Historic Leimert Park Village: Emerging Mecca of Black Theatre in Los Angeles

• Published in: Black masks 2015-01, Vol.22 (1), p.9
• Main Author: Farrow, Yvonne
• Format: Magazinearticle
• Language: English
• Subjects: African Americans; Festivals; Theater; Theaters & cinemas
• ISSN: 0887-7580

The outstanding staged readings in this year's festival included: Hollywood in the Hood by Lynn Manning, directed by Hector Rodriguez, and produced by the Watts Village Theatre Company; A House Dismantled, translated by Margarita Lamas, directed by Denise Blasor and Margarita Lamas, and produced by the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts; Swing Low Sweet Steamboat by Ron Daniels, directed by Ernest Dillihay, and produced by the Performing Arts Society of Los Angeles; Howlin' Blues and Dirty Dogs by Larry James Robinson, Carla DuPree Clark, and Tu'Nook, directed by Carla DuPree Clark, and produced by Theatre Perception Consortium; Paul Robeson in Berlin by Robert A. Coles and Bartley McSwine, directed by Ben Guillory, and produced by The Robey Theatre Compa ny; Lion King, adapted and directed by Brandon Rainey, and produced by the Fernando Pullum Performing Arts Center; Livin' Fat by Judy Ann Mason, directed by Ian Foxx, and produced by Foxx Follies Theatre Workshop; The Black Man of Happiness by Peter Harris, directed by Alison De La Cruz, and produced by the Pasadena Playhouse; The Journals of Osborne P. Anderson, written and directed by Ted Lange and produced by Lange Productions; In the Blink of an Eye, written by Cassandra Sanders and Obba Babatunde, directed by Obba Babatunde, and produced by Master Peace Theater Players; Payments Due by Carol Connolly, directed by Ursaline Bryant, and produced by Oasis Creative Dramatics; and Our Family Secret, written by Sanetta Gipson and Joe Plummer, directed by Tico Wells, and produced by Tri-Coastal Entertainment Corp. The Festival was replete with a Q&A session after each staged reading where accolades were expressed and the idea to showcase plays from historical Los Angeles African American theatres was approved. Also, the Leimert Park Village Theatre Festival is laying groundwork for a bi-annual West Coast theatre festival in 2018 to complement the East Coast's National Black Theater Festival held bi-annually in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Traditionally the famous words, "Black Theatre/Holy Ground" are chanted every year at the National Black Theatre Festival. In the same way, the Vision Theatre is Holy Ground in the West-not only because it is an historical landmark, but because of what it stood for under [Marla Gibbs]'s tenure, and because of what it stands for now and in the years to come. The Vision has been both a theatre and a church, two institutions the community loves the most.