Renaissance Women: Five Plays

By Laurence Holder

It is an honor and a pleasure to communicate directly with my growing audience. I have included in this first volume, of a number of volumes I plan to have published, five of the greatest renaissance women in the African Diaspora.

These women are different and yet each of them shares a trait which I so greatly admire -- creative determinism. They discovered a purpose within themselves and continued on their march to destiny, fame, sometimes riches, sometimes ignominy, always triumphant over the ills of a world, which is, in fact, still discovering itself; but which, in its blind fury, has ground civilizations, people and ideas into the dust.

The indestructible African Diasporan Woman I have chosen for this volume are Ethel Waters, Valaida Snow, Billie Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston, and Winifred Mandela.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 1, 2001
• ISBN: 9780759605190

Laurence Holder

Mr. Holder is noted for writing historical, biographical plays such as Zora Neale Hurston at The American Place Theatre in 1998 starring Elizabeth Van Dyke and Joseph Edwards, directed by Wyn Handman, and When The Chickens Came Home To Roost starring Denzel Washington as Malcolm X and Kirk Kirksey as Elijah Muhammad, directed by Allie Woods, at The New Federal Theatre in 1981. Mr. Holder has won playwriting awards including the AUDELCO twice (Audience Development Committee acknowledges theatre excellence in African American Theatre) for When the Chickens Came Home To Roost and M: The Mandela Saga. For the body of his work, The National Black Theatre Festival presented him with both the OTTO for Political Theatre and The Garland Anderson Award. Mr. Holder is also noted for his experimental works including the multilingual BIRD OF PARADISE in 1972 with Ornette Coleman and the URBAN DECALOGUE in 1974 with Jacquie Berger. In addition to his work as a dramatist Mr. Holder is the author of several volumes of poetry and 7 novels. He has also acted in ZORA: WHU, which featured Yvonne Southerland as the famed novelist. He is the father of three children and husband to Andrea, an actress. Mr. Holder is a member of the faculty at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) where he has taught English in the SEEK Department for the past twenty-five years. The author is a native New Yorker and has watched the scene change slowly over the last sixty years. Over the last ten years he has made some astounding realizations about the nature and cause of it all, which is reflected and refracted in his work.

Book preview

ETHEL WATERS

HOT SNOW

THEY WERE ALL GARDENIAS

ZORA NEALE HURSTON: A LITERARY BIOGRAPHY

M: THE MANDELA SAGA

COPYRIGHT © 1979, 1981, 1984, 1990, 1995, 2001 by

Laurence Holder

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,

without written permission from the author.

ISBN: 0-75960-520-3

                           978-0-7596-0519-0 (ebook)

IstBooks - rev. 02/08/01

For my Mother and my Father

my children

Christopher

Doriana

Laura

and

Jeanne Johnson(Shawishi), Jacquie Berger, Marian

Seifert

Yvonne Southerland(Baci), Christine Campbell

Novella Nelson

and

my loving wife

Andrea

without whom

this would never have happened

table of Contents

AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION by Woodie King, Jr

ETHEL WATERS

HOT SNOW

THEY WERE ALL GARDENIAS

ZORA NEALE HURSTON

M: THE MANDELA SAGA

AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

This is an honor and a pleasure to communicate directly with my growing audience. I have included in this first volume, of a number of volumes I plan to have published, five of the greatest renaissance women in the African Diaspora.

These women are different and yet each of them shares a trait which I so greatly admire — creative determinism. They discovered a purpose within themselves and continued on their march to destiny, fame, sometimes riches, sometimes ignominy, always triumphant over the ills of a world, which is, in fact, still discovering itself, but which in its blind fury has ground civilizations, people and ideas into the dust.

The indestructible African Diasporan Women I have chosen for this volume are Ethel Waters, Valaida Snow, Billie Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston, and Winifred Mandela.

Production Histories:

ETHEL WATERS was commissioned by the AMAS REPERTORY COMPANY in 1982, but was never produced. It is the story of Miss Water’s slow rise to fame, from the bottom in Philadelphia to Chitlin circuit renown, to Broadway, to Hollywood, and then to Television.

HOT SNOW, the musical story of Valaida Snow, reveals the story of one of America’s little known African American stars. She came to fame in Europe, taking over the Blackbirds of 1928 role for the mortally ill Florence Mills. She was already famous in the Far East having toured there with the Jack Carter Orchestra during the 1920’s. She is known as L’il Louis and Queen of the Trumpet, because of her extraordinary trumpet playing. She was a dancer, singer, and acted in several films. As

World War II was beginning she found herself trapped in Denmark and she was sent to a concentration camp as a nonAryan where she remained incarcerated for almost 2 years. This is her story as she makes her way back to the top of the heap, back to Broadway. The play had a world premiere in Detroit, Michigan, at THE ATTIC THEATRE in 1990 and featured the redoubtable Miche Braden as our heroine. A New York premiere occurred in 1994 at the world famous CASTILLO THEATRE under the gracious and stylish direction of Gabrielle Kurlander.

THEY WERE ALL GARDENIAS is a musical play depicting a mythological recording session which revealed the dynamics under which, Billie Holiday, one of our enduring heroines was forced to create. This play demanded that the musicians were the actors. Carmen Lundy played Billie Holiday, Ricky Ford played Reed Hawkins, Maurice McKinney played Mallets, Jerry Eastman played Fiddles, and the late great Walter Bishop, Jr. portrayed Bud Powell and was also the musical director. The play was performed at 3 different venues in 1979. First at the RICHARD ALLEN CENTER FOR CULTURE AND ART, produced by the late and lamented Hazel Bryant, then at the now defunct Greyhound Bus Terminal, and finally at Mike Morgenstern’s JAZZMANIA on 23rd Street. This production would never have seen the light of day had it not been for the formidable and brilliant work of director Regge Life, to whom I remain indebted.

ZORA NEALE HURSTON, a play which has 5 incarnations and I hope to be able to publish all five in successive volumes, is one of my most produced plays. This version has always been the baby child of the wonderfully talented Elizabeth Van Dyke performs the title role. The generic male role, the actor has to play four different males, was perfectly performed by Joseph Edwards. It is directed by and was originally produced by Wyn Handman at the AMERICAN

PLACE THEATRE, Off Broadway, on 46th Street. Initially done in 1989 and 1990, then brought back in 1998, it has toured extensively in the United States, including THE NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE FESTIVAL in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, produced there by the redoubtable Larry Leon Hamlin, and at Atlanta’s BLACK ARTS FESTIVAL. It has also been performed in Ghana, Africa, touring under the wonderful guidance of Woodie King, Jr. and THE NATIONAL BLACK TOURING CIRCUIT. The play won 3 AUDELCO Awards* in 1990 for Best Actress in a Dramatic Production, Best Director of a Dramatic Production, Dramatic Production of the Year.

M: THE MANDELA SAGA starring Marjorie Johnson as Winifred Mandela, Todd Davis as Nelson Mandela and Dominic Marcus as the evil Kaisar Mantanzima was originally produced by Crystal Field, Executive Director of THE THEATRE FOR THE NEW CITY in 1995. The play was brought to life through the intensly creative director Randy Frazier and earned the play 2 AUDELCO Awards*, for Best Actress in a Dramatic Production and Best Writer. It was reprised in the Summer of 1996 at HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY, produced by Bob Spiotto, as part of the University’s African Diaspora Celebration with Vinie Burrows in the title role, Todd Davis as Nelson and Robert Turner as Kaisar. I directed, but I couldn’t have pulled it off without the skillful aid of my Assistant Director, Desiree Urquhart.

I hope that reading these plays brings as much joy to you as they to me.

Remember to secure the musical and publication rights to use the songs in productions. For that I am not to be held responsible. To secure production rights for these plays, please contact me at [e-mail]

Laurence Holder

Fall 2000

Hamilton Heights, New York

*AUDELC0 is the Audience Development Committee, Inc. which acknowledges theatre excellence in African Diasporan Theatre

LAURENCE HOLDER EXPLORES BLACK

HEROINES IN A MALE DOMINATED

SOCIETY

Laurence Holder is a prolific playwright. His plays are varied in themes and subject. His vast body of plays includes heroes and heroines and events that virtually chronicle the history of African Americans in the Diaspora. They include Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, Paul Robeson, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, The Harlem Renaissance, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Lena Home, Billy Strayhorn, Sugar Ray Robinson, and the list goes on and on.

Like most African American playwrights, Laurence Holder’s work also covers specific areas of the African as well as the African American experience. Mr. Holder is a brilliant New York playwright, yet many of the white controlled theatres shy away from producing his work. They claim they can’t find his plays. The African American theatres are in constant search for copies of his plays. They have heard about them on the drum.

Many of these theatres call me looking for Laurence Holder because I have produced two of his masterworks: ZORA NEALE HURSTON and WHEN THE CHICKENS CAME HOME TO ROOST. Both the African American theatres and the Resident theatres will now be able to locate and read Laurence Holder’s first volume of plays. Included in this fine collection are ETHEL WATERS, HOT SNOW, THEY WERE ALL GARDENIAS, ZORA NEALE HURSTON, and M: THE MANDELA SAGA.

These female characters as well as these plays are favorites of New York’s African American theatre, and because Laurence Holder is a veteran playwright (he has survived the so-called test of time) with an un-paralleled 125 written plays, he enjoys New York status. Without question he deserves it. When you read these five carefully researched plays you will agree with me.

The heroines and heroes of these plays deserve special individual attention. Mr. Holder has given each of them their own space. This volume could fall under the overall title of BLACK WOMEN SURVIVORS IN A MALE DOMINATED WORLD. It would be excellent programming for a theatre to present all these plays in one season.

New York’s African American Theatre discovered the life of musicians/singers Ethel Waters, Valaida Snow, and Billie Holiday; the drama in the life of the Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston; and the political activist Winifred Mandela after having seen these fascinating dramatizations by Laurence Holder.

When Ethel Waters arrives on Broadway in Carson McCuller’s THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, January 5th, 1950 and is hailed a major star, little did audiences seem to care that she had been a major star for more than 30 years, having starred on Broadway in CABIN THE SKY, AUNT HAGAR’S DAUGHTER, and several musical reviews. In ETHEL WATERS, Laurence Holder’s meticulously researched and dramatic narrative, he explores exactly what it was like to be a black female Diva in the 1920’s, 1930’s and 1940’s. Miss Waters had to struggle to control both her personal life and her career.

HOT SNOW (Valaida Snow) is yet another look at a Black Female heroine; this one is bound up in the tragedy of Hitler’s Germany. How did a Black woman who plays and sings Jazz come to be in one of Hitler’s death camps?

Many of the readers of this collection will be familiar with Billie Holiday’s music from her many fine recordings and from the Diana Ross film, LADY SINGS THE BLUES. However, Laurence Holder takes us on a journey into Miss Holiday’s theatricalized private life. THEY WERE ALL GARDENIAS is pure Black Theatre, a Black heroine in a tragic situation, with a Black interpretation; yet universal in its execution.

I can speak very knowledgeably of ZORA NEALE HURSTON. I produced the first incarnation of her story in 1981 with Phylicia Rashad playing the title role. I began touring the play in festivals, colleges, and regional theatres. To this day, it is still an attractive and well booked production. The actress Elizabeth Van Dyke stars in and champions this touring version which was produced in New York at the American Place Theatre. Miss Hurston (1891 - I960) was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. Her life reached its theatrical pinnacle during the Harlem Renaissance. Laurence Holder’s play focuses on this particular period of her life. At times, during the play, Mr. Holder flashes back to her years as a student at Barnard College and Columbia University, picking up during the writing periods when she was creating MULES AND MEN and her magnificent opus, the novel, THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD.

M: THE MANDELA SAGA I read last. Even though it is about the relationship between Nelson and Winnie in the years immediately before and after Nelson’s release from prison, Mr. Holder focuses on Winnie. Their break is a painful break leading to a painful divorce. Again Laurence Holder finds the drama as well as the humanity in that relationship.

Now that the plays are accessible, they can be produced.

Woodie King,

Jr. Amherst College

October 2000

Laurence Holder’s

ETHEL WATERS

A play with multiple sets by

Laurence Holder

Cast

1-Ethel 2-Jack Ratskeller, Johnny Waters, Earl Dancer, Man

3-Braxton, Edmond, Eddie Matthews, Man

4-Carrie Nugent, Bessie Smith, Mozelle

5-Maggie Hill, Vi 6-Jo Hill, Ching

7-Louise (Momweaze) 8-Sally Anderson, Pearl Wright

9-Bartender, Jack Johnson,Young Man, Man

10-Carl Van Vechten, Jack Goldberg, Bing Crosby

11-Fania Van Vechten, Woman

Songs

[JOHNNY WATERS WALKS UP TO THE ANDERSON SHACK IN BOTTOM AREA IN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA. VI AND CHING ARE DRINKING ON THE PORCH ON BROKEN DOWN ROCKERS. CHING STAGGERS AWAY SICK, BUT VI HAS INTEREST. IT IS OBVIOUS THEY KNOW EACH OTHER. SHE CHECKS HIM OUT]

JOHNNY

Is she broke in yet, Vi?

VI

What the devil you talking bout, Johnny Waters?

JOHNNY

Your sis — the young one.

VI

Louise? Why no. She aint broke in yet. She just a baby, really. And her walkin around with her Bible under her arm - and with her when she sleepin on the floor. You standin in her place, almost.

[JOHNNY KEEPS LOOKING AROUND, NOT REALLY LISTENING TO VI]

JOHNNY

That so.

VI

Yeah, it is. She be comin soon too.

JOHNNY

Yeah? Well you back on outta here, Vi. I’m fixin on your lil sis. You hear me?

VI

Oh yeah? What’s in it for me?

[JOHNNY FISHES IN HIS POCKET]

JOHNNY

Here’s a dime, a quarter. Get a dress for her and I’ll take your—

[SHE INTERRUPTS HIM]

VI

You aint takin nothing, Johnny Waters. I’m takin you. A dollar. Quick now. She comin.

[JOHNNY RELUCTANTLY PULLS OUT A BILL AND HANDS IT TO HER]

JOHNNY

OK?

VI

OK.

[SHE EXITS AND GRABS CHING WHO’S LINGERIN ON THE WALL SIDE. THEY GO TO THE STREET JUST AS LOUISE ENTERS]

LOUISE

Hello, Johnny.

JOHNNY

Hello.

LOUISE

Where my sisters going?

JOHNNY

Idunno.

LOUISE

What you doin around here?

JOHNNY

Lookin for something to do. Can usually find it in the Bottom.

LOUISE

Don’t many people think about much down here when they got to think about where they next meal be comin from. That and hope it don’t rain tonight, the ground be wet, and the skeeters be all over the pillows then — and then again, Johnny, most girls don’t have their mans in the house so they can be looking up to them in a lovin way. I got my book to read, Johnny, my Bible.

[BUT JOHNNY IS HOT AND MOVING IN ON LOUISE HARD. AND HE TAKES HER AS THE LIGHTS DIM SOFTLY]

Don’t need no man in the way you talking about no how. Don’t need no man like this, Johnny. Don’t need this, man. Don’t….

[LIGHTS DIM, BLUES BUILD UP, SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS, SOUND OF LOUISE CRYING, AS SALLY ANDERSON MOVES ONTO THE PORCH OF THE SHACK, SEES HER LITTLE DAUGHTER, LOUISE, HUDDLED. SHE BEGINS CRYING. VI AND CHING GATHER THEMSELVES TOGETHER, SOUND OF TIME PASSING, AND WE SEE AND HEAR THE SOUNDS OF A BABY BEING BORN.

SONG:         THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE SUNG BY COMPANY

[TIME PASSES. LIGHTS UP. A YOUNG ETHEL ACTS SASSY WITH AUNT VI]

ETHEL

Well, since you aint my mother, Aunt Vi, I can do anything I damn well want to.

VI

What? You talking to me like that? I’ll break every damn bone in your skinny ass. Just who the hell you think you are?

ETHEL

I’ll tell you one thing. I aint gonna be anything like you are. Drunk all the time and don’t know who you goin with in the middle of the night. You ought to be ashamed.

VI

Witch! I’m warning you. Another word out of your trap and it’ll be the last thing you ever utter.

[ETHEL MIMICS AND REACHES FOR THE BOTTLE OF BOOZE JUST AS VI IS REACHING FOR IT]

ETHEL

That’s what you think. It’ll be the last thing you ever say.

VI

All right now. I aint playin with you. Gimmee back the bottle.

ETHEL

No.

[SHE STARTS TO SKIP AWAY]

VI

If I get you I’mma beat you till they won’t know you a child.

ETHEL

A child?

[ETHEL LAUGHS LOUDLY]

I aint never been no child, Aunt Vi. Aint no one ever held me or even liked me. Aunt Sally just ashamed and embarrassed. And who here understand me. No, I don’t even belong here.

[SALLY, ETHEL’S GRANDMOTHER, COMES IN THEN AND IS APPALLED]

SALLY

Why you talking like that? What’s goin on here?

ETHEL

Aunt Vi is drunk again. And she wants to beat me up again.

VI

She a witch. I don’t want to beat her. She got my bottle though.

SALLY

Yeah, and I can smell it on you, Vi. Aint you had enough? It’s still morning.

VI

She the one who stink, Ma.

SALLY

I got to believe someone, Vi, and I can’t believe any of you, my own children. You’re all liars and worse.

ETHEL

All of them.

SALLY

You watch your tongue, child. Now anything unusual going on here?

VI

Of course.

ETHEL

Don’t believe her.

[SALLY BREATHES DEEPLY, TAKES OFF HER WORN COAT AND SINKS ONTO THE CHAIR. CHING SAUNTERS INTO THE