Iron Age Theatre&
The Montgomery County Cultural Center
Present
By Amiri Baraka aka Leroi Jones
Iron Age Theatre
&
The Montgomery County Cultural Center
Present
By Amiri Baraka aka Leroi Jones
Iron Age Theatre Revitalize Classic Revolutionary Theatre by Amiri Baraka in conjunction with Local Collage ArtistThe racial revolution is coming to a subway near you. Iron Age Theatre and The Centre Theater stage Amiri Baraka’s volatile one-act play “Dutchman” at the 2002 Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
The play, a hard-hitting, seething and seductive look at the incendiary state of race relations in America, opens at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival August 30-September 14. Call 610-279-1013 for information.
The racial injustice, tension, and suppressed fury still rolling beneath American society are brought to the surface by Baraka’s vibrant play - still as potent and timely when it was first written in the turbulent 1960s. Using vivid theatricality and gripping, whipsaw language, Baraka explores the conflict between African-American and White America. “Dutchman” deals with interracial relationships and how black culture is co-opted and corrupted by white society.
Amiri Baraka was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1934 under the name of Everett LeRoi Jones. He is a respected playwright, poet, novelist and essayist who is best known for his exploration and examination of African-American experiences and his "affirmation of black life." He graduated from Howard University and began writing and publishing poetry, books and plays. His critically acclaimed 1964 play “Dutchman” shook up the American theatre scene with ideas and language not heard before.
Baraka also founded The Black Arts Repertory Theatre in Harlem in 1965. In 1968 he founded an organization known as the Black Community Development and Defense Organization, a Muslim group focusing on affirming black culture and aiding African-Americans in gaining political power. He is still active today as a writer, lecturer and fighter for social justice.
According to Director John Doyle the production will be a profound and unsettling experience for all involved. “We are using one of the landmark scripts from the height of American avant garde drama, a great, risk-taking cast, powerful revolutionary music by some of the best African-American musicians, and a beautiful and brutal backdrop by Theodore Harris. This will be one theatrical ride the audience will not forget.” Doyle went on to say that he will be in contact with Baraka throughout the project.
Philadelphia artist Theodore A. Harris is doing the scenic backdrops for the production. Harris’ large, colorful and wildly political murals will add a heightened metatheatrical level to the productions gritty, violent world.
Harris is a poet, muralist and collagist born in New York City. As a muralist he has been painting with the Mural Arts program of Philadelphia since 1983. His published art and poetry has appeared in many journals and publications. He is currently working on a book with Amiri Baraka.
Iron Age Theatre is one of the most exciting and challenging theatre companies working in Philadelphia. Critically acclaimed for doing gritty American dramas such as Sam Shepard’s “Curse of the Starving Class,” Jeffrey Jones disturbing “Seventy Scenes of Halloween” and Tennessee Williams “Night of the Iguana,” Iron Age received rave reviews for last years production of the powerful African-American boxing drama “Coming of the Hurricane.” Known for very high production values and intense, improvisation driven acting, the company has been shattering audience expectations for over ten years.
Audience members will be incorporated into the production’s dangerous subway car to actentuate Baraka’s desire for confrontational, revolutionary theater.
The play resonates today with Baraka’s evolving image of a Corporate culture seducing the individual from their identity and freedom.
“Dutchman” stars two of Philadelphia’s finest young actors. Garrett Lee Hendricks plays Clay. Hendricks is a graduate of the University of the Arts and was seen as Edmund in “King Lear.” He played the corrupt priest Tetzel in “Luther” and has acted onstage and on local television. Garrett was named one of Philly’s most eligible bachelors by Philadelphia Magazine. Kate McLeningan plays Lula, a graduate of Seton Hill College, Kate has appeared in a variety of productions including “Radium Girls,” “Twelfth Night” and David Henry Hwang’s “Sound of a Voice.”