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On Stage: 'Black Nativity' is reborn with new touches
Friday, December 04, 1998 By John Hayes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
It's rare for a stage production to effectively blend the bright colors and percussive rhythm of traditional African culture with the hand-clapping spiritual energy of a good, old-fashioned Baptist revival.
'Black Nativity'
When: Dec. 4-20, 8 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets: $15, students/seniors $12; 412-648-2276.
But that's the concept behind Langston Hughes' "Black Nativity." It's the familiar manger story conveyed through song, dance and the staging of lively scenes, and it's become a holiday tradition in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Washington, D.C. and other cities where it's performed. The Wilkinsburg Arts Theater started staging it locally in 1989, but for the past five years "Black Nativity" has been an annual labor of love for the African Dance and Drum Ensemble and the Kuumba Workshop.
That it works is clear from the Post-Gazette reviews, which have praised it every year.
"We try to change it a little every year," says perennial artistic director and choreographer Shona Sharif. "I don't know how obvious it is to the people who come, but the changes are there. I think people look for them. They want the same feeling but they look for the little improvements we've made here and there."
The yearly adjustments can be as subtle as augmented choreography and as obvious as new songs and new cast members. Sharif says the play evolves as much for the cast as for the audience.
"It's important for the people who do it every year," she says. "It keeps it interesting."
The biggest alteration to this year's production is in the operating budget, which jumped from $25,000 in 1997 to just under $30,000 this year. Half of the annual tab is picked up by the Pittsburgh Foundation's Multicultural Arts Initiative. The rest is earned at the box office.
"The first two years [after the show was inherited from the Wilkinsburg Theater] were very tough," says Sharif. "Now we're getting a reputation for it and it's become like a tradition. The last two years we've broken even."
Including singers, dancers and a children's chorus, this season's cast has swelled to 35 members. The narrator this year is Charles Timbers; Tisha Ghee is the new Mary. An expanded stable number of male singers including Brian McDaniel inspired musical director Jacqueline Dewberry to shift the focus to the men in two songs.
Philadelphia director and playwright Clay Gross returns this year as consulting director, counseling Sharif on "the whole picture" and coaching the shepherds through their lines.
Included in this year's cast are Irma Warden, Leslie Boone, Tori Walker, David Green and Karla Washington. Sharif says new costumes brighten the stage and new choreography has been worked into the African dances.
"It's a different flavor altogether," she says. "But the most important thing for me is I get to perform it. I love the dancing and the singing. Even the non-singers get to sing and the non-dancers get to dance. We pull it out of them. There's so much energy in this. Everybody leaves feeling good."
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