Penumbra Theatre Company Presents 'TWO OLD BLACK GUYS...' 4/29-5/23

Penumbra Theatre Company, the nation's preeminent African American theatre, proudly announces the opening of Two Old Black Guys Just Sitting Around Talking, by Gus Edwards, directed by Lou Bellamy on Thursday, April 29, 2010. The production will run April 29 - May 23, 2010.

Henry and Abe can't stand each other, but like magnets the elderly duo is drawn to the same park bench every day. Having once jockeyed for the love of the same woman, their cantankerous rivalry has grown through the years. Now, in the twilight of their lives, they find themselves more intertwined than either had ever imagined. Two Old Black Guys Just Sitting Around Talking is a funny and poignant story of rivalry, friendship, and the journey of life.

Penumbra's Education Director Sarah Bellamy says, "I've learned a lot because of old black guys just sitting around talking. Women too. Penumbra has long been that kind of place-where teaching often happens through storytelling. One of the most important lessons I've learned here is that history isn't necessarily epic; sometimes it is quiet conversations that teach us the most about being human."

Penumbra company member August Wilson, one of the most celebrated American writers, honed his craft not in classrooms but in barbershops, cafes and on the corner. These are the places where many of Penumbra's company members learned to love, defend and express themselves within the African American culture. They listened to elders tell stories that carried with them not just humor and creativity, but also a perspective on life left untold by the dominant culture. It is out of this tradition that Gus Edwards penned Two Old Black Guys Just Sitting Around Talking.

Artistic Director and Founder Lou Bellamy says, "In their old age, Abe and Henry are still asking questions about love, faithfulness, truth. The irony is that these two men really don't like each other. Circumstances have placed them together and they end up revealing themselves to their worst enemy."

The cast stars long time Penumbra Company members James Craven as Abe and Abdul Salaam El Razzac as Henry.

James Craven (Abe) is a long-time Penumbra Theatre company member. Select Penumbra credits include Radio Golf, Fences, The Piano Lesson, Penumbra's production of Gem of the Ocean presented at the Guthrie Theater, Get Ready, Zooman and the Sign, Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers and REDSHIRTS, co-produced with Round House Theatre. He also performed at Kansas City Repertory Theater and Arizona Theater Company in their joint production of Jitney. James is a 2005 recipient of the Spenser Cherashore Fund and was awarded a 2007 McKnight Fellowship.

ABDUL SALAAM EL RAZZAC (Henry) is a founding member of Penumbra Theatre. Recent Penumbra credits include Radio Golf and Gem of the Ocean. He has also performed at the Willamstown Theatre Festival, Los Angeles Theater Center, A.C.T., Long Wharf, Mark Taper, the Guthrie Theater, South Coast Rep, Trinity Rep, Tiffany Theater, The Nate Holden Theater, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Kansas City Rep and Arizona Theater Company. He has directed at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, Zephyr, L.A.T.C. and Glaxa Theaters. Awards include the N.A.A.C.P. Image Award, the L.A. Drama Critics Award for performance, the Los Angeles Dramalog Award for best director, and the N.A.A.C.P. Image Award best director nomination. Film and television credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation, Pretty Woman, Glory, Malcolm X, Terminator II, Frasier and Conversations with God.

Gus Edwards (Playwright) is a playwright and an educator from the Caribbean (St. Thomas VI). He is a tenured professor who teaches Film Studies at Arizona State University. As a playwright his work has been professionally produced in multiple places both nationally and abroad. Mr. Edwards is the author of several books including Advice to a Young Black Actor, Monologues on Black Life, Black Heroes in Monologues and most recently The Offering, and other plays. He has also written for television, most notably the PBS adaptation of James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain. His best known plays are The Offering, Louie and Ophelia, Caribbean Babylon and A Fool Such as I.

LOU BELLAMY (Director & Producer) is the founder and artistic director of Penumbra Theatre. Under his leadership, Penumbra has produced 23 world premieres, including August Wilson's first professional production, and is proud to have produced more of Mr. Wilson's plays than any theater in the world. Mr. Bellamy is an obie Award-winning director, an accomplished actor, and sought-after scholar. He has been a member of the University of Minnesota's faculty for 32 years and is currently appointed to the rank of associate professor in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. Recent directing credits include Black Pearl Sings!, Radio Golf, Fences and The Piano Lesson at Penumbra, A Raisin in the Sun and Gem of the Ocean, Penumbra Productions staged at the Guthrie, Two Trains Running at the Signature Theatre in New York, Jitney at Kansas City Repertory Theatre and Arizona Theatre Company, and the staged reading of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at the Kennedy Center.

MARY K. WINCHELL (Stage Manager) is a longtime Penumbra Theatre company member. Most recently, she stage managed Penumbra's Black Pearl Sings!, Black Nativity: A Season for Change, Radio Golf and Gem of the Ocean. Other Penumbra credits include The Piano Lesson, Get Ready, Black Nativity: Twenty Years of Holiday Cheer!, Seven Guitars, Jitney, Two Trains Running, King Hedley II and Dinah Was. She has stage managed at the Orpheum Theatre, State Theatre, Pantages Theatre, Children's Theatre Company, Jungle Theater and the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami. She has lent her talents to Macy's Glamorama and served as production stage manager for Dorothy Hamill's Nutcracker on Ice, Aveda's 20th Anniversary Celebration at Radio City Music Hall, and Super Bowl xxvi Winter Magic.

MALO ADAMS (Sound Designer) has designed several Penumbra Productions including The Piano Lesson, Zooman and the Sign, Sex Diary of an Infidel, Dinah Was, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, and King Hedley II. Other design credits include Mighty Real, A Slow Ride on the Big Muddy, and Straight as a Line at the Hennepin Center for Performing Arts. In addition to design work, Malo is the creative force behind the critically acclaimed group Tribe of Millions. Malo has also played with Me'Shell Ndegeocello, The Black Crowes, Soul Asylum, Chaka Khan, and has worked with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. He has scored films including Street Guns and The Visionary, and commercials for Target Market, Target, Marshall Field's, Mervyn's, African American Adoption Agency, and Dunwoody Institute.

KENNETH F. EVANS (Scenic Designer) has designed several shows for Penumbra including The Whipping Man, King Hedley II, Seven Guitars, Two Trains Running, Jitney, Blues For An Alabama Sky, Pill Hill, Playboy of The West Indies, Songhai, Raisin, Riffs, Black Eagles, Dinah Was, The Piano Lesson, Soul Alley and the one-man tour of Malcolm X. Lighting design credits include ‘night Mother, The Foreigner, Kuni-leml, A Chorus Line and Painting Churches at the Birmingham Theatre (a Nederlander Organization) in Detroit and off-Broadway revivals of Les Blancs and Streamers. Mr. Evans earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota and his M.F.A. degree at Wayne State University. His current lighting designs can be seen nationally for A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor.

MATHEW J. LeFEBVRE (Costume Designer) has designed costumes for several Penumbra Theatre productions including Fences, REDSHIRTS, Get Ready, Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, On the Open Road, Black Eagles, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Jitney, and both scenery and costumes for Gem of the Ocean. Off Broadway credits include costumes for Two Trains Running at Signature Theatre-Lortel winner, best revival of a play, AUDELCO nominee, best costumes-and Bach at Leipzig for New York Theatre Workshop. Mr. LeFebvre has designed costumes for the Guthrie Theater, The Acting Company, The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Kansas City Rep, Arizona Theatre Company, Trinity Rep, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Geffen Playhouse, Mixed Blood Theatre and American Players Theatre.

MICHAEL WANGEN (Lighting Designer) has worked regionally as a lighting designer since 1978. He has designed over 60 productions for Penumbra, and served as Penumbra's resident lighting designer from 1987-2000. Mr. Wangen has also designed for the Guthrie Theater, Children's Theatre, Frank Theatre, History Theatre, Illusion, Pillsbury House, The Jungle and Mixed Blood. Recent designs locally include My Antonia, Illusion Theater; No Child and King of Shadows, Pillsbury House Theatre; Rent, performed at the Lab Theatre by Cardinal Productions, and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with SteppingStone Theatre. He also currently serves as the lighting designer for A Prairie Home Companion when it is in residence in St. Paul.

DOMINIC TAYLOR (Associate Artistic Director) is a director, playwright and the head of Penumbra's OKRA New Play Development Program. Most recently, Mr. Taylor directed Black Nativity: A Season for Change at Penumbra. Other select directing credits include the new opera Fresh Faust at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, The Negroes Burial Ground at the Kitchen, N.Y.C., Uppa Creek at Dixon Place, and Ride The Rhythm in the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival. He is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota where he has directed The Wiz, Night Train To Bolina and this spring will direct Execution Of Justice. Mr. Taylor has worked with Crossroads Theater, Rites and Reasons Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, and Ensemble Studio Theatre, among others. He is an alumni member of New Dramatists. He holds a Bachelor's and a Master of Fine Arts Degree from Brown University.

SARAH BELLAMY (Education Director) is the principal scholar and editor for Penumbra Theatre. She has researched and composed over twenty contextual essays to accompany Penumbra's main-stage productions since 2005 and oversees the creation of standardized, original curricula for educators to engage culturally specific arts in their classrooms. She has designed several programs that engage patrons of the theatre in critical thinking, dialogue and action around issues of race and social justice. Among the most renowned are the "RACE Workshop: Meet Your Metaphor," curated to accompany the Science Museum of Minnesota's exhibit RACE: Are We So Different?, and Penumbra Theatre's Summer Institute, an intensive theatre-training program for youth to practice socially responsible art and civic engagement. Ms. Bellamy is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, and holds an M.A. from The University of Chicago. She is currently working toward her doctorate in Comparative Studies and Discourse in Society at the University of Minnesota.

PENUMBRA THEATRE was founded in 1976 by Lou Bellamy to make socially responsible art - art that demanded a response, art with intent, art that could create change. At a time when roles for black artists were limited to stereotypes and comical representations, Penumbra produced theater that roared with authenticity through the unrestrained and rich voice of black artists and playwrights. This respect for cultural authenticity became Penumbra's signature style - and demand for it has reached new heights from theatres around the country fostering collaborations, new productions, tours and awards. For the latest news and updates, visit www.penumbratheatre.org.

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