The Metropolitan Playhouse postponed its scheduled in-person revival of three plays of Harlem Renaissance writer Eulalie Spence due to Covid. The Playhouse will instead present an online reading of Ms. Spence's one-act "Episode" February 12, 2022 at 8 pm.
SHE'S GOT HARLEM ON HER MIND, an evening of three award-winning one-act plays, was originally scheduled to run from February 3 through February 27, 2022. The pervasive spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, though waning in the New York City metropolitan region, still poses too great a threat to the health of artists and patrons to warrant attempting to stage the production.
Says Artistic Director
Alex Roe: "This production was to be a signature achievement for Metropolitan and the artists involved, bringing
Eulalie Spence's distinctive and long forgotten voice to New York audiences. We deeply regret postponing performances, but the near-certainty of members of the company and possibly members of the public contracting COVID-19 at our intimate theater makes staging the production irresponsible." Mr. Roe went on to note "We will be delighted to present a reading of another
Eulalie Spence play, "Episode," online, in our groudbreaking virtual style, on February 12. And we look forward to mounting the plays at a later date, to be determined, when the weather warms and the case rate cools." "
"Episode," the story of a frustrated partner getting more than she bargained for when she convinces her lover to stay home more often, will be directed by Linda Kuriloff and streamed on the Metropolitan Playhouse YouTube channel for four days, beginning Saturday, February 12 at 8 pm.
Eulalie Spence (1894-1981) Distinguished by the authentic dialect and idiom of her characters, the majority of
Eulalie Spence's work concerns the everyday life of contemporary Black people. She celebrates their humanity, neither romanticizing nor politicizing their stories, nor viewing them in perspective of White mainstream culture. A childhood immigrant to New York from the Caribbean island of Nevis who earner her BA from NYU and her MA from Teachers College, Spence was a New York public school teacher for most of her adult life. During her long tenure at Brooklyn's Eastern District High School, she included among her students Public Theater founder
Joseph Papp, who called her "the most influential force in his life."
Through the 20's and 30's, she was also a well-respected playwright, actor, director, closely involved with the Krigwa Players, The Dunbar Garden Players, and Columbia University's Laboratory Players. Of her 14 known plays, 6 earned prizes from Black literary magazines The Crisis and Opportunity and from the Krigwa Players.
Her greatest mainstream commercial success was nonetheless a series of near-misses: her only full-length play, The Whipping, adapted from a novel by Roy Flannagan, was slated for a commercial premiere in 1933 starring Queenie Smith, but was canceled before opening. Spence optioned the script to Paramount Pictures for a film that ultimately became the barely recognizable Ida Lupino comedy, Ready for Love. The Whipping was her last play, though she remained an active director and drama teacher for her remaining years.
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