Harlem Stage Performs the Final Workshop of THE VOICE WITHIN, 5/13

On May 13, Harlem Stage will perform the final reading of THE VOICE WITHIN before it goes into its final development period and world premiere in the fall of 2010.

Directed by Lynda Gravatt and written by Diedray Murray, THE VOICE WITHIN is a richly textured exploration of the voice - the voice as vocal instrument, the voice as our expression of all we behold around us and all that emerges from us and, ultimately, all that connects us to that singular voice of our humanity.

The cast includes Terry Burrell, Aisha de Haas, Darius de Haas, Tina Fabrique, La Tanya Hall, Brianna Horne, Dennis Stowe, Richard Waits, Jason Walker, and J.D. Webster.

Diedre Murray is a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, two-time Obie Winner and master musician. She is an innovative composer, cellist, producer and curator. In the 1970s and 80s, she pioneered the use of the cello as a jazz and new world music instrument. Since the 90s she has turned her attention to composing for extended musical works and the theatre. Credits include Unending Pain, co-presented by the Performance Garage and the Whitney Museum of American Art, toured to the Studio Museum of Harlem and Productions Traquen'Arts Cello Festival in Montreal; Lets Go Down to the River, for the Willasau Jazz Festival in Switzerland; The Eves of Nhor, for National Dutch Radio and De Effenaar Festival in Eindhoven Holland; Kamerados, for mixed ensemble at The Women's Improviser Festival in New York; Five Minute Tango, for the inaugural concert at the Danny Kaye/Sylvia Fine Playhouse entitled, performed by the Manhattan Brass Quintet; The Conversation for the Seattle-based New Performance Group at the Walker Arts Center in Minnesota; You Don't Miss the Water, a music-theatre piece, in collaboration with noted poet Cornelius Eady, produced by the Music Theatre Group (MTG); Women In The Dunes, a dance piece created by Blondel Cummings for the Japan Society; the jazz-opera Running Man, for which she wrote the original story and score, and book with Cornelius Eady (two Obie Awards, finalist for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama); music arrangements for Eli's Coming (Obie Award); The Blackamour Angel; an adaptation by Diane Paulus of James Baldwin's Another Country; Current projects include The Voice Within, with playwright Marcus Gardley, commissioned and produced by Harlem Stage with a world premiere scheduled for fall 2010; a new musical, Sweet Billy and the Zooloo's, with writer Lynn Nottage, for Colored Girl's Productions; and Spoleto, a series of rags for solo piano in 2009. She received a B.S. degree from Hunter College in Ethnomusicology and has numerous recordings.

The May 13 performance will begin at 7:30 pm.  The Harlem Stage Gatehouse is located at 150 Convent Avenue in New York City.  For tickets and more informatio visit http://harlemstage.org/calendar/details/49-the-voice-within