![]() ![]() * The playwright may inadvertently be doing his characters a disservice by giving them the names of emotions such as Anger, Passion and Depression. “Thoughts of a Colored Man” isn’t about gentrification, or class differences or the impact of crime on the black community, though the show contains elements of all of these. But unlike the earlier drama, or “choreopoem,” Scott’s play lacks the connective tissue that could weave together his men’s stories and elevate them to the level of social critique. * Scott seems to have modeled the structure of “Thoughts of a Colored Man” after the framework that Shange pioneered in her 1976 work. Obviously, the creative team would prefer for “Thoughts of a Colored Man” to be in the former category. Others (“The Triumph of Love” in 1997) have been crashes “Triumph” ran for just 85 performances. Some (August Wilson’s “Radio Golf” in 2005) have been smashes. If “Thoughts of a Colored Man” eventually makes it to New York - and Moreland is confident it will - it will be the first time in 14 years since Center Stage has played a role in shaping a Broadway-bound production. Scott’s work has deep and obvious resonances to Shange’s 1976 drama, which he first viewed while attending Frostburg State University. Coincidentally or not, the two plays share a common costume designer (Toni-Leslie James,) and, if “Colored Girls” transfers to Broadway, they’ll share a common producer (Ron Simons.) It’s fascinating to watch conflicting feelings flit across the actor’s face as his characters struggle to hang on to their idealism.Īnd there’s another promising portent - a much-anticipated revival of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf" opened Tuesday off-Broadway. Jerome Preston Bates, who originated the role of Floyd Barton in the world premiere of August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars," delivers a portrait of a barber and patriarch that is equal parts salt and molasses.Īctor Forrest McClendon intentionally over-enunciates every syllable to create a portrait of a sweet nerd who should be a member of the pocket protector brigade instead of pushing grocery carts.Īnd baby-faced Ryan Jamaal Swain demonstrates here (as he does in the hit FX television show “Pose”) that innocence is not synonymous with naivete. ![]() In the meantime, he’s assembled a team of actors and designers who could paper their walls with their Tony Award nominations and press clippings. He said he’s just waiting for the right Broadway theater for Scott’s play to become available. But the stars seem to be coming into alignment to bring “Thoughts of a Colored Man” to the Big Apple.Įnough money has been raised to rent a fancy theater and pay the cast, according to Moreland - a man who has a show on Broadway running now, and two more opening this spring. Plenty of promising scripts never receive a full production on any stage, let alone one located in America’s theater capital. And he knows how to write realistic scenes of urban life about, for instance, the sneaker fanatics who line up around the block while awaiting the release of the newest Air Jordans. He creates likable characters the audience wants to get to know better. Despite his prolific use of metaphors and internal rhymes, he writes dialogue that sounds as though it’s being spoken by real people. His previous work has been produced by mostly community-based or university troupes.īut Scott has an innately good ear that’s been honed by years of writing and reciting verse. Scott entered theater in a roundabout way through Washington’s slam poetry scene. ![]() The characters include a grocery store clerk who wonders how his life might have been different if he had taken that college scholarship, a gay man who feels compelled to pretend he’s straight while visiting the neighborhood barber shop and a teenager who struggles with being a child of rape.īroadway might seem an unlikely destination for these guys - or the 32-year-old playwright who created them. Instead, the show consists of loosely related vignettes among a group of neighbors, former schoolmates and friends, who range in age from their late teens through their 60s. Seven variations," - is a hint that “Thoughts of a Colored Man” lacks a conventional plot with a beginning, middle and end. The show, which is set in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, takes place during a single day. ![]()
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