Frequent and audible assent at a recent performance proved that it satiates a clear and present hunger. The play seems to offer up its excavations for the dual benefit of viewers to whom they are unfamiliar (mostly white Broadway audiences) and those craving the glow of recognition (a hopefully growing number of Black theatergoers). Scott’s mode of expositional storytelling can also grow to feel didactic, in a way that feels in conflict with efforts to ground the play in everyday reality. The result attempts an uneven sort of naturalism, as the men posit one purportedly universal truism after another, tracing the outlines of life in place of illuminating its substance. Like Shange, Scott wields poetry like a magnifying mirror, drawing attention where too little has historically been paid, and spinning those revelations loosely into narrative.īut where “For Colored Girls” assembles vivid and discrete portraits into a kind of cosmic ritual, Scott and Broadnax plant their kicks on the pavement, purveying a streetside take on the men’s daily lives and intersections. “Thoughts of a Colored Man” shares clear lineage with another restless and expressive probing of Black interiority and outward entrapment, Ntozake Shange’s 1975 “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf,” a revival of which is aiming for Broadway this spring. A scene at Wisdom’s old-school barbershop gathers the guys in a rare group interaction, more toward the purpose of traversing a roadmap of pressing social issues - redlining, the tyrannies of Black consumerism, homophobia - than generating character-driven drama. Scott favors language - verse, rhythm, rhyme - over action, and the men expound on their interior lives more often into the middle distance than in dynamic relation to one another. On a set by Robert Brill featuring a giant billboard as a kind of blank canvas, our primary encounters with each man come in the form of direct address, through which their backstories and resulting perspectives are mostly spelled out rather than illustrated. So, look for shows like “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” a recent Broadway title about the inner lives of seven Black men conveyed through spoken word, slam poetry and rhythm.Most of the men know each other from around the neighborhood (Fort Greene or nearby, for eyes trained on Sven Ortel’s projections), and Scott hangs the play’s chronology on quotidian happenstance: a morning jog, a midday work break, coaching after-school basketball. This includes prioritizing work that reflects the community, said Robin Tynes-Miller, artistic and operations director at Three Bone Theater. Local theater companies, looking to move past last year’s surprising demise of Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, are ratcheting up ways to connect with audiences. Our old pal and former colleague Lawrence Toppman already has some advice drawn up for the next maestro. The biggest news coming from the Charlotte Symphony involves choosing its next music director, a decision expected around the new year. It’s one of the paintings at the Gantt Center’s second biennial, “my Presence is Present: interpretations of afrosurrealism from the American South.” The show runs through Jan. It features acts from Argentina to Zimbabwe, plus an emphasis on Charlotte’s own international scene, including the Festival of India and the Latin American Festival.Ĭlarence Heyward’s “God is Dope” is a portrait of a woman featuring a shirt from the iconic Atlanta brand of the same name. 15 and follows last year’s wildly successful inaugural fest from Blumenthal Performing Arts. That’s the Charlotte International Arts Festival, which launches Sept. Over the next three weeks, we’re going to take you behind the scenes and up close with some of the biggest arts and cultural events coming to the Charlotte area. Welcome, friends, to the most jam-packed section of the year: our annual Fall Arts Guide. We’ve got some advice for the next Charlotte Symphony conductor Big stars, classic shows and several firsts populate Charlotte’s new performing arts season Charlotte theater companies unveil new seasons, plans to strengthen community connections Charlotte International Arts Festival returns, with an emphasis on local diversity Welcome to Charlotte’s new fall arts season, full of firsts, favorites and flair No maestro? No problem.
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