THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 24, 1994 TAG: 9411220228
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: Montague Gammon III
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines
The Norfolk State University Players could be maturing into a resident repertory troupe.
The cast of ``Black Nativity,'' subtitled ``A Gospel Celebration of Jesus' Birth,'' is heavy with performers who were seen just three weeks ago in the Players' reprise of ``Selma.'' Norfolk State first mounted that musical tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King last April.
Of course, any scholastic theater looks something like a resident company. The same faces will appear and reappear on any collegiate stage, since casts are drawn from a small academic community, and those students concentrating in the performing arts will dominate the shows.
Nor does a company become a repertory group simply by reviving a show from last year, then quickly following that place with a new production, though such a schedule helps define repertory theaters.
Certainly repertory theaters must be capable of bringing back, with essentially the same cast as before, shows from their past.
Other keys are the thematic and formal connections between shows, including the control of the theater by one artistic director who has a unifying vision for the company.
Besides having in common a number of performers, ``Selma'' and ``Black Nativity'' are both gospel musicals, both are about martyrs, and both are under the direction of Dr. Clarence W. Murray, Jr., head of Norfolk State's theater program and artistic director of the Players.
There is a strongly held opinion in some circles that the most vital and important work in drama takes place in resident repertory company. Some would say that such groups are the only way to foster, on a continuing basis, new and truly original theater.
In Norfolk State's recent shows, Brad Breckenridge and Jeanelle Henderson could be called the heavy hitters.
Breckenridge played Martin Luther King in ``Selma'' and an interesting fictional character called Marcus in the Biblical story. Henderson's role was Coretta King in ``Selma,'' and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, in ``Black Nativity,''
In the first show their talents joined in a breathtaking bit of pure theatricality. Breckenridge was doing King's ``I Have a Dream'' speech, which is a rousing piece of work in its own right. Led by Henderson's fine voice, the choir faded in ``We Shall Overcome,'' until Breckenridge finished his oration and the auditorium filled with the stirring anthem of the Civil Rights movement.
The moment may have been especially powerful for those who actually remember the struggles of the '60s, but the thrill must have bit everyone in that audience.
Henderson's portrayal of Mrs. King carried the same sense of nobility and quiet strength that the women herself always projected. As Dr. King, Breckenridge was as believable as a newsreel.
``Selma'' took an unexpected, but successful, approach to the forces that opposed King. Rather than rail against the bigots of that time, the play mocked them. Vincent Epps, Billie D. Wilbert and Tiffany Young, all in white-face masks, turned the bus drivers and lawmen of the segregated Old South into a bunch of clowns. One comment, when Young indulged in a awkward, conspicuously arrythmic dance of celebration, was especially funny.
In ``Black Nativity'' Breckenridge plays a junior carpenter who becomes the voice of doubt when Joseph finds out about Mary's pregnancy.
It's an interesting concept. What must Joseph have thought, when his supposedly virginal fiancee announced that she was carrying God's child?
The skeptical Marcus, scornfully remarking, ``Immaculate conception? I could have come up with something better than that!'' tempts Joseph to abandon his trust in Mary. It's a clever effective foreshadowing of Satan's temptation of Jesus 30 years later.
There were some rough edges to ``Black Nativity'' on the opening night, but nothing that really diluted the gospel music that served as a framework for the story of Christ's birth.
The music is the great strength of the show, and the acting relies heavily upon reproducing religious fervor in the style of modern-day evangelical Christianity. Of course, one can point out that devotion is devotion, faith is faith, and the experience of religious ardor may remain unchanged as humans have remained fundamentally unchanged through two millenia.
Certainly the church groups who should fill the auditorium as Chirstmas approaches will find nothing amiss.
In addition to Henderson and Breckenridge, the plays shared cast members Natasha Barnes, Rhonda Mitchell, Billie D. Wilbert and Tiffany N. Young. Barnes was in especially good voice in ``Black Nativity,'' as was Maisha O. Brown.
Mitchell is new to Norfolk State this year and already shows abundant potential. Brown, Omar Williams, Wilbur Parker, and Epps are among the consistently strong members of the Players who appeared in only one of the two shows.
Christian overtones of ``Selma'' are echoed in ``Black Nativity,'' especially since the Biblical play relies on the emotional and verbal conventions of revivalist ministry to communicate the religious faith of devout Jews in 4 B.C.
Mentioning similarities between Martin Luther King and Jesus Christ may send some unreconstructed Southerners into frothing fits, but the connections between the two are abundantly clear. There is the mission of salvation and the persistence of power after the death of the leader.
The numerous parallels between these two plays are actually less important in what they reveal about the shows than in what they suggest about the theater program at Norfolk State.
The cohesiveness and coherence that a resident repertory company brings to a series of productions is valuable to participants and viewers alike. The Norfolk State Players deserve serious attention. ILLUSTRATION: AT A GLANCE
What: ``Selma,'' by Tommy Butler, and ``Black Nativity,''
compiled by Dr. Clarence W. Murray Jr.
When: ``Black Nativity'' will be performed at 8 p.m. Dec. 1-3,
``Selma'' ran the first weekend of November.
Where: G.W.C. Brown Memorial Theatre, Norfolk State University.
Tickets: 683-8341.
by CNB