Arts and Culture

Marin Theatre Company Presents Nambi E. Kelley’s “Native Son”

Published

7 years ago

February 1, 2017

Playwright Nambi E. Kelley’s adaptation of Richard Wright’s novel (1940) for the Marin Theatre Company stage, under the direction of Seret Scott, resonates many decades later at a time when Black lives still do not matter.

Twenty-year-old Bigger was born into a world that he had not created or looked forward to. His mother Hannah recalls her boy’s reticence to enter a world meant to destroy him—if not his life, then his dreams.

Her son did not want to leave the sanctity of the womb, a place where there was comfort, love and safety for a place he knew instinctively he would not find the same nurturing or support.

Home for Bigger was a place where he was surrounded by enemies whom he was powerless to defend himself against—he could not even escape them in his dreams, as whiteness seemed to control everything his mind touched.

Like Black warriors castrated during puberty rites, like Malcolm Little and even the fictional Walter Lee II, Bigger doesn’t stand a chance.

When Bigger was offered a job by his slumlord apartment owners, he was not grateful. He took the job because his mother all but forces him into it.

Driving rich white people around does nothing for his ego – it’s not his car, and white people make the youth nervous, especially his boss’s daughter, Mary, and her communist boyfriend, Jan. Both drink too much, and both want to be his friend.
As the two sandwich Bigger between then and offer him a drink from a decanter, he wishes they would stop intruding into spaces carefully designed to keep the races apart. He is well rehearsed in his role and knows such familiarity can only lead to his destruction.

His stage manager is The Black Rat, a clever creature whom Bigger knows intimately. Black Rat advises Bigger, rehearses his lines with him, like a catechism—“You are nothing, you will amount to nothing.”

The two are connected at the hip, conjoined, inseparable—yet even here, Kelley and Wright’s Bigger is allowed agency. The murders he commits are real, yet also symbolic.
Giulio Cesare Perrone’s set is stark, empty – the scaffolding suggests a psychic and material interior we do not see. There is nothing between Bigger and the world—no insulation, no walls, no heat, no love. He lives in the “between,” neither here nor there.
Bigger is beaten physically by the police when he tries to protect his mother, and psychologically by the world which only works for white people— There is no reward, so Bigger runs, chased by nightmares all too real.

Black Rat appears and reappears like a talisman. Black families on Chicago’s Southside know there is no poison strong enough to rid their lives of this pestilence. Black Rat’s reincarnation is guaranteed by societal circumstances then and now.

It is what W.E.B Dubois calls double consciousness – the public and the interior self – The Rat vs. Bigger Thomas.

Don’t miss this riveting production at Marin Theatre Company, through Feb. 12, which put Nambi E. Kelley’s “Native Son” at the center of its 50^th anniversary season. The Marin Theatre Company is located at 397 Miller Ave. in Mill Valley.

For information visit marintheatre.org or call (415) 388-5208.

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Related Topics:arts culture Marin Marin Theatre Company

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Arts and Culture

Faces Around the Bay Dr. Carl Blake, Pianist

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999. One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Published

2 days ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Dr. Carl Blake

By Barbara Fluhrer

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999.

One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Blake obtained a Bachelor of Music from Boston University and continued post-baccalaureate studies in Jamaica before earning a Master of Arts in Music at San Jose State University. He was the recipient of two Fulbright residencies in Honduras and completed a third residency at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. He has a Doctor of Musical Arts from Cornell University.

At age 19, Blake, then an undergraduate piano major at Boston University, was “discovered” by Impresario Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams, who is the Founder and Director of Today’s Artists/Four Seasons Arts.

Williams honored Blake by awarding him the first Marian Anderson Young Artist Award. Anderson personally presented the award at the Masonic Auditorium in S.F. Subsequently, Blake was presented by Dr. Williams in his San Francisco debut at The Herbst Theatre. Williams subsidized a year of study abroad for Blake at the Paris Conservatory of Music. Additionally, Williams sponsored Blake’s New York Weill Hall debut, where he has performed twice since. Blake performed several times at the Yachats Music Festival in Oregon.

Blake continues to perform nationally and abroad. His hobbies are reading, baking and travel. He says, “I’m still pumping ivories, as Belgian pianist Jeanne Stark described the disciplined practice of concert piano.”

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Arts and Culture

Oakland Jazz Great Offers Master Class as City Declares “John Handy Day”

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city. Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

(L-R) Del Handy, John Handy, Roger Glenn, and Joe Warner celebrate John Handy Day at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, Oakland. Photo by Lady Bianca.

By Conway Jones

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city.

Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

“John Handy is a jazz icon and an inspiration to musicians everywhere,” said Ayo Brame, a 16-year-old Oakland tenor saxophone player who is enrolled at the Oakland School for the Arts.

In celebration of this day, the reception in downtown Oakland at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle was a gathering of artists, young and old, coming together in his honor and celebrating his 91st birthday.

Handy presented a Saxophone Colossus free masterclass for musicians. This class afforded a rare opportunity to learn about the saxophone from an aficionado. The class was free and open to all – saxophonists, vocalists, aficionados, students, and casual listeners.

“As a longtime friend for over 60 years, and fellow musician who has had numerous opportunities to share the stage with John, it has always been a pleasure performing with him and hearing his creative interpretations of the music and his gift of ease inspiring the next generation of jazz musicians,” said Roger Glenn, a multi-instrumentalist.

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Musical Chronicling Life of Betty Reid Soskin Set for Bay Area Debut

Betty Reid Soskin’s storied 102 years includes time spent as a WWII defense worker, activist, business owner, songwriter, National Park Service park ranger and so much more. Now the Richmond icon is the subject of a musical based on her incredible life.

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Betty Reid Soskin. Photo courtesy of Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond.

The Richmond Standard

“Sign My Name to Freedom,” a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) production which will focus on the life, music and writing of Ms. Soskin, will premiere at San Francisco’s Z Space Friday, March 29 and continue through Saturday, April 13. Tickets range from $15–$65 and can be purchased online at https://www.sfbatco.org/smntf

The musical is directed by Elizabeth Carter, while playwright Michael Gene Sullivan integrates Ms. Soskin’s own music throughout dialogue between what SFBATCO calls “The Four Bettys” as they progress through a century of experiences of this awe-inspiring American woman.

The cast of “Sign My Name to Freedom” features Tierra Allen as Little Betty, Aidaa Peerzada as Married Betty, Lucca Troutman as Revolutionary Betty and Cathleen Riddley as Present Betty Reid Soskin, according to Artistic Director Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. and Managing Director Adam Maggio. Other casting will be announced in the future.

Jackson said that having Soskin’s blessing to steward her life’s story is an honor and career highlight for him and that her journey stands as “a beacon for Black Americans, women and people of color all across the world [and] is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.”

San Francisco’s Z Space is located at 450 Florida St. in San Francisco. Check out the trailer here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ap9N2XBB0