A Weekend of Premieres at Trustus Theatre – This Weekend
August 21, 2014
By Jillian Owens
Trustus Theatre is embracing the new this month! Last week, Columbia was the home of the World Premiere of the Trustus Playwrights’ Festival-winning comedy, The Velvet Weapon…but they’re not willing to settle for just one exciting new production. This weekend is jam-packed with premieres. It’s all a part of the (you guessed it) new festival, PREMIERES, featuring new (there it is again!) local works.
The festival begins with The Black Man…Complex—written, directed, and choreographed by Terrance Henderson. With an ensemble of six performers, Henderson explores the relationships between ethnicity, sexuality, and society. Incorporating movement, sound and images, this play is about a search for identity. The Black Man. . .Complex utilizes a tapestry of artistic elements to give audience members a sense of one artist’s expression of the complexity of finding one’s rightful place in the world. Henderson, dancer/choreographer/actor/director/artist, premieres this new and very personal creation on Wednesday, August 20, 2014 and Friday, August 22, 2014. Both performances are at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $20.
The Black Man…Complex
Fans of the critically-acclaimed local band, The Restoration will want to check out the first-ever theatrical staging on their southern gothic narrative album, Constance– a multi-generational cautionary tale told through historical fiction. Set between the late 1800s and 1930s in Lexington, South Carolina, Constance focuses on the fictional Constance Owen, an unrealized musical prodigy born to poor cotton farmers several years after the American Civil War. Her eventual union with Aaron Vale, a carpenter and musician of mixed race from Chicago, and the birth of their son, Thomas, plants a seed of discriminative hate in the surrounding community. Her family is bankrupted by the affluent Palmers which results in the death of her husband, and the burying of her creative aspirations. Years later, Thomas’ nihilistic vengeance against the Palmers sets off a cataclysmic series of violent events, as the South and the rest of the world plunge into the Great Depression.
Director Chad Henderson collaborated with The Restoration to bring Constance closer to becoming a fully-staged production. The Restoration and a cast constructed by Henderson will take the stage for a concert performance of the album. Much-loved actors from Columbia’s musical theatre community will embody Constance and the three generations of characters that impact her. The Restoration’s Constance can be experienced August 21st and 23rd at 8:00pm. Tickets are $20.
Constance
PREMIERES ends with FEST 24, a 24-hour play festival (Yes…there’s a festival within the festival.). 5 playwrights, 5 directors, and 20 actors will create and perform 5 new 10-minute plays in 24 hours. You can catch these new works on August 24th at 8:00pm. Tickets are $20.
If you happen to feel like making a weekend of it, you can purchase a PREMIERES package that includes a ticket to all of these events for $50 by calling the box office at (803) 254-9732. You can also purchase tickets for any of these premieres from the Trustus website.
Jillian Owens is a writer, designer, and eco-fashion revolutionary. A Columbia SC transplant, she graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BFA in Theatre and English. When she’s not gallivanting about, she’s busy refashioning ugly thrift store duds into fashionable frocks at ReFashionista.net or helping the underserved through her work in Community Impact at United Way of the Midlands. She also reviews local theater productions for Jasper Magazine and Onstage Columbia, and is an occasional contributor for The Free Times. Any comments, questions, or crude remarks can be directed to [email protected].
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