Camille Gavin: Life of former slave makes for moving, provocative play
| Tuesday, Feb 10 2009 09:03 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:27 PM
‘A WOMAN CALLED TRUTH
’
When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Where: Bakersfield Community Theatre, 2400 S. Chester Ave.
Admission: $12 adults, $10 students, seniors and active military
Information: 831-8114
•
‘HEROES
’
When: 8 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday
Where: Stars Theatre Restaurant, 1931 Chester Ave.
Admission: $50 to $54, dinner and show; $25, show only
Information: 325-6100
•
CZECH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: The theater at Rabobank Convention Center, 1001 Truxtun Ave.
Admission: $50
Information: 589-2478
Images
Althea Williams plays the lead role of Sojourner Truth in "A Woman Called Truth." (Photo courtesy of Danielle Radon)
“A Woman Called Truth” is Bakersfield Community Theatre’s tribute to Black History Month. The play is about the life of a former slave who became one of the most respected figures in both the abolition and woman’s suffrage movements.
Originally called Isabella, she took the name Sojourner Truth after being freed by her master in 1827. She went on to become a religious missionary and a dynamic reformer until her death in 1883.
Althea Williams, who plays the lead role, is a graduate of Langston University in Oklahoma and has lived in Bakersfield for about 20 years. She’s been active in local theater groups.
“This is a very powerful play and educational, too,” she said, adding that the “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech Truth delivered to an Ohio women’s group in 1851 is one of the high points of the play.
Also in the cast are Tim Fromm, Julie Jordan Scott, Joyce Weingarden, Maceo Davis, Maurice Pittman and Michelle Faulkenberry. Sheila McClure directs.
A group called REACT, for Repertory Ebony Arts Community Theatre, is co-sponsoring the production. It provides scholarships as a way of encouraging young people to consider attending college.
“It’s an alternative to some of those other lures out there,” said Stefan Lambert, secretary-treasurer of the local, nonprofit group.
COMEDY AT STARS
The three-member cast is having a bang-up time playing a trio of nutty, retired soldiers in “Heroes,” on stage now through Feb. 21 at Stars Theatre Restaurant.
So says Hank Webb about himself, Dan Marble and Jim Fillbrandt, who are the play’s only characters.
“These guys are so fast and funny,” said Webb, a retired Bakersfield College theater professor. “It’s a real pleasure to work with people who have that kind of mental acuity.”
“Heroes” takes place in 1959 on the terrace of a hospital for French army veterans who served — some 40 years before — during World War I.
“They’re all mad,” Webb said of the characters. “All they do is sit around and talk. I play Philippe, the least mad one. I try to keep them on track. These are three old men who see themselves as trapped, waiting to die, in a sanitorium that’s run by a tyrannical nun who never appears on stage. Then there’s a spark and they begin to plan their escape to Indo-China.”
CZECH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Pianist Derek Han is the featured soloist with the Czech Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday evening in the theater at Rabobank Convention Center. He will perform Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 in C Minor. The orchestra, under the direction of Theodore Kuchar, will also play works by Dvorak and Smetana.
Kuchar is well-known internationally as well as in the San Joaquin Valley, where he is music director and conductor of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra.
The 67-member Czech orchestra was formed in 1954 and began touring in 1958. Since then it has presented concerts in Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Tuesday’s program is sponsored by the Bakersfield Community Concert Association. The $50 ticket price includes admittance to the association’s final two concerts of the 2008-09 season on March 25 and April 26, said Diane Ackley, treasurer.
