THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 26, 1995 TAG: 9510240553
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 21 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Preview
SOURCE: Montague Gammon III
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
A new theater opens this weekend, quite literally taking the place once occupied by similar efforts that have faded away.
The ZWG Repertory Theater begins its first season with performances of ``The Island'' by Athol Fugard in the same spot where the late On Cue Productions once held sway. Ironically, On Cue was booted from their Granby Street home six years ago by landlords who wanted to make more profitable use of the space.
The link between ZWG and the respected On Cue extends beyond the coincidence of performing at the same address. Two of the actors who were a prominent part of the older group's artistic success six years ago make up the cast of this inaugural production.
Pedro Abad and Rodney Suiter have been distinguishing themselves in local performances for decades. Both performed with On Cue, and Abad directed for the ambitious, small group. They have performed together previously in ``The Island,'' which Abad also is directing.
Like On Cue, ZWG is a black based company intent upon attracting audiences of all backgrounds. Founder Edward G. Williams describes the mission of the new group has having three parts.
The first part is to ``provide African-American theater artists the opportunity to develop their art through performance.'' The second is to ``provide black playwrights a stage on which their works can be performed.''
Because Williams believes that the ``black community is not a theater-going community'' as ``they view it as having little or no relevance to their lives,'' he states that, ``The third part of our mission is to bring the African-American population into the theater by propagating an awareness of the black cultural experience in all its manifestations.''
Williams goes on to state that, ``We will reach out to the entire community, because we have much to learn from each other ... we are more similar than dissimilar.''
A Norfolk native and a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School, Williams attended what was the Norfolk Division of Virginia State College (not Norfolk State University) before getting a degree from the City College of New York.
Retiring to Tidewater after a career of writing and teaching in New York, Williams came home with an interest in the performing arts that had kept him ``active on the fringes of the New York theater scene.''
Williams is not one of the starry-eyed young novice playwrights who periodically bring into existence short-lived production groups to put on their own original work. Both his writing credentials and his maturity suggest that ZWG has more than a fighting change for longevity.
He served on the promotions staff of the New York Herald Tribune, wrote for the communications department of one of the major New York accounting firms, and taught history in the New York public school system.
His decision to open his new venture with what is, in effect, an established show speaks well for his ability to put practicality above ego gratification. More than one promising effort has stumbled because a founder tried to monopolize control of administrative and artistic duties during the group's infancy.
Chris Hanna, with whom Williams studied directing at ODU, refers to him as ``sensitive and intelligent,'' with a ``realistic sense of what it takes to found a theater.'' Both Hanna and Abad have agreed to be on the ZWG Board of Directors.
The South African Athol Fugard has frequently been called the greatest playwright writing in English. Any worthwhile production of any Fugard script deserves particular attention. Much the same may be said of any show teaming Abad and Suiter together. Their credentials, the play itself, and the potential that ZWG holds, all suggest that ``The Island'' could be an important moment in local theater. by CNB