Tina Fabrique To Star In (MIS)UNDERSTANDING MAMMY: The Hattie McDaniel Story At The Schoolhouse Theater

The Schoolhouse Theater will present the Westchester Premier of Joan Ross Sorkin's (mis)UNDERSTANDING MAMMY: The Hattie McDaniel Story, directed by multi award-winning director Seret Scott. This sizzling drama with music is the second production of TST's 2023 Season and will be performed at the Performance Space at 3 Owens Road in Croton Falls with performances running on weekends from Friday July 14th through Sunday July 30th.

(mis)UNDERSTANDING MAMMY: The Hattie McDaniel Story originally played at the Emerging Artists Theatre and then at The Chicago Humanities Festival and garnered Drama Desk and Black Theatre Alliance nominations for Capathia Jenkins

(mis)UNDERSTANDING MAMMY, a tour de force, one-woman play with music, is a heart-breaking story of stardom and struggle in America, examined through the lens of Hattie McDaniel's remarkable life. Ms. McDaniel achieved stardom by becoming the first African American to win an Academy Award, but she paid a high price for fame. From her humble beginnings in Denver in the early days of radio to her legendary performance in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel broke many barriers, but her career was cut short by attacks instigated by none other than Walter White, the Executive Director of the NAACP.

When you get to know Tina Fabrique, it is easy to understand how her personal dedication, talent and determination have guided her and helped her to reach the goals that once seemed only childhood dreams.

From growing up in Harlem, or the responsibilities of young motherhood, to midtown recording studios and New York City Cabarets, Tina has built a career as an actress and singer respected by her peers and in demand by playwrights, producers and directors alike.

Equally at home in musicals on Broadway: " Gospel at Colonus", "Bring In The Noise Bring In The Funk", "Ragtime", and others...or straight dramatic roles such as: "Trouble In Mind", "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" and "Glass Menagerie". She was honored to have received the Kevin Kline Award and Florida's, Carbonell Award for her performance as Ella Fitzgerald in "ELLA", a show which has taken Tina to countless regional theaters and which was cited by Variety as the top grossing Regional show of this decade. She was honored to have created this role, and thrilled at the critical reception to her performance.

Tina's television experience is just as varied; from the drama of "BLUE BLOODS" and "NEW AMSTERDAM", to singing the original theme for "READING RAINBOW", and much in between. She is also pleased to have been chosen to sing the title song for the Award Winning film "Mad Hot Ballroom."

Joan Ross Sorkin is a playwright, musical theatre bookwriter and lyricist, and opera librettist. Plays: (mis)Understanding Mammy (Drama Desk nomination, Capathia Jenkins); The Sacrifice; Anyplace But Here; and many others (NYC/regional). Musicals: BLACK SWAN Blues; Monet; In The Theatre; The Real McCoy; Dandelion; Isabelle and The Pretty-Ugly Spell; Go Green! Opera: Strange Fruit; White Witch; The Reef. Member: Dramatists Guild, BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, ASCAP, and Opera America. She is the President of the Board of the York Theatre Company.

Director Seret Scott's groundbreaking work as actor and director has taken her from Broadway (My Sister My Sister and For Colored Girls) to so many well-known theaters nationally (The Old Globe in San Diego) and winner of American Theater's prestigious Gordon Davidson Award (Best director in America). On film she was in Louis Malle's Pretty Baby and the extraordinary Losing Ground, which A.O.Scott called "...a puzzle and a marvel..." She currently is the Vice Chair of the American Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers.

For tickets to (mis)UNDERSTANDING MAMMY: The Hattie McDaniel Story, visit www.theschoolhousetheater.org or call 914-473-7111.

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