigan, at THE ATTIC THEATRE in 1990 and featured the redoubtable Miche Braden as our heroine. A New York premiere occurred in 1994 at the world famous CASTILLO THEATRE under the gracious and stylish direction of Gabrielle Kurlander.
THEY WERE ALL GARDENIAS is a musical play depicting a mythological recording session which revealed the dynamics under which one of our enduring heroines was forced to create. This play demanded that the musicians were the actors. Carmen Lundy played Billie Holiday, Ricky Ford played Reed Hawkins, Maurice McKinney played Mallets, Jerry Eastman played Fiddles, and the late great Walter Bishop, Jr. portrayed Bud Powell and was also the musical director. The play was performed at 3 different venues in 1979. First at the RICHARD ALLEN CENTER FOR CULTURE AND ART, produced by the late and lamented Hazel Bryant, then at the now defunct Greyhound Bus Terminal, and finally at Mike Morgenstern’s JAZZMANIA on 23rd Street. This production would never have seen the light of day had it not been for the formidable and brilliant work of director Regge Life, to whom I remain indebted.
ZORA NEALE HURSTON, a play which has 5 incarnations and I hope to be able to publish all five in successive volumes, is one of my most produced plays. This version has always been the baby child of the wonderfully talented Elizabeth Van Dyke was does the title role. has never been produced. The generic male role the actor has to play four different males, was perfect performed by Joseph Edwards. It is directed by and was originally produced by Wyn Handman at the AMERICAN PLACE THEATRE, Off Broadway, on 46th Street. Initially done in 1989 and 1990, then brought back in 1998, it has toured extensively in the United States, including THE NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE FESTIVAL in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, produced there by the redoubtable Larry Leon Hamlin, and at Atlanta’s BLACK ARTS FESTIVAL. It has also been performed in Ghana, Africa, touring under the wonderful guidance of Woodie King, Jr. and THE NATIONAL BLACK TOURING CIRCUIT. The play won 3 AUDELCO Awards* in 1990 for Best Actress in a Dramatic Production, Best Director of a Dramatic Production, Dramatic Production of the Year.
M: THE MANDELA SAGA starring Marjorie Johnson as Winifred Mandela, Todd Davis as Nelson Mandela and Dominic Marcus as the evil Kaisar Mantanzima was originally produced by Crystal Field, Executive Director, of THE THEATRE FOR THE NEW CITY in 1995. The play was brought to life through the intensly creative director Randy Frazier and earned the play 2 AUDELCO Awards*, for Best Actress in a Dramatic Production and Best Writer. It was reprised in the Summer of 1996 at HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY, produced by Bob Spiotto, as part of the University’s African Diaspora Celebration with Vinie Burrows in the title role, Todd Davis as Nelson and Robert Turner as Kaisar. I directed, but I couldn’t have pulled it off without the skillful aid of my Assistant Director, Desiree Urquhart.
I hope that reading these plays brings you as much joy as they to me while writing them and having them produced.
Remember to secure the musical and publication rights to use the songs in productions. For that I am not to be held responsible.
Laurence Holder - Fall 2000 -Hamilton Heights, New York
*AUDELCO is the Audience Development Corporation which acknowledges theatre excellence in African Diasporan Theatre
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About the Book
It is an honor and a pleasure to communicate directly with my growing audience. I have included in this first volume, of a number of volumes I plan to have published, five of the greatest renaissance women in the African Diaspora. These women are different and yet each of them shares a trait which I so greatly admire -- creative determinism. They discovered a purpose within themselves and continued on their march to destiny, fame, sometimes riches, sometimes ignominy, always triumphant over the ills of a world, which is, in fact, still discovering itself; but which, in its blind fury, has ground civilizations, people and ideas into the dust. The indestructible African Diasporan Woman I have chosen for this volume are Ethel Waters, Valaida Snow, Billie Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston, and Winifred Mandela.
About the Author
Laurence Holder is a major African American playwright who has specialized in presenting tales and myths about some of the Diaspora’s most famous and interesting figures compelling the attention of historians, educators, and theatre goers. He has been nominated many times and won writing awards from AUDELCO, the audience development company, which has acknowledged excellence in the field of African Diasporan theatre for more than 30 years. His plays are regularly acknowledged for excellence by the numbers of nominations and awards they receive in all categories, including acting, directing, stage and set design, music, and producing. He has been awarded the Garland Anderson Award for the body of his work by The National Black Theatre Festival of the United States, and most recently he received the first OTTO Award for political writing, awarded by the internationally known Castillo Theatre. A tenured faculty member of The John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, he is the son of Goldie and Wilton Holder, the father of three children, and the devoted husband to Andrea.