All-Negro Nativity Play Touring N.Z.
An award-winning play which performed for three seasons on Broadway and was accorded a Royal Command performance in London will be seen in Christchurch early next month. The play, "Black Nativity”, will start here on October 31 and play for 10 days. It is already being staged in the North Island. Performing here will be the Broadway stars and the London cast. “Black Nativity” was written about three years ago by Langston Hughes in collaboration with Michael Santangelo, a well-known American television producer. Played by an all-Negro cast, the first act tells thp story, through Negro eyes, of the nativity, in mime, dance, song and narration. The second act, briefly, shows celebration after the
event, once again in the idiom of the Southern American Negro, with song and dance. The play has met with excellent notices from overseas and New Zealand critics. The costumes are basically very simple, and the major effects come from complex lighting. The sets are mainly in black and white, backgrounds again being provided by special lighting effects. No microphones or amplifiiers are used and the company moves down into the audience at times during the performance. The play opened its sixth season in London on October 2 with a newly-trained cast. In New Zealand it has already played in Auckland, Wellington and Palmerston, apd before coming to Christchurch will be seen in New Plymouth, Wanganui, and Napier. After its Christchurch season it will go to Melbourne, where it opens on November 14. The company then hopes to move north through the Far East, after touring through most of Australia. An Entertainment Although the play has a basic religious theme, it is not intended to be a religious show, but rather an entertainment and an expression of the culture of the American Negro. The lead female singer is a cousin of King Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Princess Stewart. She is almost completely blind, and is a protege of Mahalia Jackson. Others taking part include the Patterson Singers, Esther Rolle, and the Bradford Singers. The leading man is Alex Brandford, a well-known Gospel singer and recording star.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30575, 19 October 1964, Page 10
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355All-Negro Nativity Play Touring N.Z. Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30575, 19 October 1964, Page 10
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