THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602160061
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARSHA GILBERT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
AFRICAN-AMERICAN woman struggling for respect and equality while encountering spousal abuse and racial prejudice: Sounds like a common, modern-day dilemma, right?
Not when history tells us a similar battle went on more than 100 years ago. ``Flyin' West,'' a play by Pearl Cleage, opens at Norfolk State University tonight. The two-and-a-half hour play addresses the conflicts between color lines and the quest for belonging all wrapped up in a love story.
The play is set in the late 1880s, in the post-Civil War era, after slaves were set free. Four women travel from Memphis to get to the African-American township of Nicodemus, Kan., where they hope to purchase land and establish a place to call home. Instead, they encounter opposition from white land speculators and African-American men, and tension within their race as mulattos, quadroons, and octoroons look down on darker-skinned African Americans.
``This is a docudrama where all the characters are composites of African-American frontierspeople who moved from the South to the West,'' said Clarence W. Murray Jr., the play's director.
In the Homestead Act of 1860, 320 acres in the West were taken from Native Americans were offered as ``free'' land to U.S. citizens. Some 20,000 to 40,000 African Americans took part in the ``Exodus of 1879'' and moved to Kansas, according to Cleage.
The four leading characters are Miss Leah (E. Jeanelle Henderson), Sophie (Tiffany Young), Minnie (Faith Dukes) and Fanny (Geshia Mills).
``Pearl Cleage has written a wonderful script packed with important information and a social message,'' said Henderson. Her character is the matriarch of the group, a crotchety old woman whose tough exterior hides a heart of gold.
``I wish I had as much chutzpah as Miss Leah,'' said Henderson, who is in her 30s. ``She is just so magnificent. . . .''
Henderson has a different type of courage. She is an accomplished actress who controls her stuttering through acting. She has performed with Commonwealth Musical Stage, Tidewater Dinner Theater and Generic Theater.
``I don't feel uncomfortable on stage,'' she said. ``It's a situation where I have to control my speech. I stutter less on stage. Maybe because I have scripted lines or because I'm playing a different person. There are some theories that breathing and timing affect stut-tering.''
Murray must have recognized Henderson's strength of conviction when he cast her as the motivating force in the show.
``The play shows that African-American females instill the dream into the children,'' said Murray. ``Our culture is strongly matriarchal. The man is the rudder and the woman is the ship.
``If you like the issues and camaraderie in the movie `Waiting to Exhale,' then you'll like `Flyin' West.' '' by CNB