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Raise the Curtain: Larry Leon Hamlin Solo Performance Series added to Black Theatre Festival
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Published: August 2, 2009
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles usually doesn't attract much attention outside of Georgia. But in 2005, it made national headlines when it issued a posthumous pardon for Lena Baker — the only woman executed in Georgia's electric chair.
Baker, who was black, had killed a white man in 1944. The pardon acknowledged what one modern-day student of her case called "a blatant injustice imposed during a time of heightened racism and sexism."
The biographies of Baker and seven other black Americans will come to life this week in the new Larry Leon Hamlin Solo Performance Series, named after the late founder of the National Black Theatre Festival. The N.C. Black Repertory Company, which Hamlin also founded, has presented the festival every other summer since 1989 in Winston-Salem. Hamlin died in 2007.
The festival, which has a $1.1 million budget, is the country's most important showcase of black theater, and the place for actors, producers, playwrights and directors to network. It is also billed as a force for good in the local economy. In 2007, its overall impact to the community was $13.7 million according to Stephan Dragisic, the director of marketing and communications for Visit Winston-Salem.
That figure includes spending by out-of-town guests who stay in hotels and those who come into town just for the day as well as what the festival is estimated to spend on performance venues, food and beverage, Dragisic said. Moreover, 4,481 "room nights" were used in 2007, a figure that is in line with expectations for both that festival and the one that will begin on Monday.
"This is very significant to the economy of Winston-Salem," Dragisic said. "In the minds of many people in the United States, this is their definition of Winston-Salem. It's the embodiment of what the City of the Arts is."
But the festival does more than define Winston-Salem and positively impact its economy. As the solo series reveals, the festival also aims to illuminate black history and help black actors find jobs.
Solo-performer shows are not new at the festival, but they're more important than ever in hard economic times. They are less expensive to produce than larger shows and easier to market to presenters.
The Hamlin series is the deliberate grouping of several one-person shows under a thematic umbrella — "known and unknown African-Americans who played pivotal roles in shaping our nation and the world."
In addition to Who Will Sing for Lena? (the Lena Baker story), the series includes Zora, a one-woman play about the writer Zora Neale Hurston, with Kim Brockington in the title role.
Ella Joyce will star in a show about Rosa Parks, A Rose Among Thorns, which was also performed at the 2007 festival.
"I came up with the idea for the series," Joyce said. "Larry was always concerned that shows should have a life beyond the festival."
Fueling that "life" is a demand for shows that are as inexpensive as possible. Joyce said that would-be presenters include not only big-city theaters but also secondary schools, churches and historically black colleges. She even spoke of performing Rose for corporations that were looking for ways to celebrate Black History Month.
"A lot of people come to the festival to book shows," said Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin, Hamlin's widow, who is a board member of N.C. Black Rep. "When you have those huge shows, like musicals, and five or six people in a dramatic presentation, it's sometimes hard
for people to do that (at another venue)."
Mabel Robinson, the artistic director of the N.C. Black Rep, created and directed the acclaimed Mahalia: The Queen of Gospel, which was staged at the last two festivals. The show had 15 cast members and several musicians. The hope was to take it on tour after the festival. It never happened, leading some to wonder whether a one-person version of Mahalia might be the way to go.
"That would be much more cost-efficient for her (Robinson) to send around the world," said Gerry Patton, the executive director of N.C. Black Rep.
A one-person play amounts to a small business for the actor who performs in it. In most cases, the actor owns the rights to the play, and, usually with the assistance of a booking agency, lines up venues in which to present it, sets fees, and pockets the bulk of the profits. The fee is guaranteed when handled by a booking agency; it usually covers hotel accommodations and ground transportation, but it may or may not cover air or train travel, said Madeline McCray, the producer of Halley's Comet, a one-man show by John Amos.
Rome Neal, who played the title role in Monk, the story of Thelonious Monk, in the 2003 and 2005 festivals, said that he charges presenters as much as $3,000 for a single performance. If the show had a cast of several people, the fee would be at least five or six times higher, he said.
Joyce made similar cost estimates. She sells not only the economics of the shows in the Hamlin series but also their educational value. She said that there is a desire in schools to supplement what is taught about black history with theatrical work that is well-researched. Plays can either introduce figures, such as Baker, who are not household names, or they can relate little-known information about well-known figures.
The Hamlin series is building on the success of actors whose careers have been moved forward with one-person shows and the publicity the festival has generated for them.
Daniel Beaty performed a one-man show, Emergence-See, at the festival in 2005 and 2007 and took it on the road nationwide with success. He's back this year with a new show, Through the Night.
Neal said he has performed Monk at least 100 times nationwide since 2000, and that many performances have resulted from connections he forged at the festival since 2003.
Amos performed Halley's Comet at one of the first festivals. He then took it on tour internationally for 18 years and, in some years, did as many as 35 performances.
Amos is known to television fans for his roles in Good Times and Roots. He said that Comet has helped keep his acting skills sharp between film and television projects and has given him a source of revenue that has made him financially "independent of the industry."
In the play, an 87-year-old man chronicles his life through world wars, youthful missteps and fast food.
The success that Amos, Neal and Beaty have found with one-person plays will doubtless encourage other actors to follow in their footsteps. But the one-actor play isn't for everyone, particularly for those who are more comfortable with contributing to a larger team effort that involves a playwright, a director and several techs, not to mention other actors.
It is not uncommon for the performer of a one-actor play to have written it as well.
"The big expense was the time it took me to create the play," Amos said of Comet.
Often, the marketing of a one-person play can fall on its performer as well. Amos said that despite his celebrity, he needed patience and tenacity to convince presenters that this play would appeal to patrons who were used to seeing more people and more action on stage.
A one-person play requires "a tremendous amount of discipline and a tremendous amount of focus to stay on point with what you're doing," Amos said.
"It's totally different, in that you don't have anyone else to rely on to feed you lines and to keep you on the through-line of the story," he said. "There are no cue lines being fed to you. Nor do you have to feed anyone cue lines, except yourself."
Where will the Hamlin series go after the festival ends on Saturday?
Joyce said that ultimately, she wants more master playwrights to contribute works to the series.
Patton, N.C. Black Rep's executive director, expressed confidence in that continuing to happen for years to come.
"There are stories out there that people are penning every day that need to be told," she said.
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