Kicking it Off with Black Girl at the New Federal Theatre

Tonight's reading of J.E. Franklin's BLACK GIRL-- a deceptively simple play on intraracial oppression, family of origin dynamics, and the unique personal choices black human beings confront in answering the call of destiny--marks the grand opening of a month long series of readings celebrating great black plays and playwrights, at the innovative New Federal Theatre in New York.

GIST OF THE PLAY: Caught in web of inextricable dead ends, Billie Jean dreams of being a ballet dancer. She quits school to secretly take a job as a local bar dancer as a first step in realizing her dream. But her ambitions bring her into conflict with her envious sister and her mother. Billie Jean must also navigate a weave of prejudices - family, sex, colour, class and economic - to win an education and achieve her own identity. No easy task-- but anchored by her grandmother's strength and trust, Billie Jean breaks free, establishing a theradbare but promisng relationship with her mother and setting sail on life's big sea on her own.

ABOUT PLAYWRIGHT: " J.E Franklin was born in Houston, TX on August 10, 1937. She received her B.A., University of Texas; Graduate hours, Union Theological Seminary, NY. It was this play, Black Girl (1971) that earned her acclaim and a following. The play later became a movie with Ossie Davis as director and Franklin as screenwriter. Initially, the play was produced by Woodie King, Jr., this very theatre and later moved to the Theatre de Lys.

In addition to her produced plays, Franklin has many unpublished and unproduced works. She has contributed articles to periodicals and written a book entitled Black Girl, from Genesis to Revelations (1977), which details the writing of the play, her confrontation with the theater world, and the pains and promises of converting the play into a television production and later a film.

Franklin's talent has been rewarded with the Media Women Award (1971); the New York Drama Desk Most Promising Playwright Award (1971); the Institute for the Arts and Humanities Dramatic Award from Howard University (1974); the Better Boys Foundation Playwrighting Award (1978); the Ajabei Children's Theater Annual Award (1978); the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship (1979); and the Rockefeller Grant (1980). In her works, she is realistic, presents multifaceted African American life from a female perspective, and demonstrates her belief that the theater should educate, be socially aware, and present feelings and options to the viewers.

BOTTOM LINE: Excellent choice to kick off this month long tribute to great black plays and playwrights. On some level this plays theme of swimming upstream "against seen and unseen forces and odds," parallels the troubled journey of black theatre--and black performing artists--in the relentless struggle for validation,ascendancy and identity.

Do try to make over to the New Federal Theatre this month. At $10 dollars a reading, this is not a bargain but a steal!!!

Visit http://www.newfederaltheatre.org/ for more information and to browse the June calendar.

BAW
http://blackartsentertainmentwhisperer.blogspot.com/

TONIGHT'S DIRECTOR: Passion

SOURCES

http://www.answers.com/topic/j-e-franklin

Fred Beauford, “A Conversation with Black Girl's J. E. Franklin,” Black Creation 3 (Fall 1971): 38–40.

Carole A. Parks, “J. E. Franklin, Playwright,” Black World 21 (Apr. 1972): 49–50