With ‘Flyin’ West,’ Everyman Theatre delivers on its commitment to EDI

With the creation of Pearl Cleage’s groundbreaking enjoy Flyin’ West, Everyman Theatre delivers on its determination to fairness, diversity, and inclusion at every amount of its firm. Initial as a result of the creative direction of not too long ago appointed Associate Inventive Director and Resident Firm Member Paige Hernandez, and next in its financial investment in the seasoned ensemble of Actors’ Equity Affiliation member actors who make a tough historical piece like Flyin’ West come to life.

This intergenerational participate in that includes four pioneering gals conquering overwhelming odds is also a reflection of the creative director’s vision and individual development expertise, which incorporated a nurturing mentorship by Pearl Cleage and Black Ladies Electricity, a romantic relationship that led to the prospect to operate underneath Cleage’s route at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.

“I enjoy the timeliness of Flyin’ West and its relationship to difficulties linked to gentrification and the great importance of land to Black people today,” states Hernandez.

The ensemble cast for Flyin’ West functions veteran Everyman Resident Business member Jefferson A. Russell as the standup trustworthy neighbor Wil Parish, Aakhu TuahNera Freeman as the former slave Miss out on Leah, Eleasha Gamble as the gun-toting prairie lady Sophie Washington, and Calvin McCullough as the devious and abusive brother-in-regulation Frank Charles, who only sees personalized revenue in his wife’s share of the Nicodemus land deed.

Generating their Everyman Theatre debuts are newcomers Bianca Lipford as the fragile abused wife Minnie Dove Charles, and Briana Gibson Reeves as the peacekeeping sister Fannie Dove, who make up the “three Negro women” Sophie, Fannie, and Minnie, who carried their childhood songs of love and kinship to the western prairie.

But Aakhu TuahNera Freeman’s effectiveness as the getting older matriarch Miss out on Leah is the glue that retains the younger sisters alongside one another and presents them the power through her environment-weary girl knowledge to overcome the domestic abuse and ruthless frontier sense of male dominance that threatens their desires of building Nicodemus, Kansas, an early post-Reconstruction vision of Black Wall Avenue in Tulsa generations afterwards.

Miss Leah is a Griot who passes together the haunting tales of the dropped souls of family through slavery that Fannie Dove commits to paper to maintain Overlook Leah’s stories, which involve a mystical top secret recipe that Skip Leah takes advantage of to cast a sorcerous spell that in the long run will save the sisters from the reduction of their landed heritage.

As a record lesson, Flyin’ West achieves Cleage’s objective of informing modern-day audiences of the 1862 Homestead Act, which built general public lands available to be owned by all races and genders to help themselves or to build to offer for a gain.

Kudos also to founding Artistic Director Vincent Lancisi for paying out homage to the Indigenous Piscataway and Lumbee Indigenous American tribes, whose land Everyman Theatre stands on, and the African American slave labor that designed the metropolis of Baltimore.

“Pearl Cleage is the Poet Laureate of Atlanta,” stated Lancisi, “and we picked this participate in as the most-generated regional perform to open a window to the previous.” Flyin’ West delivers on Everyman Theatre’s motto of “Stories Very well Advised.”

In addition to Hernandez, the resourceful workforce incorporates established style by Andrew Cohen lights structure by Harold F. Burgess II, who sent a haunting “Good Luck Moon” result as the engage in closed audio designer Veronica J. Lancaster, who integrated a extremely successful refrain clap that additional a religious accent to the transitions from act to act and David Burdick’s location-on interval costume styles, which complemented the authentic and rustic established design.

Operating Time: Somewhere around two hours and 20 minutes, such as an intermission.

Flyin’ West performs as a result of Oct 31, 2021, at Everyman Theatre, 315 West Fayette Avenue, Baltimore, MD. The show may also be seen on the web at any time from Oct 22 by means of November 14, 2001, but tickets for electronic streaming access must be obtained by Sunday, Oct 31, at midnight. Tickets (in-human being, $29–$59 streaming, $19.99) may well be obtained online or by contacting 410-752-2208. Box office hours are Monday to Friday from 9 am right until 6 pm, and Saturdays from 10 am until finally 5 pm.

For Everyman Theatre’s Basic safety insurance policies and methods, click listed here.

For Everyman Theatre’s Standing in Solidarity assertion, simply click here.

FLYIN’ WEST
Written BY PEARL CLEAGE
DIRECTED BY PAIGE HERNANDEZ

Cast
Miss out on LEAH: Aakhu TuahNera Freeman
SOPHIE WASHINGTON: Eleasha Gamble
MINNIE DOVE CHARLES: Bianca Lipford
FRANK CHARLES: Calvin McCullough
FANNIE DOVE: Briana Gibson Reeves
WIL PARSON: Jefferson A. Russell

Inventive Group
Set Layout: Andrew Cohen
COSTUME Design: David Burdick
Lighting Style: Harold F. Burgess II
Sound Layout: Veronica J. Lancaster
WIG Structure: Linda Cavell
Phase Manager: Jamie J. Kranz
FIGHTS/INTIMACY: Lewis Shaw

SEE ALSO: Everyman Theatre’s all-dwell 2021/22 year kicks off in August