Editor’s note: This article has been edited to make a correction about dates. The Courtbouillon regrets the error.
NEW ORLEANS (March 4, 2018) – Final performances are scheduled next weekend for the production of two one-act plays and two African myths commemorating Black History Month in Cook Theatre.
“The Chip Woman’s Fortune” and “The Broken Banjo” – both one-act plays by Harlem Renaissance playwright Willis Richardson – and the myths “How the World was Created from a Drop of Milk” and “The Revolt Against God” will be performed at 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at a 3 p.m. matinee Sunday. Three other performances were held March 2-3.
Director Ray Vrazel, an associate professor of theater, said the other spring event scheduled by the theatre program, in its 82nd season, will be hosting the National Association for Speech and Dramatic Arts Conference for the second year in a row from March 20-24.
The theatre also hosted another event, Ariadne Blayde’s “Black & Blue,” a play inspired by the true-life story of one of New Orleans’ first black female police officers, Chief Yvonne Bechet, in January. The production was presented by the Center for Restorative Approaches.
Junior theater major Bethany Jenkins said the first play is the story of an old woman who collects chips to take care of her rent to live with a porter’s family. (Richardson became the first African-American to have a play produced on Broadway with this play in 1923.) Jenkins said the second play is about the love a man has for his banjo and the lengths to which he would go to protect the instrument.
The cast for “The Chip Woman’s Fortune” includes senior Khalon Banks, Jenkins, freshman Kasey King, junior Dominique Lee, senior Savion Eagleton and sophomores Jaques Chandler and Ninyaka White.
The cast for “The Broken Banjo” are junior Zachary Paige-Westbrook, freshman Jada Williams, Eagleton, Chandler and Banks.
“How the World Was Created from a Drop of Milk” is a Fulani myth explaining the world’s creation while the second myth from the Fang tribe, “The Revolt Against God,” explains man’s creation.
The ensemble cast for both myths are Chelsea Coleman, Paige-Westbrook, Banks, Chandler, King, Williams, Lee, Eagleton and White.
Tickets are $5 for Dillard students; $10 for Dillard faculty and staff, non-Dillard students, and senior citizens; and $15 for general admission.
Vrazel said the NASDA Conference later in March will feature HBCU schools competing in the categories of monologue, duo scene, one-act play, interpretive speech, reader’s theater and poetry.