Eager Artists to return to Buffalo
SA award recognizes winners' commitment to students and quality of teaching
By
SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
Call
it "The Living Room: The Sequel."
| |
 |
| |
The
Eager Artists theater group performed in the home of Aenid Wright
last Sept. 27 as part of original Living Room Project. |
| |
PHOTO:
NANCY J. PARISI |
| |
|
Although
the setting will be different this time—Buffalo schools will provide
the stage instead of the living rooms—the tremendous success of
"The Living Room Project" last fall has sparked a return engagement
to UB and Western New York by the Eager Artists Theatre Company of Durban,
South Africa.
Jerry
Pooe, head of Eager Artists, will return to Buffalo with two members
of his company this fall to direct a production of the Athol Fugard
play, "The Island," for the Irish Classical Theatre Company. Vincent
O'Neill, chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, is artistic director
and co-founder of ICTC.
While
in Buffalo, Pooe and members of Eager Artists will offer "Living Room"-type
presentations in eight to 10 Buffalo-area schools, among them Buffalo
Academy for the Performing Arts, Catholic Central School, Herman Badillo
Bilingual Academy and Grover Cleveland High School. The artists will
perform "Skhebekhebe and the Naughty Kids," a story designed specifically
for young people, says Thomas Burrows, director of the Center for the
Arts, which sponsored Eager Artists' visit last fall and is working
with the troupe again this year.
As
they did last fall, the South Africans will work with UB students during
this return visit, lecturing and conducting master classes and workshops
in music, dance and theater, he adds.
Although
at this time only Pooe and two members of his company are scheduled
to visit Buffalo, tentatively set from Oct. 5 through Dec. 5, Burrows
says he expects arrangements to be made to allow the full company to
come. The visit will culminate on Nov. 23 in the Mainstage theater in
the CFA with the premiere of a full stage piece entitled "Mine Ghosts,"
based on dance competitions performed by South African miners, he says.
Burrows adds he hopes that some UB theatre and dance students can perform
in the show.
Rob
Falgiano, assistant director of the CFA, recalls that Pooe had attended
a performance of the dance group Tap Dogs in the CFA while in Buffalo
last fall. "To him, the parallels were very obvious" to "gumboot dancing,"
the coordinated, rhythmic dancing performed by South African miners
wearing their workboots, Falgiano says. "He was like, 'I want to do
a show like that (Tap Dogs),' with something that was native to his
culture." Although Eager Artists already included gumboot dancing in
its performances, the Tap Dogs show provided the "spark" for Pooe to
put together "Mine Ghosts," he says.
"Mine
Ghosts" is based on the gumboot dancing and a cappella singing
competitions held in the mines every Friday and Saturday night, Burrows
says, noting that Pooe uses the device of a closed mine and an old miner
"to tell the story of the gumboots and the singing and what happened
in the mines."
Both
Burrows and Falgiano literally gush when recalling last fall's visit
by Eager Artists. In "The Living Room Project," members of Eager Artists
performed short plays, sang, danced and told stories for small audiences—ranging
anywhere from 20 to 100 spectators—in private homes and in community
centers in Buffalo. After the performances, the cast shared a meal and
conversation with their hosts and audiences.
Among
the "community hosts" for the 16 performances were public and private
citizens—including President William R. and Mrs. Greiner—as
well as such community organizations as Ujima Theatre Company, Juneteenth
Festival, African American Cultural Center, 1490 Enterprises senior
citizen center, North Jefferson Public Library, YMCA of Greater Buffalo,
Langston Hughes Institute and the Moot Senior Center.
The
project culminated in the world premiere by Eager Artists of the Pooe
musical "Ekhaya Poppie" on Oct. 6 in the Mainstage.
The
"Living Room" was funded with a $100,000 grant awarded to the CFA by
the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Arts Partners Program,
underwritten by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Doris
Duke Charitable Foundation. Burrows says this fall's visit will be funded
by the CFA and other sources, which still are being identified.
The
Lila Wallace grant also funded the production of a documentary of The
Living Room Project. Produced by Full Circle Studios, the documentary
initially was a way to record the project's planning process in order
to help secure the grant from the Lila Wallace fund, Burrows says. But,
he adds, it has became a way of sharing the Living Room Project with
the hosts, and other companies and organizations, as well as the Lila
Wallace fund.
The
documentary features interviews with Pooe, Burrows, Falgiano and some
of the hosts, and includes footage of some of the performances.
A
special screening of the documentary was held for invited guests on
Monday in the CFA.
