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When Crumbs from the Table of Joy comes to Longstreet Theater on Feb. 22, theatergoers will get a taste of African-American life in the 1950s.
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| Lynn Nottage |
Brooklyn-born playwright Lynn Nottage set her play, written in 1995, in a Brooklyn tenement occupied by the Crump family. Widowed father Godfrey, 17-year-old daughter Ernestine, and younger daughter Ermina have journeyed from the south to the north in search of Father Divine, a radio evangelist and object of Godfrey's blind devotion. The girls' Aunt Lily adds her political and ethical ideals--sexual freedom, Communism, the fight against racial discrimination, interracial relationships--to the mix. While Godfrey rails against it all, Ernestine begins to see things in a new light.Nottage received a B.A. from Brown University and an M.F.A. from the Yale University School of Drama, where she is currently a visiting lecturer. Her plays include Intimate Apparel, which won the 2004 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play; Fabulation, which won the 2005 Obie Award for Playwriting; and Poof! Her plays have been produced throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Nottage has received many other awards, including the 2005 National Black Theatre Festival August Wilson Playwriting Award
and a 2005 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. In 2007, she was named a MacArthur Fellow, often called a "genius award," which provides the recipient with $100,000 every year for five years. The funds allow the recipient to thoroughly delve into and concentrate on their field.
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| Third-year theatre major Rhyan Adams plays Ermina |
The cast of Theatre South Carolina's production of Crumbs from the Table of Joy includes Lauren Gist, a Carolina graduate who received a B.A. in theatre last year, as Ernestine; Rhyan Adams, a third-year theatre major, as Ermina; and Felicia Bertch, an MFA acting student, as Gerte. Annette Grevious, a faculty member at Claflin College, plays Lily, and Reggie Harvey, a Trustus Theatre Company member, plays Godfrey. Jennifer Nelson will guest direct.
A graduate of the University of California at Davis, Nelson comes to Carolina through a long-standing co-educational partnership the University has with The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. She is the former producing artistic director of the African Continuum Theatre, which she led for 11 years. She has worked in professional theatre for 35 years as an actress, administrator, educator, playwright, producer, and director.
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Actors Rhyan Adams, left, Reggie Harvey, center, and Lauren Gist
