THE HEARTS OF MEN

This season we invite you to explore the depths of "the hearts of men" as we present our first full season. Each of the plays featured in our 2009-2010 season is written by, tells the story of, and/or stars men. You will be moved to tears, laughter, contemplation, and more while being enlightened, challenged, and entertained by the plays selected for this season.

And They Said I Wouldn't Make It: A Story of Hope
by Samueal G. Roberson Jr.
Tells the story of a young boy diagnosed with Leukemia. Based on the playwright's real life experience, this play looks at the strength of an 8 year old, typical, able bodied all-star baseball player and his family during a time when success seemed impossible; yet failing was not an option. It intimately explores the emotional highs and lows of hospital care, as well as the joy and pain associated with maintaining a family’s spirit of hope while faced with what some doctors believed was certain death. However, this is not a story about death or sorrow, but one of resilience. A celebration of how the struggles in life shape us into who we are. A story of HOPE.

The Ghosts of Nguzo Saba
by B. Boyce White
Inspired by Charles Dickens' holiday classic, A Christmas Carol, this play is a story that teaches us the value of family, community, and culture through the principles of Kwanzaa. On the eve of his family's first Kwanzaa celebration, Dante Brown is disappointed to learn that there are no extravagant gifts that come along with the holiday and that it's seemingly just about "symbols & fruits". After wishing the holiday never existed, Dante is taken on a journey through time by some unexpected visitors. Come enjoy this classic tale with a new spin that is sure to warm the hearts of you and your family.

 No Heroes
by Jermaine Small
What happens when friendship becomes a burden? Can a friendship require too much? After their apartment is raided and secrets are exposed, three friends struggle to maintain camaraderie that has carried them their entire lives. A secret is exposed, opinions are challenged, and relationships are tested. No Heroes, explores the perception of a lot of black males, and situations and relationships that are shared amongst them.

Plays under consideration:

Topdog/Underdog
by Suzan-Lori Parks
A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity is Suzan-Lori Parks' riff on the way we are defined by history. The play tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future.

For Black Boys Who Have Considered Homicide When The Streets Were Too Much
by Keith Antar Mason
Inspired by Ntozake Shange's choreopoem, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Was Enuff,  this play, written in the style of its predecessor, explores what it means to be a black male in America. Told through the stories of  six men, who are only identified by a number, the various hardships of race, identity, gender, love, and life on the streets, are exposed through poetry in motion.

The Meeting
by Jeff Stetson
Set, high up, in a Harlem hotel suite, this  play imagines what might have happened had a meeting between Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. actually taken place. Cautious at first, the two quickly fall into a spirited debate about their differing approaches to improving the lot of the black man in a predominantly white society—Dr. King (the lamb) hoping to find racial harmony through love and peaceful resistance, while Malcolm (the lion) is reconciled to self defense "by any means necessary" if blacks are to win out over oppression. Through this fictional account, The Meeting exposes the depths of the HEARTS OF two of the greatest MEN in American history.