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2007-2008 Season
Theatre for a New Audience's 2007-08 Season, AFRICA, EUROPE, AMERICA: EXPLORING THE CONNECTIONS begins in October at The Duke on 42nd Street. For centuries, Africa has captivated the Western imagination. At the same time, the "dark continent's" rich resources-including its human resources-have been exploited by Westerners in the most brutal ways imaginable. This year, we explore African, European and American works produced by this collision of civilizations.
OHIO STATE MURDERS (Off-Broadway premiere)
by Adrienne Kennedyfeaturing LisaGay Hamilton
OHIO STATE MURDERS portrays Suzanne Alexander, a fictional African-American writer whose life both is and is not like her author’s. When Suzanne enters Ohio State in the 1950's, little does she know that the safe haven of academia conceals forces of racism. Years later, Suzanne is invited to return to the University to talk about the violence in her writing. A dark mystery unravels. Past and present intertwine in this lyrical, spellbinding story of Suzanne's confrontation with racial hatred, loss and love.
One of our theatre’s most remarkable visionaries, the African-American playwright Adrienne Kennedy (b. 1931) writes intensely dramatic stage poems, fluid in form, that leap across time and culture. Though they tell stories of violence, her works are steeped in an astonishing tender melancholy. LisaGay Hamilton played on Broadway in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson and Gem of the Ocean. For her performance in Athol Fugard's Valley Song, Ms. Hamilton won an OBIE, the Clarence Derwent and a Drama Desk nomination. She co-starred in the Emmy Award-winning, The Practice. Evan Yionoulis directed the New York premiere of Howard Brenton's Sore Throats for Theatre for a New Audience and has directed at Lincoln Center Theater, the Mark Taper Forum, and the New York Shakespeare Festival.
Aphra Behn's OROONOKO (U.S. Premiere)
adapted by Biyi Bandele with original music by Juwon Ogungbe
Premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1999 where it was acclaimed, this is a true act of cultural reclamation. Biyi Bandele, a prolific Nigerian writer residing in England, was commissioned by the RSC to adapt Aphra Behn’s 1688 novella Oroonoko. With vibrant words, drumming and dance based on Yoruba culture, Bandele tells a tragic love story, a journey from kingship to slavery, rebellion and death.
Aphra Behn (b.1640-1689) was the first professional female author in Europe. Living for a time in Surinam in the Caribbean, Behn based her 1688 novella Oroonoko on tales told by the African slaves brought over by the Dutch. A descendent of a returned slave, Biyi Bandele plays have been presented at the RSC, Royal Court and Royal National Theatre. Juwon Ogungbe composed the score for the original RSC production. Kate Whoriskey has directed at LAByrinth Theatre Company, the Goodman, American Repertory Theatre, and the Intiman Theater.
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