The event will feature YALLA BITCH!, a one-woman show by Ujima's late Founder and Former Artistic Director Lorna C. Hill.
The Irish Classical Theatre Company will share the next installment of its Free and Open to the Public Cultural Classics Exchange Series: YALLA BITCH! A Night of Words and Music by Lorna C. Hill and Curtis Lovell.
An Open Rehearsal with an Artist Q&A will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 14, 2023, at the Lorna C. Hill Theater, 429 Plymouth Avenue #2, Ujima's home; and a performance will follow at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 15, 2023, at The Andrews Theatre at 625 Main Street, ICTC's home.
The event will feature YALLA BITCH!, a one-woman show by Ujima's late Founder and Former Artistic Director Lorna C. Hill, coupled with music and poetry by Hill's daughter and Ujima Company Member Curtis Lovell. Tioga Simpson will direct the piece, which will star Lovell, Rachael Jamison, Daisy Medina, and Brooklynn Walker.
Executive Artistic Director of ICTC Kate LoConti Alcocer launched the program in 2022, desiring to create a free reading Series of plays and lore, connecting WNY cultures through the lenses of the dramatic and language arts.
"Nearly 22 years after Ms. Hill performed Wit here at ICTC, we are so grateful for this opportunity to honor Lorna's legacy," said Alcocer. "Curtis has an incredible vision for this piece, and we are excited to collaborate with the dynamic Ujima Company."
"When Kate came to me for this collaboration, I knew immediately that my mother's work would be a perfect fit," Lovell said. "It's a full circle connection."
Past Cultural Classics Exchange Series events have been presented in collaboration with Raíces Theatre Company (Los Soles Truncos by René Marqués), and Paul Robeson Theater at the African American Cultural Center (Selections from The New Negro: by Alain Locke), in addition to performances of Irish plays The Onion Game in 2022 and The Mai in 2023.
All Cultural Classics Exchange Series events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.irishclassical.com/cultural-classics-exchange/ or contact the ICTC Box Office at 716-853-4282, or email BoxOffice@irishclassical.com.
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