Dan Hoyle Brilliantly Brings the People Home for US to Meet! by Corey Finnegan & Barry David Horwitz Well, it’s time to enjoy a new gaggle of folks that Dan Hoyle has met, interviewed, and recreated from across the country. Hoyle uses his expressive face, his whole body, and his reportorial skills to bring…
“Love is stronger than Hate, Justice is stronger than Fear.” Jinho “Piper” Ferreira repeats the refrain as he tells a tale about “justice,” recounting the frightening crimes against Black Americans by the police that go unpunished.
Their names echo: Tamir Rice, 12-years old, shot, by a Cleveland patrolman while carrying a toy gun. Unarmed Michael Brown killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri. Trayvon Williams in Florida, drinking a soda. None broke any law.
But the black victim is demonized, not the police. Most notorious of all was the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmet Till. Till was brutally tortured and killed in Mississippi with two other Freedom Riders.
It pains us to repeat their names and recall our horror that the police went unpunished. Ferreira’s one man play unfolds how these travesties of justice affect Black men everywhere.
Tarell Alvin McCraney Battles “High-Class” Homophobia with Music by Joseph Mutti “Choir Boy” illustrates how homophobia persists in the supposedly Christian world of the Charles R. Drew Preparatory School for Boys, an elite African American private school. Of course, it’s the scholarship student that the rich boys attack. Oscar-winning Oakland playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney…
Richmond/Maxwell’s Witty, Whimsical Musical Spotlights Stellar Ensemble by Kim Waldron The standard musical does not start with a death, let alone half a dozen, but there’s not much standard in this off-beat, yet upbeat production. Six teens killed in a carnival ride accident must compete for one chance to return to life in a…