A ‘NATIVITY’ REBORN AS A LOCAL TRADITION
The Dunbar Repertory production of BLACK NATIVITY returns to the Count Basie Theatre on Friday.
In an interview that appeared here a little over a year ago, Brookdale Community College faculty member Darrell Lawrence Willis Sr. told the redbankgreen Drama Desk that “no matter what I’ve been working on, whether it was the works of August Wilson or the Juneteenth festival, the number one thing that people ask me about is Black Nativity.”
“They’d tell me ‘the show has been such a blessing to us,’ and they all want to know when we’re doing it again.”
On December 30, 2010 following a hiatus of some six years the stage director and founder of Monmouth County based Dunbar Repertory Company revived his popular production of the theatrical presentation that combines the Gospel of St. Luke with the poetry of the late Langston Hughes and a custom-collected set of folk spirituals and hymns, bringing it to the boards of the Count Basie Theatre for the first time.
It’s a holiday offering that was designed to take its place among the scores of concerts, plays, ballets and benefits that have staked a traditional spot on the Count’s schedule each December even if, for a moment there, it looked to be a Christmas miracle that was in danger of not coming to pass.