On May 24, 1963 then-U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy met with Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, Lorraine Hansberry, James Baldwin and other leading African American figures about the civil rights movement — and got an earful.
That scene was the beginning of an idea for a new play by Talvin Wilks, “Jimmy and Lorraine,” which will have its world premiere and run Oct. 29 to Nov. 22 at HartBeat Ensemble’s Carriage House Theatre in Hartford. The play centers on the special friendship between Hansberry (“A Raisin in the Sun,” “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”) and Baldwin (“Go Tell It on the Mountain,” “Notes of a Native Son,” “Another Country” and “The Fire Next Time”).
HartBeat previously worked with Wilks on a 15-minute theater piece for a First Thursday event at the Wadsworth Atheneum two years ago: “The Cotton Club on My Mind: A Harlem Renaissance Reminiscence,” based on “The Big Sea” by Langston Hughes. He was also a co-writer, co-conceiver of dancer-actor-teacher Carmen de Lavallade’s stage memoir “As I Remember It,” which was part of New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas last June.
For this HartBeat commission, Wilks turned to the lively relationship between two great writers of the Civil Rights era. Studying multiple biographies, histories, speeches, essays, newspaper articles and interviews with journalists Mike Wallace and writer Studs Terkel. Wilks crafted what he calls “a musing about politics and art.”
“I think of it as a poetic and lyrical riff on the politics of the time,” says Wilks.
A significant inspiration was an essay that Baldwin wrote after Hansberry’s death in 1965 at the age of 34, “Sweet Lorraine.” It talked lovingly about their friendship as well as their drag-out fights over politics after many drinks. They both lived in Greenwich Village, shared social circles, sexual secrets, and were artists at the peak of their careers as well as comrades in arms. “Politics was in the air they breathed,” says Wilks.
The show, directed by Brian Jennings, stars Vanessa Butler as Hansberry and Aaron Pitre as Baldwin. The three-character, one-act, 90-minute play, which spans 1959 to 1965, also features Christopher Hirsh in multiple parts, including Baldwin’s partner, Lucien Happersberger; Hansberry’s husband, Robert Nemiroff; writer Norman Mailer; and Kennedy.
Kathleen Turner At The Mansion
Who said artistic salons are a thing of the past? Last year there was an impressive gathering of playwrights at the governor’s mansion in a fundraiser for Hartford’s TheaterWorks. Jonathan Tolins, Mark St. Germaine, Sharr White and others talked shop with the theater’s supporters at the home of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Cathy Malloy, CEO of the Greater Hartford Arts Council. (It was a chance to get a good look at the mansion’s gorgeous sculpture garden, too.)
This time out Kathleen Turner will be the featured guest of the event on Oct. 29 from 5 to 7 p.m. Tickets are $100 and there is a limited number because of the size of the venue. Turner was last at TheaterWorks for the world premiere of Matthew Lombardo’s “High,” which later went on to Broadway and elsewhere, directed by TheaterWorks producing artistic director Rob Ruggiero. She also starred in and directed “The Killing of Sister George” at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre.
Turner, of course, is most noted for her film work in movies such as “Body Heat,” “Romancing the Stone,” “Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Prizzi’s Honor,” “The Man With Two Brains” and “Serial Mom.”
‘Refuse the Hours’
Artists from diverse genres and fields gather together in “Refuse the Hours,” a multimedia chamber opera that is part of Yale Rep’s No Boundaries series of special theatrical events. The show will play for two performances only on Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. at University Theatre in New Haven.
For the piece, renowned South African artist William Kentridge collaborated with a composer, a choreographer, a video designer and a physicist. On stage will be a menagerie of strange machines of Kentridge’s own invention, along with singers, dancers, and musicians, exploring the theme of the nature of time. The show is 80 minutes with no intermission. The show is conceived and with a libretto by William Kentridge, music composed by Philip Miller, choreography by Dada Masilo, video design by Catherine Meyburgh and Kentridge, and dramaturgy by Peter Galison.
As Kentridge delivers a fragmented lecture on stage that begins with the myth of Perseus and ends with Einstein’s visionary findings, performance and artistic elements swirl around him. There is dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo; singers and musicians perform composer Philip Miller’s riveting score; and an array of strange musical machines are a major part of Catherine Meyburgh’s video design.
The co-sponsors for this event would also mirror the collaborative nature of the work: The Yale Center for British Art, Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Yale School of Music and the Yale Arts Gallery and the Andrew Carnduff Ritchie Fund. Information: yalerep.org and 203-432-1234.
Short Takes
>>The first preview of the world premiere of the stage adaptation of “Rear Window” Thursday night at Hartford Stage was canceled “due to complexities with the load-in of the set and a complicated automation design.” To accommodate displaced patrons for the show that has a sold-out run, the theater has added one row of 12 seats to the floor section in front of the stage, and “house seats” will be used when necessary. Patrons for that one preview have been contacted via phone and email on the change and their options.
>>Danai Gurira’s “Eclipsed” will transfer from off-Broadway’s Public Theater to Broadway this spring. The ensemble piece includes Oscar-winner and Yale School of Drama grad Lupita Nyong’o. The play had its world premiere at the Yale Rep several years ago. Gurira’s latest play, “Familiar,” premiered earlier this year at Yale Rep and will have an off-Broadway run at Playwrights Horizons starting in February. Meanwhile. Very busy Gurira continues to be prominent as a Michonne, the zombie hunter in TV’s “The Walking Dead.”
>>National Theatre Live!’s screening of “Hamlet” starring Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch last week was seen by more than 225,000 people, making it the largest global audience for a live broadcast of any title in National Theatre Live history. The broadcast played on more than 1,400 screens and in 25 countries on a live or time-shifted basis. Information: NTLive.com
>>Stratford’s Square One Theatre Company has a new home: the Stratford Academy at Johnson House, an arts magnet school. The theater site will be reconfigured into a 64-seat black box-type theater for Square One’s purposes. The 64-seat black box theatre means a greater number of performances for each production. The new season includes Bill C. Davis’ “Mass Appeal,” playing Nov. 5 to 22, followed by Bruce Graham’s “The Outgoing Tide” March 3 to 20 and “Motherhood Out Loud” May 12 to 29. Tom Holehan is the artistic director and Richard Pheneger the general manager of the 26 year-old theater. Information: 203-375-8778 and squareonetheatre.com.
>>New Haven Theater Company kicks off its 2015-16 season with the dark comedy, “Smudge,” from Emmy Award-winner Rachel Axler (TV’s “Parks and Recreation,” “The Daily Show”) on Nov. 5-6 and Nov. 11-14 at 8 p.m. The show, under the direction of Deena Nicol-Blifford, features Katelyn Marshall, Christian Shaboo and Peter Chenot. Next up March 3-12 for the young theater company is William Inge’s “Bus Stop” and David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Proof” May 5-14. This is the third year NHTC has been in residence at the English Building Markets (839 Chapel St.) in downtown New Haven. Its performance space, dubbed The NHTC Stage @ EBM, is in the back of the vintage department store. Information: NewHavenTheaterCompany.com.
