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BLACK LIVES MATTER
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It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our wonderful founder, Lydia LaFleur. We hope to have a memorial on zoom or in person as soon as we can.
UPDATES:
Morningside Players have been invited to reprise their highly touted production of HAVING OUR SAY, THE DELANY SISTERS’ FIRST 100 YEARS on ZOOM for The New York Society for Ethical Culture, Sat. June 27th at 2pm. Just go to https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85094132916 or to www.ethicalnyc.org for the link.
Compiled by Emily Mann, featuring Carol Carter and Edythe Jason and directed by Susanna Frazer.
THE STORY: HAVING OUR SAY opens as 103-year-old Sadie Delany and 101-year-old Bessie Delany welcome us into their Mount Vernon, New York, home. As they prepare a celebratory dinner in remembrance of their father’s birthday, they take us on a remarkable journey through the last hundred years of our nation’s history, recounting a fascinating series of events and anecdotes drawn from their rich family history and careers as pioneering African-American professionals. Their story is not simply African-American history or women’s history. It is our history, told through the eyes of two unforgettable women as they look not only into the past, but also ahead into the twenty-first century.
“The daughters of a minister born in slavery and a brilliant woman of mixed ancestry, the story of the Delany sisters begins in Reconstruction and progresses through the rise of Jim Crow, two world wars, the triumphs of black culture during the Harlem Renaissance, the civil and women’s rights movements, up to the present… “The most provocative and entertaining family play to reach Broadway in a long time…” —NY Times. “…when the show is over, you want it to go on and on…HAVING OUR SAY is a must for audiences of all races.” —BackStage. “In fact, this must be the nicest show and inspirational pep rally in town…what a life these women have led, and how lovely to hear about America’s real history from witnesses who are such good company. The Delany sisters may seem too good to be true, but here they are.” —NY Newsday. “Do see HAVING OUR SAY—it is a window on a world now lost, full of love, a little pain and a wondrous deal of hope.” —NY Post.
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We hope to have news of the 2020 renovations scheduled for our theater space soon!
Please note we have decided to postpone Miss Ellen Terry . Do check in soon for an alternate date and stay healthy.
THE MORNINGSIDE PLAYERS present
a special performance for Women’s History Month:
Miss Ellen Terry -
A Very Private Talk
Adapted from the writings of Terry, G.B. Shaw, Dickens, Carroll, Wilde
"The great and scandalous English actress tells almost all"
Susanna Frazer* Mark Hofmaier* Tom Miller*
*AEA
directed by Bridget Leicester
SUNDAY March 29th at 4PM – Rec. Center Space
100 La Salle St. just east of B’way Refreshments to follow!
Free. Seating limited!
Please reserve at
or call 646 200 5089
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Thanks to all who attended our annual
New Play Readings Sept. 8th '19
and Black History Month's 3 ICONS Feb. 23, '20
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TMP took to the road! WITTENBERG!!!!!!!!
Columbia University has invited our theater company to Lerner Hall! The Morningside Players and Columbia’s WHDC In-Kind Program present a staged reading of WITTENBERG by David Davalos, directed by Susanna Frazer. Cast features Liz Colarte, Sam Krivda, Tom Miller and Craig Myers. It will be Sat. June 15th at 3:30 pm at Lerner Hall, Broadway Room 2920 Broadway at 115th Street. Suggested contribution $10 at the door or give what you can.
A hilarious, sardonic prequel to Hamlet – “should delight Stoppard fans, recovering English majors, and disillusioned academics…” Washington Post. “Finally – a decent Protestant Reformation comedy! The dialogue flies by” Philadelphia Inquirer. “Clever, funny and hip.” Talkin’ Broadway.
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NEWS of TMP actors, directors and playwrights:
Playwright John Barrow is the winner of the Southern Playwrights Competition for Lillian, Paula, Carson
(read at TMP last season!)
Luke Hofmaier was nominated for best actor at the Berkshire Theater Awards for Now, Circa Then at Chester Theater Co. and will be playing Col. Brandon in Sense and Sensibility with Hudson Wharehouse.
Susanna Frazer will be appearing in Metropolitan Playhouse's THUNDER ROCK Jan 16- Feb 9, '20. She can be seen in the opening episode of City On A Hill - Showtime (scene opp. Kevin Bacon) She'll appear in, 2020. Luke Hofmaier and Tess Frazer appeared in
Metropolitan Playhouse's The Poor of New York - April 19th - May 19th 2019. Tess will next appear in MTC's
The Perplexed by Richard Greenberg.
Cecelia Riddett was nominated as best actress for The Revisionist by Jesse Eisenberg by the Connecticut Critics Circle
Kelly Taylor's one person play Rescuers has been chosen by the Solo Theatre Festival at Signature Theater - Oct. 6, 2018 at 6pm (staged reading here at TMP two seasons ago!)
Marie LouiseGuinier was featured in Scissoring by Christina Quintana at Intar Theater in June.
While awaiting renovations we performed HAVING OUR SAY at North Of History Space:
UPDATES!
Susanna Frazer at the Grant Celebration at Columbia University
New York Theatre Wire
Carol Carter and Edythe Jason
Have Their Own Say
"Having Our Say" by Emily Mann, adapted from the book by Sarah H. Delany
and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth.
February 16 to March 5, 2018 (closed)
North of History, 445 Columbus Ave. (between 81st and 82nd Street)
Presented by The Morningside Players in association with North of
History, a program of New Vision.
Running time: 2 hours with intermission.
Reviewed by Paul Berss March 5, 2018
With their home theater on La Salle Street currently under renovations, The Morningside Players moved temporarily to an intimate new space
called North of History, located on Columbus Avenue at 81st Street on
Manhattan's Upper West Side. Their production of "Having Our Say: The
Delany Sisters' First 100 Years" became the new venue's inaugural
production as a theater space. This play by Emily Mann, adapted from the
book by Sarah H. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth, is
a delightful two-character play about the renowned Delany sisters:
Sadie, a retired teacher with a gentle disposition, age 103 at the time,
and Bessie, a retired dentist still full of fight, age 101. The play had
a successful run on Broadway, opening in 1995, and the sisters gave
charming interviews on many major TV shows. I recall them recounting how
amazed they were at the size of a luxurious stretch limo that one TV
show sent for them. One of the sisters asked: "Is that all one car??"
In this production, actresses Carol Carter (as Sadie) and Edythe Jason
(as Bessie) reminisce from their home in Mt. Vernon, NY, talking
directly to the audience while cooking their late father's favorite
dinner in his honor. The play moves at a leisurely, but always
interesting pace, as the sisters address the audience with a fascinating
oral history of their family and the world around them. As they look
through a box of family photos, those shots are projected onto a screen
at the back of the stage. Their grandfather was born into slavery; they
initially lived in the South during the days of Jim Crow segregation;
Bessie barely escaped being lynched. She also recalled attending dental
school and receiving a failing grade for a paper that she had submitted.
A white friend at the school subsequently submitted the same paper and
easily got a passing grade. Sadie applied for a position teaching
domestic science and, fearful of being rejected because of her race,
didn't show up for the in-person interview. She was hired for the job
based on her credentials, and laughed recalling the reaction at the
school when she showed up to teach and they saw her for the first time.
There was a packed and very appreciative house for the final performance
on March 5. The actresses, Carol Carter and Edythe Jason, worked
beautifully together - totally convincing as sisters who had lived
together their whole lives. Bessie, the dentist, died in 1994 at the age
of 104, and Sadie, the teacher, died in 1999 at the age of 109. The play
by Emily Mann, adapted from the book by the Delany sisters and Amy Hill
Hearth, selected stories that revealed the intelligence, humor,
resourcefulness, and dignity of the sisters, two remarkable and most
admirable women.
The Delany sisters provided a fascinating lesson in history from people
who lived it, as well as a visit with a very special family.