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Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle, WA, USA >>>

2000-01

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Comedy/Drama

Comedy

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1

or flexible casting

Notes: -

Synopsis: After graduating from drama school in Chicago, Charlayne Woodard, a young African-American woman, eagerly packs her bags and heads for New York City to live with her white boyfriend and pursue an acting career. Her family is concerned about this moveto say the least. "That child is free till she fool," says Grandmama. "Free enough to do any foolish thing that jump into her mind. My Lord, that's too free." Although Charlayne imagines she will be living in a fabulous East Side apartment, she finds herself in a tiny fifth-floor walk-up with a bathtub in the kitchen. Unfazed, she sets out to have a career as a "serious actor." "I came to New York with five monologues: Sophocles, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Tennessee Williams, and Ntozake Shange." Instead, she's cast in the original company of the hit Broadway musical Ain't Misbehavin'. IN REAL LIFE cannily chronicles Charlayne's initial seduction into the thrills of stopping a show as well as the physical and emotional price of sustaining the energy to do so night after night. Among the many colorful characters that people Charlayne's world is a charismatic Rastafarian playwright whose descent into drugs runs parallel with Charlayne's climb to success. IN REAL LIFE explores what happens, in the words of Langston Hughes, to "a dream deferred."

Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle, WA, USA >>>

1996-97

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Comedy/Drama

Comedy

-

1

or flexible casting

Notes: -

Synopsis: In the oral traditions of West Africa and the African diaspora, Charlayne Woodard is a modern-day griot. On a bare stage, this magnificent storyteller spins her own exquisite real-life remembrance of her brain damaged aunt, Neat, and the profound change she brought to Charlayne's life. Neat, with her enormous love, energy, simplicity and magnificent clarity, teaches the young Charlayne what it is to cherish life. A magical, compelling, personal portrait of a young woman's coming of age, NEAT is the story of an urban African-American girl bursting into adulthood, experiencing first love, and embracing both black-pride and feminism. An evening of pure joy, compelling insight and hopefulness, NEAT is an inspiration for every family.

Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle, WA, USA >>>

1994-95

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Comedy/Drama

Comedy

-

1

or flexible casting

Notes: -

Synopsis: The stage is bare except for a wooden loveseat and a young African-American woman. Then the lyrical, lifting words of Charlayne Woodard begin weaving stories of two young sisters in the small world of Albany, New York; of Ku Klux Klan riders burning a crossthe ironic "pretty fire" of the titlein the hilltop black town of Rosignol Hill, Georgia; of three generations of family love, struggle and triumph. And suddenly that empty stage becomes crowded with the authentic, mesmerizing experience of contemporary African-American life. PRETTY FIRE is an enthralling celebration of life. Filled with earthy humor, it takes readers on a universal journey through a world in which the family bond is as strong as steel.