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CAMPO SANTO, YOUTH SPEAKS, AND LANEY COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF THEATER PRESENT, ROGER GUENVEUR SMITH'S "RODNEY KING"
Friday March 3 2017, 7:30PM- ONE NIGHT ONLY
FINAL LIVE PERFORMANCES OF THIS INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCE
THIS BAY AREA PREMIERE PERFORMANCE WILL BE ONE OF THE FINAL PERFORMANCES BEFORE THE FILM VERSION DIRECTED BY SPIKE LEE IS PRESENTED
DO NOT MISS THIS ONE TIME ONLY CHANCE TO SEE THIS AMAZING PERFORMER AND JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL DISCUSSION WITH GUENVEUR SMITH POST SHOW
Roger Guenveur Smiths Rodney King:
History, poetry and tragedy collide when Roger Guenveur Smith tackles the thorny odyssey of Rodney King deemed the first reality TV star from the harsh initial glare of the national spotlight as the victim of police brutality to his involuntary martyrdom that ignited the 1992 L.A. riots to his lonely death at the bottom of his swimming pool. In this riveting performance, Smith captures the story of a flawed, good-hearted everyman, and by extension reveals Americas endlessly complicated relationship with its racial past and present. In a tour de force solo performance, this presentation of Rodney King marks the first collaboration with iconic Bay Area Theater ensemble Campo Santo which will result in a new commissioned work of Roger Guenveur Smiths Casa de Spirits premiering at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in May 2018.
What they're saying...
a fierce hush suffused Rodney King, the striking, idiosyncratic solo work created by actor, writer and director Roger Guenveur Smith ... Remembers the life public and private and legacy of King, whose brutal treatment at the hands of the Los Angeles police helped trigger epic violence in the city in 1992... Recounting events from Kings biography and chronicling the experience of several riot victims, Smith shifts his weight, bends his knees, churns the air with one hand, clutches his mike with the other, sometimes crouches as if gauging, and flinching from, an oncoming disaster in a bewildering, slow-motion dream.
Celia Wren, The Washington Post
ROGER GUENVEUR SMITH
Berkeley native Roger Guenveur Smith adapted his Obie Award- winning solo performance of A HUEY P. NEWTON STORY into a Peabody Award-winning telefilm directed by Spike Lee, from a live performance by Smith at New Yorks Public Theatre. His history-infused work for the international stage also includes: FREDERICK DOUGLASS NOW; JUAN AND JOHN, inspired by the remarkable friendship of baseball greats Juan Marichal and John Roseboro after their notorious fight on the field; the transatlantic love story ICELAND; TWO FIRES, a meditation on Philadelphia's 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic and 1985 MOVE bombing; IN HONOR OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT; WHO KILLED BOB MARLEY?; RODNEY KING; CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 1992 (commissioned and performed at the US Olympic Games); THE WATTS TOWERS PROJECT; and, with Mark Broyard, the "not-too-dark-comedy" INSIDE THE CREOLE MAFIA, cited by the LA Weekly as Production of the Year for both its premiere and post-Katrina revival.
His original pieces have performed throughout the world garnering major accolades and awards, while at the same time being performed in the most well known theatres in the country, Smith regularly performs in any venue, in any neighborhood on any occasion to share these stories to the communities.
His extensive screen credits range from Spike Lee's classic DO THE RIGHT THING, for which he created the stuttering hero Smiley; to Steven Soderbergh's acclaimed HBO series K STREET; to this summer's BIRTH OF A NATION.
Campo Santo
Founded in 1996, Campo Santo is an award-winning multi-cultural ensemble committed to developing and premiering new performances for people of color and to nurturing diverse new audiences for the performing arts. We have nurtured more than 55 World Premieres and multiple labs and development processes. One of our greatest successes has been our ability to create long term relationships with internationally known writers who are leaders in developing work that is broadening and diversifying the American voice - including Jimmy Santiago Baca, Philip Kan Gotanda, Jessica Hagedorn, Naomi Iizuka, Denis Johnson, and Octavio Solis, to name a few.
http://camposantosf.tumblr.com/
Laney College Department of Theater, Fusion Project
Fusion is the theater company at Laney College, created and directed by Michael Torres. Fusion Theater is the voice of our local communitytelling Oaklands story through the stage. Michael Torres has revitalized the Laney Theater Arts program since he came to the school in 2004. He was a co-founder the innovative theater company, Campo Santo, in San Francisco, and an award-winning actor over his 25-year acting career.
In 2011, Fusion was invited to perform at the prestigious International Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, one of only eight colleges in the country to be invited.
Fusion Theater is the voice of the community. Many graduates of FUSION THEATER have gone on to pursue successful acting careers. Come see the next generation of actors at FusionYou can say you knew them when!
http://thefusiontheatreproject.tumblr.com/aboutus
Founded in 1996 in San Francisco, Youth Speaks has long championed a local, national, and increasingly global movement of young people picking up pens and stepping proudly onto stages, declaring themselves present.
We believe that literacy is a need, not a want.
One of the worlds leading presenters of Spoken Word performance, education, and youth development programs, Youth Speaks produces local and national youth poetry slams, festivals, and reading series, alongside a comprehensive slate of arts-in-education programs during the school day, in the after-school hours and on weekends.
www.youthspeaks.org
Youth Speaks is a NPN Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). This project is made possible in part by support from the NPN Performance Residency Program. Major contributors include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information:
www.npnweb.org.
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LocationLaney College Theater The Odell Johnson Performing Arts Center (View)
900 Fallon Street
Oakland, CA 94607
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 14 |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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