If you missed the fine production at 4th Wall Theatre a few weekends back, you can see this wonderful play in Maplewood this April!
HAVING OUR SAY
Emily Mann’s hit play adapted from the best-selling book
by Sadie and Bessie Delany with Amy Hill Hearth
Directed by Mark Spina
WHEN: April 4 through April 21, 2013
WHERE: THE THEATER PROJECT , Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Durand Road, Maplewood, NJ
TICKETS: $30 / $10 for students.
www.TheTheaterProject.org
973.763.4029
Sadie and Bessie Delany, each having passed the century mark, gained international recognition in 1991 when their book HAVING OUR SAY (with NY Times writer Amy Hill Hearth) spent six months on the best-seller lists. In the play by Emily Mann, the audience is invited to spend an evening with Sadie and Bessie, two VERY old ladies whose infectious charm and intelligence guides us through a century and a half of America’s social history. Their recounting of family stories about the changes witnessed by the Delany family from slavery through the close of the twentieth century vividly recalls the painfully slow progress of race relations in the United States.
The production will be directed by Theater Project artistic director Mark Spina. Playing the Delany Sisters are Gail Lou and Daaimah Talley.
Actress, singer and designer Daaimah Talley has performed in venues in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She is a founding member of The Theater Project, where she has appeared in Ms. Witherspoon, Crowns, The Dining Room, The Skin of Our Teeth, and Jackie: An American Life. She is the director of A FEW STEPS IN A STRANGER’S SHOES, The Theater Project’s program about the challenges faced by immigrant students in American schools. Daaimah grew up in Newark and lives in Plainfield, NJ.
Gail Lou is a vocalist, musician, and actress. Performance credits include the Off-Broadway production of Mama I Want to Sing as Lena Horne; I've Got a Mind to Ramble, a one woman show featuring the music of Alberta Hunter; and as a featured soloist in the Broadway Cares Gospel Chorus' AIDS Benefit. Ms. Lou is also a recording artist who has appeared in films and on television. Her vocal recording accolades include Grammy Committee recognition for her independent single, "You Got the Vibe." Gail's children's CD, "7 Good Ways," was selected as a Parents' Choice Approved Award Winner and two of the songs from the CD, "I Can Be the One" and "Ch-Ching," received highest honors from the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the Children's category. She is a native of Vauxhall and currently resides in Englewood.
The Theater Project, www.thetheaterproject.org, an award-winning New Jersey theater company at the Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts in Maplewood, is known for presenting outrageous comedy as well as drama with social commentary. Last November, the company tackled marriage equality, presenting a one-night-only reading of “8” by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, the play chronicling the historic California challenge to same-sex marriage.
Photo credits: Kevin Sebastian
