bjbjLULU MAN: You got -- you got props. You got your coat and everything? MAN: Yes, he
got the coat and everything. MAN: OK. All right. All right. We re in, I think, the middle
of the third week of rehearsal. So people are just getting off book -- hopefully, not
offline. MAN: What does that mean, you maried? MAN: Ladies love it. MAN: Oh, you don t think
I know how it works with the ladies and money? MAN: They re starting to create character
and put together all the pieces. MAN: You could send them anything. They just happy
something is sent, that s all. You going to give them something that s cut and dying.
That don t make no sense. Man, you could send a woman a box of pencils, and she d be happy,
cause you sent her something. (LAUGHTER) MAN: The name Penumbra began when we began the
company in 1976. I knew that I wanted our program to be professional. We were a program
of the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center. You got to remember, at this time we weren t able
to get state arts board funding because they said we were doing social service, not art.
MAN: See, then, you carry that right off into flowers. MAN: Right. MAN: Look, they are magical.
You -- I don't know, yes, yes. Yes. MAN: Penumbra is a Latin term that means partial shadow.
It s that place that an artist has to go to create that world that is neither light nor
dark. It also sort of symbolized the marginalization of the culture and all that sort of stuff.
These are all afterthoughts. It was fun to say, "penumbra," you know. It s a fun word
to say, yes. MAN: Hey, there s a card. What it say? MAN: What it say? MAN: It s from the
NAACP, and they say, "Mr. Cole (ph), thank you for your positive image of Negro America,
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People." Whoo! MAN: The project
that we re working on right now is a play called "I Wish You Love." It s written by
Dominic Taylor. MAN: Call down there (inaudible). Better yet, have one of the NBC execs call
down there and tell them that my nephew s missing. MAN: What Dominic has put together
here is not so much about Nat Cole -- although there are 22 songs in the performance. MAN:
Five, four, three, two MAN: It happens during his television show, and you get him doing
his show -- actually there will be a television camera in the back of the house, and they
ll shoot him doing the show. MAN: (inaudible) Nat King Cole. MAN (singing): In the evening
may I MAN: But when the show goes down, when they break for a commercial, you ll also see
commercials. And then you ll see the actors and producers interacting about life, about
what s going on in the world, because it s -- there are newsclips in there as well. MAN:
While he was the governor of South Carolina during the Second World War, he told Harry
Truman, and I quote, "I want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there s not enough
troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation MAN: This is 1957.
So the Civil Rights Movement is hot and people are being challenged in all sorts of ways.
America is being asked to live up to its promise and, in many cases, it s beating people down
for -- and killing them, threatening them, lynching them, to do it. So all of these things,
this suave black male crooner is doing his stuff, while at the same time, you break and
go to a newscast and little children are being pushed around as they re trying to go to school
in first grade. I mean, the comparison is -- well, it s striking. MAN: They needed (inaudible)
in office. MAN: Them cops think we should still be in a field somewhere. MAN: Knocked
the hate off my head, then it was on, I guess. MAN: There s a real social justice, social
consciousness, part of the art we do. But it is always firmly ensconced in the African-American
experience. It s ensemble-y oriented, and it is of the highest quality we can muster.
The way we produce this work and cultural influence on the work is very subtle. MAN:
My mama been telling me as far back as I can remember, "Try. If you try, you d be surprised
what you get." MAN: Cultures manifest themselves often in shadows and we ll do something that
is particularly -- or expressed in a particular afro-centric sort of way. And all the black
people in the audience will laugh or they ll get the joke, or they ll cry. And then
others who aren t of that experience will -- you ll see them sort of looking around,
going like, well, I ve got to lean into this a little more. MAN: I need to thank you, all
of our fans, for watching us as we ve moved around the calendar. MAN: This experience
that I present when I direct -- and I only direct things out of this genre -- it s so
specific. But out of that specificity, I guarantee you you will find yourself. It is impossible
not to. And that s the beauty of being human, is that we can reach across cultures. We can
reach across languages, all sorts of barriers. I ve got you looking up here intellectually
processing something. And then you sneak up and go, ah, gotcha. That s you being human.
That s what we live for, pray for, that human experience. h,!" h,!" h,!" h,!" urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
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