September 12, 2007

Black Cultural Center presents tribute to prize-winning playwright

"August Wilson Songbook"
Download photo
caption below

The performance, which is free and open to the public, pays tribute to Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose work depicted the African-American experience in the 20th century.

Part lecture, part musical and part retrospective, the work will be presented by an ensemble cast of two men and two women from the Hattiloo Theatre in Memphis, Tenn. It includes a collection of songs from Wilson's 10-play dramatic cycle chronicling the heritage and experience of African Americans, decade by decade.

"Each character sings of how they either lost their song, identity or rediscovered it," said BCC director Renee Thomas. "We're excited to bring this aspect of Memphis music to Indiana as part of our semester-long examination of the blues tradition."

Through music and concise monologues, the cast will re-create the early post-slavery atmosphere of "Gem of the Ocean" through the Black Power movement in "King Hedley II."

Ekundayo Bandele, founder and executive/artistic director of Hattiloo Theatre, and Ladrica Menson-Furr, assistant professor of English at the University of Memphis, conceived the August Wilson Songbook. Bandele wrote and directed the script.

Wilson received the Pulitzer Prize for the plays "The Piano Lesson" and "Fences." He died in 2005, but his work continues to be celebrated in the areas of black culture, American literature, music and Broadway theater.

For more information, contact the Black Cultural Center at (765) 494-3092.

Writer: Maggie Morris, (765) 494-2432, maggiemorris@purdue.edu

Source: Renee Thomas, (765) 494-3091, rathomas@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

PHOTO CAPTION:
Tara Hickey and Charlie Giggers from Hattiloo Theatre in Memphis, Tenn., will perform in the "August Wilson Songbook" at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall. The performance, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by Purdue University's Black Cultural Center. (Photo provided)

A publication-quality photograph is available at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2007/bcc-songbook.jpg

To the News Service home page