By Kola Tubosun
March 6, 2010 03:27PM
March 6, 2010 03:27PM
Theatre seems always justified by catharsis, as there is nothing as innately fulfilling as the wonderful sense of exhilaration that comes from seeing a wonderful performance of moving art pieces on the live stage. There must also be something close to this in the pleasure of penning said stage work or delivering said lines to an audience of colleagues, friends, visitors, acquaintances and other impressionable young men and women in a packed auditorium in a University campus theatre during Black History month.
On the door into the theatre was the inscription that warned: “There will be a gun shot during this performance”. The University is the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, (in the state of Illinois). It was the night of Friday, February 19, the venue was the Metcalf Theatre, and the event was a Black Theatre Workshop organised by a bunch of talented volunteers of students, faculty and friends.
Themed “The Journey to Freedom,” this cold night of performance felt the warmest in the cheerful ambience of a most attentive and receptive audience from all races. I sat in the front row, camera in hand, as the hours flew past in the face of each beautiful performance. There were about twenty of them, each lasting between ten to fifteen minutes.
They all spoke of race, racism and race relations in the United States. The actors did, as well as each performed piece, be it dance, poetry recitation, short drama sketches, miming, comedy, spoken word, among others.
The drawings on the set background already conditioned the serious mood of the night. Malcolm X is in a corner pointing straight at the camera in bold iconic confrontation. Martin Luther King Jnr stands in an opposite corner, pointing, as he delivered the “I Have A Dream” speech, right on top of the image of the most important white American leader on the subject of slavery, Abraham Lincoln. Images almost fade into each other, and the stage lights dim and morph into each other in the colours of different emotions.