11/18/19: Petronia Paley Wins 2019 AUDELCO Best Director award
Petronia Paley, 2019 AUDELCO Best Director Award for "Looking for Leroy"
Congratulations to Petronia Paley for winning the 2019 AUDELCO Best Director Award for Larry Muhammad's Looking For Leroy. Now in its 47th year, the AUDELCO Awards recognize excellence in Black Theatre.
Ms. Paley is a Renaissance Woman in Theatre as an actress, playwright, director, and teacher. Check her link above to learn more.
We've very proud and happy for her with this win. A dedicated and talented professional, she cobbled together some of NYC's best actors and actresses for two readings of Jitterbug! and we will always be thankful to her for her tireless effort in giving the dancical life on a New York stage.
Ms. Paley is a Renaissance Woman in Theatre as an actress, playwright, director, and teacher. Check her link above to learn more.
We've very proud and happy for her with this win. A dedicated and talented professional, she cobbled together some of NYC's best actors and actresses for two readings of Jitterbug! and we will always be thankful to her for her tireless effort in giving the dancical life on a New York stage.
10/28/18: New Free Jitterbug! monologue!
This one is for Tharbis Jefferson, the 20-year-old heroine of Jitterbug! Like the others, it comes with footnotes for period slang and definitions for historical perspective. If read in Adobe Reader, clicking the small number beside a word in the script will take you to the footnotes at the bottom of the page for its definition. Depending on what version of AR you have, clicking that footnote number will return you to where you left off in the script. If that doesn't work, a click on the back arrow at the top of the page will do the same.
If used, please advise so that we can give you credit-- especially if you take pictures or video (which we will post with your permission).
Sculpture by Mark Newman.
If used, please advise so that we can give you credit-- especially if you take pictures or video (which we will post with your permission).
Sculpture by Mark Newman.
| two_steps_forward_and_no_steps_back_at_the_savoy_monologue-classroom.pdf |
6/8/2017: Free Jitterbug! monologues!
Requests have come in from teachers for some monologues and, although the play doesn't really have any of the characters "speechafyin,'" we have rewritten parts for monologues for two of the play's male characters (female to follow shortly).
The first one is for Herbert "Whitey" White. He's the legendary founder of the Harlem gang The Jolly Fellows and a handful of Lindy dance troupes, "Whitey's Lindy Hoppers" being the most famous. The scene is at the beginning of the play as he confronts our hero Billy Rhythm, admonishing by word and violent deed. The content is adult/mature and comes with a glossary for period slang.
The second is between Billy and Owney "The Killer" Madden, owner of the Cotton Club where Billy works as part the revue's uncredited dancers. This adult/mature monologue requires the actor to do two accents: Harlemese and Irish/British. This one gives you the option to use music and SFX.
Please click the items below to download. If used, please advise so we can promote the use. If you send us pictures or video they will be used to promote you and your use on this website.
Thank you.
DC Copeland
The first one is for Herbert "Whitey" White. He's the legendary founder of the Harlem gang The Jolly Fellows and a handful of Lindy dance troupes, "Whitey's Lindy Hoppers" being the most famous. The scene is at the beginning of the play as he confronts our hero Billy Rhythm, admonishing by word and violent deed. The content is adult/mature and comes with a glossary for period slang.
The second is between Billy and Owney "The Killer" Madden, owner of the Cotton Club where Billy works as part the revue's uncredited dancers. This adult/mature monologue requires the actor to do two accents: Harlemese and Irish/British. This one gives you the option to use music and SFX.
Please click the items below to download. If used, please advise so we can promote the use. If you send us pictures or video they will be used to promote you and your use on this website.
Thank you.
DC Copeland
| jitterbug__monologue-herbert_white-free.pdf |
| jitterbug_-owney_madden-monologue-free.pdf |
3/24/2017: Nathan James ("Jitterbug!"s First Billy Rhythm) Makes Us Look Good!
You may have seen him on Shades of Blue, Person of Interest, The Wire, or other TV shows (click here to see his acting reel), but we will always remember Nathan James as the man who gave the hero of our dancical a beating, passionate heart in its first reading at the prestigious National Black Theatre in Harlem. The above out take is from a Heidi Marshall On-Camera Class. Nathan is also an award-winning playwright and poet with an MFA from Penn State University.
3/1/2017: Flushing High School documenting use of "Jitterbug! in the Classroom"
COMPANY, L to R, Back Row: Eric, Marlon, Susmeta, Nathaly, Brintney, Jocelyn, Lyzette; Middle Row:
Francisco, Elvin, Erika, Maicol, Sonia, Rahul, Jessica; Front Row:
Jesus, Rafael, Ariel, Luis P., Henry, Jose M., Juana
High school Drama and English educator Lindsay Shields is documenting the first-time journey her 7th Period Class-- made up of Freshmen through Seniors-- is undertaking using "Jitterbug! in the Classroom." The Cast and Crew represent 13 nationalities: Bangladesh, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, México, Pakistan, and Peru. Only in America! And Flushing, NY. How cool is that; that this African American story set in the Harlem Renaissance-- with its immigrant Jewish and Irish supporting characters-- is being told by these students? We love it!
This is what Ms. Shields wrote regarding the process and it is more than any playwright could have hoped for:
"We started the read-through yesterday. We're digesting and interpreting chunks at a time. So far:
1. We've reviewed some U.S. history and made a list of things the kids want to look up,
2. I've assessed what kids know and don't know about the time period,
3. Kids are having fun interpreting the slang- I think we'll make a big chart for this as well with translations from multiple languages,
4. Kids are TOTALLY stepping up--- one kid who was out for a few days
came to class today and ASKED for a role that wasn't yet assigned.
This is HUGE! This kid never ever ever ever volunteers for anything and he can't WAIT to play his role.
5. We are laughing at jokes together and some of the kids have new nick- names. The kid playing Bumpy everyone now calls Chichon (Bump in Spanish).
6. Everyone is helping each other with pronunciation and learning new vocabulary in the process!"
We love to hear that it is getting students excited about learning history, playing parts in the dancical, "getting" the jokes and laughing, and learning period slang* (Cab Calloway would be proud). We knew this story would resonate with audiences and Ms. Shields and these kids are proving it.
*The book is annotated for historical reference and period slang.
This is what Ms. Shields wrote regarding the process and it is more than any playwright could have hoped for:
"We started the read-through yesterday. We're digesting and interpreting chunks at a time. So far:
1. We've reviewed some U.S. history and made a list of things the kids want to look up,
2. I've assessed what kids know and don't know about the time period,
3. Kids are having fun interpreting the slang- I think we'll make a big chart for this as well with translations from multiple languages,
4. Kids are TOTALLY stepping up--- one kid who was out for a few days
came to class today and ASKED for a role that wasn't yet assigned.
This is HUGE! This kid never ever ever ever volunteers for anything and he can't WAIT to play his role.
5. We are laughing at jokes together and some of the kids have new nick- names. The kid playing Bumpy everyone now calls Chichon (Bump in Spanish).
6. Everyone is helping each other with pronunciation and learning new vocabulary in the process!"
We love to hear that it is getting students excited about learning history, playing parts in the dancical, "getting" the jokes and laughing, and learning period slang* (Cab Calloway would be proud). We knew this story would resonate with audiences and Ms. Shields and these kids are proving it.
*The book is annotated for historical reference and period slang.
12/9/2016: "Performer Stuff" adds Jitterbug! monologue to its catalog
We are happy to announce that PerformerStuff.com, a company that offers monlogues and sheet music to performers, has added a monologue from Jitterbug! to its catalog. It's the only one in the dancical because Jitterbug! is one of those kinds of plays with more dancing than talking. Or singing. The monologue appears at the beginning of the play when our hero, Billy Rhythm, is confronted by Herbert "Whitey" White. White was a real person. Very little is known about him and only a few pictures of him exist. That's why we call him "Harlem's International Man of Mystery"-- international because, despite all the barriers thrown up in his face during America's Jim Crow years, he managed to get rich by taking a local dance fad and making it the world's dance.
A former WWI vet and boxer, White founded the legendary Harlem gang The Jolly Fellows in 1926. Because White was also the head bouncer at the Savoy Ballroom, the gang ruled the floor, especially a small section in the NE corner known as "Cats' Corner" where only the best dancers were allowed to strut their stuff. White also founded a number of dance troupes whose members came from the Jolly Fellows. The most famous was "Whitey's Lindy Hoppers" who went off to Hollywood to appear in two films that brought the Lindy and later the Jitterbug to the world. In the monologue, White admonishes Billy in no uncertain terms and resorts to violence in the end to get his point across. It's perfect for "at risk" male high school students.* You can find it here.
*Free Jitterbug! Educator Manuals/Student Questionnaires-- based on the National Core Arts Standards-- are available here.
You can learn more about White here. He's part of a list of the Jitterbug! creative crew. They are listed by their birthdays. White's was July 18th. He would have been 122 years old in 2016.
A former WWI vet and boxer, White founded the legendary Harlem gang The Jolly Fellows in 1926. Because White was also the head bouncer at the Savoy Ballroom, the gang ruled the floor, especially a small section in the NE corner known as "Cats' Corner" where only the best dancers were allowed to strut their stuff. White also founded a number of dance troupes whose members came from the Jolly Fellows. The most famous was "Whitey's Lindy Hoppers" who went off to Hollywood to appear in two films that brought the Lindy and later the Jitterbug to the world. In the monologue, White admonishes Billy in no uncertain terms and resorts to violence in the end to get his point across. It's perfect for "at risk" male high school students.* You can find it here.
*Free Jitterbug! Educator Manuals/Student Questionnaires-- based on the National Core Arts Standards-- are available here.
You can learn more about White here. He's part of a list of the Jitterbug! creative crew. They are listed by their birthdays. White's was July 18th. He would have been 122 years old in 2016.
10/18/2016: Lindsay Shields is first teacher in America to use Jitterbug! in the Classroom
Lindsay Shields
Flushing High School Drama and English teacher Lindsay Shields will be the first teacher in America to use Jitterbug! in the Classroom. Or on site where the story actually takes place, as she plans to do on the streets of Harlem with her students. Recreating the site specific scenes from the play is a courageous and inspiring idea and we will support her in any way we can.
This is a great way to introduce kids to America's history by using this uniquely American story that showcases how great things can come from hard work, not giving up, and people of all colors working together. Plus it frames the evolution of jazz through the dancical's selections from the Great American Songbook, ranging from a turn of the 20th Century's simple use of a couple of piano chords from the "Buck Dancer's Lament" in a tap dance smackdown scene between the dancical's hero Billy Rhythm and the legendary Bojangles Robinson, through 1930's swing music and finally through the use of Ornette Coleman's invention of "Free Jazz" to accent the smackdown of the dancical's hero. We love it!
You can learn more about the Harlem neighborhood where the story takes place here. It includes a map and archival images of what once was. For those who would like to visit the actual sites found in the dancical, you can use this page on the left. It also includes a map, archival video and pictures but has been set up to display before and after pictures side by side on a route through Harlem beginning at the Apollo Theater. This will be handy because most of the Harlem sites have been demolished.
This is a great way to introduce kids to America's history by using this uniquely American story that showcases how great things can come from hard work, not giving up, and people of all colors working together. Plus it frames the evolution of jazz through the dancical's selections from the Great American Songbook, ranging from a turn of the 20th Century's simple use of a couple of piano chords from the "Buck Dancer's Lament" in a tap dance smackdown scene between the dancical's hero Billy Rhythm and the legendary Bojangles Robinson, through 1930's swing music and finally through the use of Ornette Coleman's invention of "Free Jazz" to accent the smackdown of the dancical's hero. We love it!
You can learn more about the Harlem neighborhood where the story takes place here. It includes a map and archival images of what once was. For those who would like to visit the actual sites found in the dancical, you can use this page on the left. It also includes a map, archival video and pictures but has been set up to display before and after pictures side by side on a route through Harlem beginning at the Apollo Theater. This will be handy because most of the Harlem sites have been demolished.
7/9/2016: Get Your Choreography Right Here!
I've been getting requests from overworked educators wanting to use my book and its Educator Manual/Student Questionnaires based on the National Core Arts Standards to come up with a one-stop shop for examples of authentic swing and jitterbug dancing from the 1930's. Although there are many video examples scattered throughout this website, to make their lives somewhat easier I have added a new page found on the left called Get Your Choreography Here! Thanks to Mura Ziperovitch Dehn (1905-1987), a Russian immigrant schooled in ballet and modern dance, it was easy because she had the foresight to document on film the evolution of African-American vernacular dance. Starting in the early 1930s, Dehn made it her mission to film the various styles of black dance beginning at the turn of the century (recreated for her camera by Savoy dancers), cataloging its evolution up to 1986. The result is a magical 5-hour documentary for those who want to "keep it real" on the dance floor and for those who want to use it as a springboard for their own original choreography.
4/5/2016: 16-Hits from the Great American Songbook!
In celebration of locking in the performance rights for our final songwriter/composer-- Ornette Coleman-- a few weeks ago, we got to thinking about all of the uniquely talented Americans behind the music in Jitterbug! and thought we'd honor them with a new poster. You can learn more about them and hear their music by clicking here.
3/22/2016: Secured rights to use Ornette Coleman's "The Artist in America" in Jitterbug!
Kobalt Music Publishing has given me 10-year performance rights for the USA and the UK. This closes the final effort in securing permission to use music for the dancical, a herculean task that spans years of tracking down multiple rights-holders for 16-songs and negotiating the use of their music.
Although Ornette Coleman, the founder of "Free Jazz," is not part of the Swing era where the play is set (he was born in 1930), his soaring, screaming The Artist in America is used as thematic background music during some of the dancical's most violent scenes. To that end a new character was added in the dancical's latest revision, an unnamed and un-acknowledged sax player who never speaks but who appears out of Harlem's dark alleys and tenement windows to play his mad sax to add fuel to the anger and to shake the audience out of its comfortable complacency. The Artist in America also acts as a bookend for jazz's evolution on the Jitterbug! Music Time Line ( JMTL), the music that underpins
the dancical, from its earliest examples for a tap dance number (1907's Buck Dancer's Lament) through Duke Ellington's 1963 symphonic masterpiece Harlem, and now, 1972s The Artist in America.
Kobalt Music Publishing has given me 10-year performance rights for the USA and the UK. This closes the final effort in securing permission to use music for the dancical, a herculean task that spans years of tracking down multiple rights-holders for 16-songs and negotiating the use of their music.
Although Ornette Coleman, the founder of "Free Jazz," is not part of the Swing era where the play is set (he was born in 1930), his soaring, screaming The Artist in America is used as thematic background music during some of the dancical's most violent scenes. To that end a new character was added in the dancical's latest revision, an unnamed and un-acknowledged sax player who never speaks but who appears out of Harlem's dark alleys and tenement windows to play his mad sax to add fuel to the anger and to shake the audience out of its comfortable complacency. The Artist in America also acts as a bookend for jazz's evolution on the Jitterbug! Music Time Line ( JMTL), the music that underpins
the dancical, from its earliest examples for a tap dance number (1907's Buck Dancer's Lament) through Duke Ellington's 1963 symphonic masterpiece Harlem, and now, 1972s The Artist in America.
3/6/2016 News: Steppin' Out and the Birth of Cool
Chesterfield overcoat.
This is Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson, hero and heroine of Jitterbug! Thanks to Mark Newman's masterwork "Steppin' Out," we not only see them as the playwright saw them, but we can see their spirits too. Love the swagger, love the style. It reminds us of the theme behind the new book The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives of the African Diaspora (Materializing Culture) by Carol Tulloch. A professor at the University of the Arts London, she states that dressing well is "almost part of the DNA in the black community" and that "this book investigates the role of dress in the creation and assertion of black identity." This was not only true for Billy and Tharbis but also for the legendary gang he belonged to. The Jolly Fellows always dressed well but they took extra care to looking their best for a street fight, choosing to wear tight Chesterfields (see insert), gloves, and derbies. A fascinating interview with professor Tulloch can be found in The Guardian.
Dr. Omi Jones
2/27/2016 News: “The Break”— The Jazz Space Where Improvisation Happens PLUS The Origins of the Jitterbug Dance.
The AAPEX (African American Playwrights Exchange) blog recently ran a great article by Dr. Omi Jones re her commentary as dramaturg for the Marin Theatre Company's production of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. Part of a larger piece called "The Impossibility of Black Citizenship," she writes the break is "where the unknown is sought, where Black life is allowed to flourish free of externally imposed sanctions."
This Black-made musical device is used in Jitterbug! as a way of en-couraging choreographers to "reach into the future"-- where the unknown is sought-- for dance moves that will win the dance contest at the Savoy Ballroom for the dancical's protagonists Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson. It occurs naturally, organically since it is part of the "breakaway" in the Lindy/Jitterbug. According to Marshall Stearns' wonderful book Jazz Dance, the breakaway and the basic steps in the Lindy/Jitterbug can be traced all the way back to the turn of the 19th into the 20th century in a dance called the Texas Tommy.* This "distinctly unwaltzlike and non-European maneuver" is believed to have risen out of America's South as a Black-made vernacular dance step. It was first seen on a stage in San Francisco around 1911, at Lew Purcell's So Different Cafe,** "the only Negro cabaret on the Barbary Coast." The Texas Tommy-- and the breakaway-- made its official appearance on the east coast a year later when it was included in the 1913 New York premiere of Darktown Follies at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem. The Lafayette was America's first integrated theatre and this show according to James Weldon Johnson marks the "beginning of the nightly migration (of whites) to Harlem in search of entertainment."
But the rest of the world had to wait until 1928 to discover the dance and the breakaway and the opportunity it gave you to improvise on the dance floor. At that time, dance marathons were all the rage, especially at the beginning of the contest. Days or weeks later, interest dropped off as it had for one of the first integrated marathons at the Manhattan Casino in Harlem. Now in its 18th day, one couple who had a major following-- newspaper columnists Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan more than once announced they were going to stop by to watch them dance after work-- made history on June 17, 1928. That's when George "Shorty" Snowden, a member of the Harlem gang The Jolly Fellows, used the breakaway to throw his partner out to the side to showcase his solo over-the-top dance steps. No one had seen anything like it. As Stearns writes, "even the musicians came to life." When Fox Movietone News showed up to take a close-up of Shorty's feet at work and asked what he was doing and he replied, without stopping, "The Lindy," the dance and the breakaway spread across the world faster than a Harlem minute.
And got Shorty and his partner Big Bea into Jitterbug!'s climatic dance scene at the Savoy Ballroom with the dancical's protagonists Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson.
You can read Dr. Jones' thought provoking commentary here.
For a look at one of the rarest and earliest movies of the Texas Tommy, please watch the video below. Shot in 1911 in San Francisco, the silent film begins like a salsa rueda with couples dancing in a folkloric circle and switching partners. But by midpoint, they dance as individual couples and you can see the precursor of the Lindy, the Jitterbug, and the breakaway. And some great dance steps, too. Yeah, man!
*Stearns informs us that "Tommy" meant prostitute back then, implying that it had its roots in deep South brothels. When the Texas Tommy was first performed in a San Francisco theatre, "the place was jammed-- lots of cops too, expecting a riot-- but nothing happened because there wasn't anything bad about it, just a kind of acrobatics, with every step you could think of added to it." A couple of years later the dance made its way east via a troupe of Texas Tommy dancers called "The California Poppies." Their billing featured the "fastest dancer alive," the legendary Pet Bob Thurman.*** A quarter-of-a-century later we see this happening again-- the theatrical exposure of a vernacular dance-- when George "Shorty" Snowden joins "The Lindy Hoppers" to take that dance-- and later the hopped-up Jitterbug-- to the world. Only this time around, with the world-wide growth of movie theaters, it happens almost overnight.
**Lew Purcell's So Different Cafe was considered the "most turbulent" of the Barbary Coast dance halls. Tales of nightly fights and even murder were reported there. The "bar next door lined the adjoining wall with sheet metal to deflect stray bullets." Although the Barbary Coast had little rules, the one thing it did have going for it, that made it stand head and shoulders above the rest of the country at that time was that it wasn't racially segregated.
***It's very likely that Pet Bob Thurman is the gentlemen dancing in the last portion of the 1911 silent film clip below. Research shows that two movie stills exist of a silent movie that prominently featured a dancing couple in the foreground, crediting them as Mr. Thurman and his partner Nettie Lewis Compton, a singer who at that time was married to rag time pianist and songwriter Glover Compton. Behind them is the LeProtti Band with Pete Stanley.
The AAPEX (African American Playwrights Exchange) blog recently ran a great article by Dr. Omi Jones re her commentary as dramaturg for the Marin Theatre Company's production of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. Part of a larger piece called "The Impossibility of Black Citizenship," she writes the break is "where the unknown is sought, where Black life is allowed to flourish free of externally imposed sanctions."
This Black-made musical device is used in Jitterbug! as a way of en-couraging choreographers to "reach into the future"-- where the unknown is sought-- for dance moves that will win the dance contest at the Savoy Ballroom for the dancical's protagonists Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson. It occurs naturally, organically since it is part of the "breakaway" in the Lindy/Jitterbug. According to Marshall Stearns' wonderful book Jazz Dance, the breakaway and the basic steps in the Lindy/Jitterbug can be traced all the way back to the turn of the 19th into the 20th century in a dance called the Texas Tommy.* This "distinctly unwaltzlike and non-European maneuver" is believed to have risen out of America's South as a Black-made vernacular dance step. It was first seen on a stage in San Francisco around 1911, at Lew Purcell's So Different Cafe,** "the only Negro cabaret on the Barbary Coast." The Texas Tommy-- and the breakaway-- made its official appearance on the east coast a year later when it was included in the 1913 New York premiere of Darktown Follies at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem. The Lafayette was America's first integrated theatre and this show according to James Weldon Johnson marks the "beginning of the nightly migration (of whites) to Harlem in search of entertainment."
But the rest of the world had to wait until 1928 to discover the dance and the breakaway and the opportunity it gave you to improvise on the dance floor. At that time, dance marathons were all the rage, especially at the beginning of the contest. Days or weeks later, interest dropped off as it had for one of the first integrated marathons at the Manhattan Casino in Harlem. Now in its 18th day, one couple who had a major following-- newspaper columnists Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan more than once announced they were going to stop by to watch them dance after work-- made history on June 17, 1928. That's when George "Shorty" Snowden, a member of the Harlem gang The Jolly Fellows, used the breakaway to throw his partner out to the side to showcase his solo over-the-top dance steps. No one had seen anything like it. As Stearns writes, "even the musicians came to life." When Fox Movietone News showed up to take a close-up of Shorty's feet at work and asked what he was doing and he replied, without stopping, "The Lindy," the dance and the breakaway spread across the world faster than a Harlem minute.
And got Shorty and his partner Big Bea into Jitterbug!'s climatic dance scene at the Savoy Ballroom with the dancical's protagonists Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson.
You can read Dr. Jones' thought provoking commentary here.
For a look at one of the rarest and earliest movies of the Texas Tommy, please watch the video below. Shot in 1911 in San Francisco, the silent film begins like a salsa rueda with couples dancing in a folkloric circle and switching partners. But by midpoint, they dance as individual couples and you can see the precursor of the Lindy, the Jitterbug, and the breakaway. And some great dance steps, too. Yeah, man!
*Stearns informs us that "Tommy" meant prostitute back then, implying that it had its roots in deep South brothels. When the Texas Tommy was first performed in a San Francisco theatre, "the place was jammed-- lots of cops too, expecting a riot-- but nothing happened because there wasn't anything bad about it, just a kind of acrobatics, with every step you could think of added to it." A couple of years later the dance made its way east via a troupe of Texas Tommy dancers called "The California Poppies." Their billing featured the "fastest dancer alive," the legendary Pet Bob Thurman.*** A quarter-of-a-century later we see this happening again-- the theatrical exposure of a vernacular dance-- when George "Shorty" Snowden joins "The Lindy Hoppers" to take that dance-- and later the hopped-up Jitterbug-- to the world. Only this time around, with the world-wide growth of movie theaters, it happens almost overnight.
**Lew Purcell's So Different Cafe was considered the "most turbulent" of the Barbary Coast dance halls. Tales of nightly fights and even murder were reported there. The "bar next door lined the adjoining wall with sheet metal to deflect stray bullets." Although the Barbary Coast had little rules, the one thing it did have going for it, that made it stand head and shoulders above the rest of the country at that time was that it wasn't racially segregated.
***It's very likely that Pet Bob Thurman is the gentlemen dancing in the last portion of the 1911 silent film clip below. Research shows that two movie stills exist of a silent movie that prominently featured a dancing couple in the foreground, crediting them as Mr. Thurman and his partner Nettie Lewis Compton, a singer who at that time was married to rag time pianist and songwriter Glover Compton. Behind them is the LeProtti Band with Pete Stanley.
2/15/2016 News: A Homage to Hamilton's Grammy win: Best Musical Theatre Album.
Hamilton is the most exciting thing to come down the Broadway Pike since West Side Story. Revolutionary for sure! Riffing off the Hamilton art, the Man has become Rhythm, a black man in a zoot suit.
Hamilton is the most exciting thing to come down the Broadway Pike since West Side Story. Revolutionary for sure! Riffing off the Hamilton art, the Man has become Rhythm, a black man in a zoot suit.
1/27/2016 News: Behold the Zoot Suit in all its glory.
Cab Calloway and Jitterbug!s hero Billy Rhythm wear zoot suits in the dancical. In 2011, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) was in dire need of a zoot suit for its collection. When this rare piece of clothing came up at an auction on the East Coast, the museum bid on it by phone. The opening bid was $500.00 but within minutes had jumped to "five figures." The museum's successful bid "set a new auction record for twentieth-century menswear." This most magnificent suit of clothes (seen below) will be on display at the museum April 10–August 21, 2016 during its Reigning Men exhibition. LACMA is also making the garment pattern for the zoot suit available for free download this Spring as part of its Pattern Project: Undertaking the Making. You can learn more about the Zoot Suit here.
Cab Calloway and Jitterbug!s hero Billy Rhythm wear zoot suits in the dancical. In 2011, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) was in dire need of a zoot suit for its collection. When this rare piece of clothing came up at an auction on the East Coast, the museum bid on it by phone. The opening bid was $500.00 but within minutes had jumped to "five figures." The museum's successful bid "set a new auction record for twentieth-century menswear." This most magnificent suit of clothes (seen below) will be on display at the museum April 10–August 21, 2016 during its Reigning Men exhibition. LACMA is also making the garment pattern for the zoot suit available for free download this Spring as part of its Pattern Project: Undertaking the Making. You can learn more about the Zoot Suit here.
1/21/2016 News: West Side Story-Chill's exciting choreography re-imagines an iconic scene from the film.
Jitterbug! ends with a climatic dance contest at the Savoy Ballroom. The playwright encourages choreographers to help the dancical's protagonists Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson win that 1931 swing era contest by "reaching into the future" (our present) to drop steps and moves on the dance floor that no one had ever seen before. Choreographers KEONE and MARI MADRID do just that to an iconic filmed dance number by Jerome Robbins from director Robert Wise's West Side Story (1961). The music also gets updated by JIMEK resampling Leonard Bernstein's 1957 score. To learn more about the creative team behind this project including its director Seth Epstein, please click here_. To compare this version with the original dance number from the film, please click here.
Jitterbug! ends with a climatic dance contest at the Savoy Ballroom. The playwright encourages choreographers to help the dancical's protagonists Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson win that 1931 swing era contest by "reaching into the future" (our present) to drop steps and moves on the dance floor that no one had ever seen before. Choreographers KEONE and MARI MADRID do just that to an iconic filmed dance number by Jerome Robbins from director Robert Wise's West Side Story (1961). The music also gets updated by JIMEK resampling Leonard Bernstein's 1957 score. To learn more about the creative team behind this project including its director Seth Epstein, please click here_. To compare this version with the original dance number from the film, please click here.
1/8/2016 News: Ornette Coleman's THE ARTIST IN AMERICA joins the Jitterbug! Music Timeline.
Please click image to enlarge.
Ornette Coleman.
Please click image to enlarge.
Ornette Coleman was born in 1930 and wasn't part of the music scene back in the day of Jitterbug! but his invention of Free Jazz-- which broke the rules of Bebop-- and his soaring, screaming The Artist in America cries out for a space on the Jitterbug! Music Timeline (JMTL). It's used as thematic background music during some of the dancical's most violent dance numbers. To that end a new character was added in the dancical's latest revision, an unnamed and unacknowledged sax player who never speaks but who appears out of Harlem's dark alleys and tenement windows to play his mad sax to add fuel to the anger and to shake the audience out of its comfortable complacency. The Artist in America also acts as a bookend for jazz's evolution on the JMTL, the music that underpins the dancical. Although it was added months ago, this is the first time it has appeared on the JMTL. You can listen to the piece below.
11/11/2015 News: Long lost Harold Arlen song found!
Any new news about the Jitterbug! songwriting team is great news. Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, Arlen's songwriting partner at the time of the dancical, were two nice Jewish boys working for the mob at the Cotton Club, trying to come up with songs for the club's twice yearly revues. A few years later, Arlen wrote the music to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" which in 2000 was named the "Song of the Century" by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America. Today it was announced by London's JSP Records that it will release in early 2016 the 2-CD box set JUDY GARLAND SINGS HAROLD ARLEN. It includes a newly discovered recording from A Star is Born.
Any new news about the Jitterbug! songwriting team is great news. Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, Arlen's songwriting partner at the time of the dancical, were two nice Jewish boys working for the mob at the Cotton Club, trying to come up with songs for the club's twice yearly revues. A few years later, Arlen wrote the music to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" which in 2000 was named the "Song of the Century" by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America. Today it was announced by London's JSP Records that it will release in early 2016 the 2-CD box set JUDY GARLAND SINGS HAROLD ARLEN. It includes a newly discovered recording from A Star is Born.
10/24/2015 News: Swing Dancers dance to Hip Hop (and Vice Versa)
This year's Montreal Swing Riot pitted swing dancers against hip hoppers, dancing to each other's music. It's a wondrous thing to behold and a great example of steps Jitterbug!'s Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson use to win the 1931 Savoy Ballroom dance competition in the dancical's climax, "reaching into the future for steps no one has seen before."
This year's Montreal Swing Riot pitted swing dancers against hip hoppers, dancing to each other's music. It's a wondrous thing to behold and a great example of steps Jitterbug!'s Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson use to win the 1931 Savoy Ballroom dance competition in the dancical's climax, "reaching into the future for steps no one has seen before."
10/17/2015 News: Big Re-Write
After many years of seeing a scene one way, it finally dawned on me to see it this way: instead of a traditional scene break, I'm seguing one into another using Cab Calloway's great song Kickin' the Gong Around from the 1931 Cotton Club Ryth-mania revue to make the transition. In the earlier version, the dancical's hero Billy Rhythm takes a beating from a rival gang and is left prone on the stage as the gang exits and the scene ends. Lights down, lights up on a Cotton Club rehearsal with Billy standing and explaining his latest collection of bumps and bruises to his girlfriend Tharbis. Yada, yada, yada. Boring. Now, not only is it more theatrical using the Cotton Club hit, Calloway's unique dancing propels the transition and reinforces the dancical's use of songs from the Great American Songbook that were joint efforts for the most part between black and white Americans, one of the underlying themes of Jitterbug! You can read the rewritten scene here. "OC" is a character who never speaks but appears only to play his saxophone during Billy's beatings. "OC" stands for Ornette Coleman, the inventor of "free jazz," a sound most appropriate for these scenes and, although this music came nearly a generation after the big band swing music of the 30's, it pays homage to the black influenced period music found throughout the dancical and traces its evolution to the more avant garde sounds we hear today. "Bumpy" is Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, a real-life enterprising gangster from the past. "Madame" is another real-life personage from the past: Bumpy's boss, Madame Stephanie St. Clair, the numbers queen of Harlem. Please note the link above to the scene contains live links to the music/video on YouTube so you can read the script and hear the music and watch Cab's dance moves that inspired the dance between him and Billy. Please, however, don't click them. To do so will close the pdf file. In order to keep reading the script, please click the links here: The Artist in America, Kickin the Gong Around. The sample selection also includes links to period slang. If you click the number beside the word in the script, it will link to that definition.
After many years of seeing a scene one way, it finally dawned on me to see it this way: instead of a traditional scene break, I'm seguing one into another using Cab Calloway's great song Kickin' the Gong Around from the 1931 Cotton Club Ryth-mania revue to make the transition. In the earlier version, the dancical's hero Billy Rhythm takes a beating from a rival gang and is left prone on the stage as the gang exits and the scene ends. Lights down, lights up on a Cotton Club rehearsal with Billy standing and explaining his latest collection of bumps and bruises to his girlfriend Tharbis. Yada, yada, yada. Boring. Now, not only is it more theatrical using the Cotton Club hit, Calloway's unique dancing propels the transition and reinforces the dancical's use of songs from the Great American Songbook that were joint efforts for the most part between black and white Americans, one of the underlying themes of Jitterbug! You can read the rewritten scene here. "OC" is a character who never speaks but appears only to play his saxophone during Billy's beatings. "OC" stands for Ornette Coleman, the inventor of "free jazz," a sound most appropriate for these scenes and, although this music came nearly a generation after the big band swing music of the 30's, it pays homage to the black influenced period music found throughout the dancical and traces its evolution to the more avant garde sounds we hear today. "Bumpy" is Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, a real-life enterprising gangster from the past. "Madame" is another real-life personage from the past: Bumpy's boss, Madame Stephanie St. Clair, the numbers queen of Harlem. Please note the link above to the scene contains live links to the music/video on YouTube so you can read the script and hear the music and watch Cab's dance moves that inspired the dance between him and Billy. Please, however, don't click them. To do so will close the pdf file. In order to keep reading the script, please click the links here: The Artist in America, Kickin the Gong Around. The sample selection also includes links to period slang. If you click the number beside the word in the script, it will link to that definition.
9/30/2015 News: Tap Dancer Michelle Dorrance wins MacArthur "Genius" Grant.
Bojangles and the Nicholas Brothers-- including all of the unknown and forgotten tap dancers at the Hoofer's Club-- would be pleasantly surprised. Back in the 1930's when Jitterbug! takes place, tap dancing was all the rage. Not so much any more. Good to see it hasn't been forgotten and is in fact being recognized for its contribution to American and world culture. Dorrance's work reaches back into that history for inspiration and we look forward to seeing what the five year, no-strings-attached $625,000.00 grant brings forth. Watching her videos, we think Ms. Dorrance could easily had held her own at the Hoofer's Club trading fours with the best, maybe even making them raise an eyebrow or two at her creativity and prowess-- especially since she is, in the parlance of the times, "a skinny little icky ofay frail." She also probably would had been the only woman-- black or white-- to have done so at the "Club," since it was basically an all black Alpha Male refuge for the best professional tap dancers in NYC, most of whom were brusque and had little patience for those who couldn't dance. You can learn more about her at Dorrance Dance.
Bojangles and the Nicholas Brothers-- including all of the unknown and forgotten tap dancers at the Hoofer's Club-- would be pleasantly surprised. Back in the 1930's when Jitterbug! takes place, tap dancing was all the rage. Not so much any more. Good to see it hasn't been forgotten and is in fact being recognized for its contribution to American and world culture. Dorrance's work reaches back into that history for inspiration and we look forward to seeing what the five year, no-strings-attached $625,000.00 grant brings forth. Watching her videos, we think Ms. Dorrance could easily had held her own at the Hoofer's Club trading fours with the best, maybe even making them raise an eyebrow or two at her creativity and prowess-- especially since she is, in the parlance of the times, "a skinny little icky ofay frail." She also probably would had been the only woman-- black or white-- to have done so at the "Club," since it was basically an all black Alpha Male refuge for the best professional tap dancers in NYC, most of whom were brusque and had little patience for those who couldn't dance. You can learn more about her at Dorrance Dance.
9/20/2015 News: Jitterbug! is a choreographer's dream come true.
It encourages fresh approaches to making dances for a period play, especially the climatic dance contest at the end of the dancical where our heroes Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson dig deep within themselves to pull out dance moves no one has ever seen before-- especially in 1931. Here's an example by choreographer Kyle Hanagami and Haley Fitzgerald (who dances with him in the video and shares choreography). You can learn more about how he works here.
It encourages fresh approaches to making dances for a period play, especially the climatic dance contest at the end of the dancical where our heroes Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson dig deep within themselves to pull out dance moves no one has ever seen before-- especially in 1931. Here's an example by choreographer Kyle Hanagami and Haley Fitzgerald (who dances with him in the video and shares choreography). You can learn more about how he works here.
5/21/2015 News: Herbert "Whitey" White's Birthday
Thanks to Ancestry.com's Memorial Day promotion of free record searches for members of the military, we think we were able to verify the birth date of Herbert "Whitey" White, the legendary founder of the Jolly Fellows and Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. And to update our previous post on White on the Jitterbug! Songwriting Team and Creative Directors page. Thanks to information about White found in the wonderful book Jazz Dance by Marshall Stearns, we knew that White served in Harlem's all black 369th Infantry Division known as the "Hellfighters" during World War I. Our search of the New York State Archives unearthed his discharge papers but there was no birth date although he was listed at the time in 1919 as being 23-years-old. Today we discovered his military Registration Card which lists his birth as July 21, 1894. That would make him 24-years-old in 1917. Why there is a discrepancy in ages is anyone's guess but the Registration Card and Discharge papers do share one thing in common, his NYC address: 2 West 137 Street. That's about two blocks south of the Savoy Ballroom where he later worked as its head bouncer. You can learn more about Mr. White and the rest of the Jitterbug! team by clicking here.
Thanks to Ancestry.com's Memorial Day promotion of free record searches for members of the military, we think we were able to verify the birth date of Herbert "Whitey" White, the legendary founder of the Jolly Fellows and Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. And to update our previous post on White on the Jitterbug! Songwriting Team and Creative Directors page. Thanks to information about White found in the wonderful book Jazz Dance by Marshall Stearns, we knew that White served in Harlem's all black 369th Infantry Division known as the "Hellfighters" during World War I. Our search of the New York State Archives unearthed his discharge papers but there was no birth date although he was listed at the time in 1919 as being 23-years-old. Today we discovered his military Registration Card which lists his birth as July 21, 1894. That would make him 24-years-old in 1917. Why there is a discrepancy in ages is anyone's guess but the Registration Card and Discharge papers do share one thing in common, his NYC address: 2 West 137 Street. That's about two blocks south of the Savoy Ballroom where he later worked as its head bouncer. You can learn more about Mr. White and the rest of the Jitterbug! team by clicking here.
5/15/2015 News: Jeffrey L Page
Jitterbug!'s first choreographer, releases new choreography reel and is very much worth a watch.
Jitterbug!'s first choreographer, releases new choreography reel and is very much worth a watch.
5/8/2015 News: Jitterbug! Songwriting Team is Top Heavy in Oscars and other awards
9 Oscar wins, 43 Oscar nominations, 19 Grammy Awards, 3 Tony Awards, 1 Tony nomination, 1 Emmy Award, 2 Pulitzer Prizes, and the two highest American civilian awards: the Presidential Medal of Freedom (4), and the Congressional Gold Medal (3). I suspect the team could have won more Tonys but the award began in 1947, at least a decade too late for many of whom were in their prime during the 1930's. Oh yeah, Harold Arlen in 2000 won the Song of the Century Award from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America for "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."
Jitterbug! Oscar Winning Song and Music Writers:
Harold Arlen for 1938's Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
Irving Berlin for 1942's Holiday Inn (Best Song: White Christmas).
Sammy Cahn for 1954's Best Song Three Coins in the Fountain,
1957's Best Song All The Way,
1959's Best Song High Hopes,
1963's Best Song Call Me Irresponsible.
Saul Chaplin for 1952's An American in Paris (Best Music, Scoring a Musical Picture),
1955's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Best Music, Scoring a Musical Picture),
1962's West Side Story (Best Music, Scoring a Musical Picture).
For more detail on the team's awards, please visit the Jitterbug! Songwriting Team and Creative Directors page.
9 Oscar wins, 43 Oscar nominations, 19 Grammy Awards, 3 Tony Awards, 1 Tony nomination, 1 Emmy Award, 2 Pulitzer Prizes, and the two highest American civilian awards: the Presidential Medal of Freedom (4), and the Congressional Gold Medal (3). I suspect the team could have won more Tonys but the award began in 1947, at least a decade too late for many of whom were in their prime during the 1930's. Oh yeah, Harold Arlen in 2000 won the Song of the Century Award from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America for "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."
Jitterbug! Oscar Winning Song and Music Writers:
Harold Arlen for 1938's Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
Irving Berlin for 1942's Holiday Inn (Best Song: White Christmas).
Sammy Cahn for 1954's Best Song Three Coins in the Fountain,
1957's Best Song All The Way,
1959's Best Song High Hopes,
1963's Best Song Call Me Irresponsible.
Saul Chaplin for 1952's An American in Paris (Best Music, Scoring a Musical Picture),
1955's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Best Music, Scoring a Musical Picture),
1962's West Side Story (Best Music, Scoring a Musical Picture).
For more detail on the team's awards, please visit the Jitterbug! Songwriting Team and Creative Directors page.
5/6/2015 News: Honoring the Jitterbug! Songwriting Team
It began with recognizing Duke Ellington's 116th birthday on April 29th. Thanks to his estate, we have been granted rights to use his wonderful symphonic piece Harlem as the climatic music for the final dance contest at the Savoy Ballroom. Since then we have come to the conclusion that all of the creatives from that period-- especially the songwriters-- should be recognized for their contributions to Jitterbug! and jazz music and dance. So, starting with the "next guy up" on the birthday calendar, we will begin marking their birthdays with the first of many posts wishing them a "Happy Birthday" and thanking them for their contributions to Jitterbug! Irving Berlin will be our next honoree. This songwriting genius will be 127 years old on May 11th. We are using his 1936 hit Let's Face the Music and Dance to close the first act. Future honorees will be Tweeted on their birthdays and permanently posted on the Jitterbug! Songwriting Team page on this site.
It began with recognizing Duke Ellington's 116th birthday on April 29th. Thanks to his estate, we have been granted rights to use his wonderful symphonic piece Harlem as the climatic music for the final dance contest at the Savoy Ballroom. Since then we have come to the conclusion that all of the creatives from that period-- especially the songwriters-- should be recognized for their contributions to Jitterbug! and jazz music and dance. So, starting with the "next guy up" on the birthday calendar, we will begin marking their birthdays with the first of many posts wishing them a "Happy Birthday" and thanking them for their contributions to Jitterbug! Irving Berlin will be our next honoree. This songwriting genius will be 127 years old on May 11th. We are using his 1936 hit Let's Face the Music and Dance to close the first act. Future honorees will be Tweeted on their birthdays and permanently posted on the Jitterbug! Songwriting Team page on this site.
4/27/2015 News: April 29th is Duke Ellington's 116th Birthday. Celebrate!
3/29/2015 News: Jitterbug! New Conceptual Art
This version puts the "emphasis on the positive:" the dancical's use of music from the Great American Songbook by such songwriters as Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Sammy Cahn, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, George & Ira Gershwin, and Chick Webb.
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"Studies show that a dance educator is more than someone who teaches steps. A dance educator is an influencer who transfers 21st century skills of critical thinking, teamwork, kinesthetic awareness, empathy, etc. that prepare students for professional careers on the world’s stage."
Susan McGreevy-Nichols
Executive Director
National Dance Education Organization
2/1/2015 News: "Jitterbug! in the Classroom" is now available on the Educator Resources page.
Based on the National Core Arts/Common Core Standards for: DANCE, THEATRE, MUSIC (Composition and Ensemble strands), LITERATURE, and HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES. All are free and include live links to YouTube and other Internet sites for a full multimedia experience re dance styles, music, and history.
Based on the National Core Arts/Common Core Standards for: DANCE, THEATRE, MUSIC (Composition and Ensemble strands), LITERATURE, and HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES. All are free and include live links to YouTube and other Internet sites for a full multimedia experience re dance styles, music, and history.
9/16/2014 News: Jitterbug! book now available on Amazon.com. Annotated for historical context and period slang. Perfect for the high school and college classrooms-- and Broadway producers!
3/11/2014 News: Just landed the rights to use Irving Berlin's Let's Face the Music and Dance.
The song as interpreted by Ella Fitzgerald is used to close the first act. Ella, with a single spot light on her, is at the back of the stage high above Billy and Tharbis who are facing a certain future of pain and suffering if not outright death from Billy's former gang, the legendary Jolly Fellows. You can learn more about the scene and how it plays out by scrolling down to see the 5/14/13 entry. Truly the last thing I wanted to do was to nix that scene because I couldn't use the music which, as far as I'm concerned, is perfect.
To learn more about Jitterbug!'s unique use of music from the Great American Songbook, please visit the Music link on the left. I never started out trying to develop a sub-theme about how the times (the Great Depression and Prohibition) and the American place (Harlem) were instrumental in bringing white composers and black musicians together to create some of the best music ever written. It just turned out that way. I was only looking for music from that period to authenticate my dance scenes and to set the tone of the times. But a pattern emerged that could only have happened in this country and in that city at that time. Now Irving Berlin, the supremely talented and great gift to America and the world, has joined my roster of great American black and white songwriters, musicians, and singers. I couldn't be happier.
The song as interpreted by Ella Fitzgerald is used to close the first act. Ella, with a single spot light on her, is at the back of the stage high above Billy and Tharbis who are facing a certain future of pain and suffering if not outright death from Billy's former gang, the legendary Jolly Fellows. You can learn more about the scene and how it plays out by scrolling down to see the 5/14/13 entry. Truly the last thing I wanted to do was to nix that scene because I couldn't use the music which, as far as I'm concerned, is perfect.
To learn more about Jitterbug!'s unique use of music from the Great American Songbook, please visit the Music link on the left. I never started out trying to develop a sub-theme about how the times (the Great Depression and Prohibition) and the American place (Harlem) were instrumental in bringing white composers and black musicians together to create some of the best music ever written. It just turned out that way. I was only looking for music from that period to authenticate my dance scenes and to set the tone of the times. But a pattern emerged that could only have happened in this country and in that city at that time. Now Irving Berlin, the supremely talented and great gift to America and the world, has joined my roster of great American black and white songwriters, musicians, and singers. I couldn't be happier.
2/2/2014 News: Nicholas Brothers
Decided to finally "suggest" in the latest revision of the script's Romeo and Juliet/Dancin' in the Rain scene that Billy's character emulate the amazing dancing style of the Nicholas Brothers. The dance number was originally written with Gene Kelly's legendary solo singing and dancing in the rain scene in mind-- but without music or rain, with just Billy's dancing expressing his love for Tharbis who is looking down at him from her Harlem tenement window. The scene always had Billy dancing in the lamp post's circle of light but now it asks the actor portraying him to jump up on the lamp post like Kelly but to leap off like the Nicholas Brothers, i.e., in a balletic leap into a split where he pulls himself up using only his legs. Check out the Nicholas Brothers in that famous scene below from the 1943 film Stormy Weather (which begins with Cab Calloway scat singing). Think I'm asking for too much? Not if you want to win a Tony!
Decided to finally "suggest" in the latest revision of the script's Romeo and Juliet/Dancin' in the Rain scene that Billy's character emulate the amazing dancing style of the Nicholas Brothers. The dance number was originally written with Gene Kelly's legendary solo singing and dancing in the rain scene in mind-- but without music or rain, with just Billy's dancing expressing his love for Tharbis who is looking down at him from her Harlem tenement window. The scene always had Billy dancing in the lamp post's circle of light but now it asks the actor portraying him to jump up on the lamp post like Kelly but to leap off like the Nicholas Brothers, i.e., in a balletic leap into a split where he pulls himself up using only his legs. Check out the Nicholas Brothers in that famous scene below from the 1943 film Stormy Weather (which begins with Cab Calloway scat singing). Think I'm asking for too much? Not if you want to win a Tony!
12/24/2013 News: Serendipity II
In an effort to make the dancical as historically accurate as possible I continue to read whatever I can on that "best of times, worst of times" period. Recent reads reshaped the opening. The A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert 'Believe it or Not' Ripley bio brought in a newsboy at the very beginning of the play shouting the latest headline about a couple of guys who set a record driving their jalopy BACKWARDS across the country TWICE. That was a thing of the times back then with people doing crazy stunts of all kinds in order, for the most part, to get sponsors who would fund their employment during the Great Depression. The second new idea came from re-reading David Levering Lewis' scholarly When Harlem Was In Vogue and discovering a picture of black men in an unemployment line. Years ago-- and I mean years ago-- from the very beginning my hero Billy Rhythm, just returned to Harlem and running from the law, whips around a corner onto 7th Ave and sees the legendary-- and now long gone-- Lafayette Theatre. Originally, he pauses to catch his breath before walking across the stage towards the Lafayette marquee. As he passes the equally legendary-- and equally gone-- "Tree of Hope," he pats the trunk and says, "Hope to get a gig." This ritual was done by all black entertainers looking for work. My latest version of Jitterbug! now adds an unemployment line of gray "sad faced men" holding onto a rope that keeps them from blocking the sidewalk as they wait to get into the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA) office set up by then New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In an effort to make the dancical as historically accurate as possible I continue to read whatever I can on that "best of times, worst of times" period. Recent reads reshaped the opening. The A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert 'Believe it or Not' Ripley bio brought in a newsboy at the very beginning of the play shouting the latest headline about a couple of guys who set a record driving their jalopy BACKWARDS across the country TWICE. That was a thing of the times back then with people doing crazy stunts of all kinds in order, for the most part, to get sponsors who would fund their employment during the Great Depression. The second new idea came from re-reading David Levering Lewis' scholarly When Harlem Was In Vogue and discovering a picture of black men in an unemployment line. Years ago-- and I mean years ago-- from the very beginning my hero Billy Rhythm, just returned to Harlem and running from the law, whips around a corner onto 7th Ave and sees the legendary-- and now long gone-- Lafayette Theatre. Originally, he pauses to catch his breath before walking across the stage towards the Lafayette marquee. As he passes the equally legendary-- and equally gone-- "Tree of Hope," he pats the trunk and says, "Hope to get a gig." This ritual was done by all black entertainers looking for work. My latest version of Jitterbug! now adds an unemployment line of gray "sad faced men" holding onto a rope that keeps them from blocking the sidewalk as they wait to get into the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA) office set up by then New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Although there may be music and dancing in the streets in the first scene, the audience is quickly reminded of the tough economic times. Since this is a "dancical," I was inspired to get Billy into a signifyin' pas de insult with the men in line when they start to thinking he's better than them by showing them through a dance number that he probably is by having him dance across 7th Ave instead of walking. Of course, since this is musical realism, it helps to have some music to inspire him so I have someone open a window onto the street to get some air and we hear Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler's 1929 hit "Get Happy!" on the radio-- a song these 20-something Jewish kids wrote just before signing up to write for the Cotton Club. Ella Fitzgerald is singing this later version but it's only the chorus we hear, just enough to get Billy across the street once known at that time to Harlemites as the "Boulevard of Dreams." On stage, this growing separation between the hopeless men in line and Billy is a metaphor propelled by his dancing away from despair toward hope which is found on the other side of the stage and is symbolic of Billy's indomitable spirit.
Forget your troubles
Come on get happy
You better chase all your cares away
Shout hallelujah
Come on get happy
Get ready for the judgment day
The sun is shining
Come on get happy
The lord is waiting to take your hand
Shout hallelujah
Come on get happy
We're going to the promised land
We're heading across the river
Wash your sins away in the tide
It's all so peaceful on the other side.
And then as Billy dances, the men suddenly begin dancing behind the rope, now holding onto it as if it were a ballet barre with one hand and "trucking" with the other hand held high above their heads as they plié, rise, kick-out, and lock-step forward while the lights and music dim and they disappear into the shadows and history..
Come on get happy
You better chase all your cares away
Shout hallelujah
Come on get happy
Get ready for the judgment day
The sun is shining
Come on get happy
The lord is waiting to take your hand
Shout hallelujah
Come on get happy
We're going to the promised land
We're heading across the river
Wash your sins away in the tide
It's all so peaceful on the other side.
And then as Billy dances, the men suddenly begin dancing behind the rope, now holding onto it as if it were a ballet barre with one hand and "trucking" with the other hand held high above their heads as they plié, rise, kick-out, and lock-step forward while the lights and music dim and they disappear into the shadows and history..
5/14/13 News: The continual evolution of the play and the role of serendipity
Ella Fitzgerald
Playwrights should be so lucky to have a director like Petronia Paley in their corner promoting their work and encouraging re-writes. Petronia has been my only director. She first staged the shortened radio reading at the National Black Theater in Harlem in 2012 and the second reading and first production of the full-length play at the New Works Festival in NYC this past March-- with movie star Khalil Kain in the starring role of Billy Rhythm. Because of her effort to make me rethink the 3-act play as a 2-act one, I embarked on another take on the story. This time around I brought in new historical characters I had years earlier rejected and forgotten because they didn't fit into the historical timeline (their pivotal moment made the Harlem scene later than when my story takes place). But she reminded me of the legendary ballsy entrepreneurial woman gang leader Madame Stephanie St. Clair and her associate "Bumpy" Johnson who were portrayed in the 1997 movie Hoodlum with Cicely Tyson and Laurence Fishburne. Because mobster Dutch Schultz wanted the very lucrative numbers game St. Clair introduced to Harlem and murdered her runners left and right to get it, I brought him in too (as a silent character who is instrumental in helping my protagonists Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson). Although they are minor characters, they help me show how black culture-- whether good or bad-- is appropriated by white culture-- a theme that has been in my dancical from the beginning. While remaining true to their nature, I had great fun writing these new characters into the play and found a new dynamic that connected the previous elements in the original storyline.
These new characters helped me reimagine a new and much more theatrical and moving ending to the first act. But I still wasn't happy with the ending. I wanted it to segue more into the 2nd Act, to connect everything that preceded it to everything to come-- with special emphasis on the foreshadowing of the danger to come-- to make the audience impatient during the 15-minute intermission to see how the story ends.
And then, last week, it happened. While switching channels, I stumbled onto a PBS Great American Songbook series hosted by Michael Feinstein. The show reminded me of Irving Berlin's wonderful 1936 hit "Let's Face the Music and Dance." Once I heard the lyrics I knew this would be the song and mechanism to close the first act. Up to that point, my new closing of the first act ended with Billy and Tharbis dancing an emotional jazz, tap, modern, and balletic infused number to the music of a New Orleans jazz band playing a gospel song for a nighttime funeral cortege through the streets of Harlem (which was typical back then since black workers couldn't afford to take off work during the day to bury their dead). The thing that made the solution jell for me was listening to the lyrics: they mirrored dialog and mood and touched upon another theme in my play; i.e, using moonlight as a metaphor for the change in Billy's single-minded behavior of eschewing love and romance for a career in show business where, at the end of the play, Billy opts for love.
BILLY
Darling, I entered this contest for myself but tonight,
I danced for you, my dear, brave Tharbis. Take the money, honey. I don't need it or the spotlight no more.
As long as I got you, moonlight will more than do.
Irving Berlin used similar language in the song which opens with a line that captures Billy and Tharbis' dread about entering a dance contest that may cost them their lives:
"... There may be trouble ahead...
but while there's moonlight and music and love and romance...
Let's face the music and dance...
soon we'll be without the moon, singing a different tune..."
Are you kidding me? It all came together at that moment: I would use the song to bridge the first and second acts. Billy and Tharbis would interpret the music in what I like to think is a choreographer's dream-come-true opportunity to "strut their stuff, " to reimagine the original and defining dance number by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in contemporary terms. Thankfully the song was from that period as I've made it a point to only use music within a 10-year span starting in 1929. I wondered if it had been recorded by an African American? Thanks to YouTube I quickly discovered Ella Fitzgerald had recorded it (along with hundreds of other singers including Frank Sinatra, Willy Nelson, and some guy named Taco).
Are you kidding me redux? Ella Fitzgerald was already in my play. She opens the 2nd Act at the Savoy Ballroom where she sang for the Chick Webb band. Although she was only about 14-years-old at the time of the play's 1931 setting, using a playwright's God-given right to use creative license, I made her 19-years-old when the song was released to the public. By that time, Ella had segued from a tough childhood where her mother died and she was placed in an orphanage. In her early teens she began running numbers (for Madame St. Clair I suspect since St. Clair was the only game in town at that time). By her late teens she was singing in the band (having been discovered at 17 singing at an amateur night at the Apollo Theater in 1934). The song she opens the 2nd Act with is the 1934 hit Stompin' at the Savoy. Because she and Chick Webb are attached to the song (it was written for the band by its alto saxophonist Edgar Sampson*) and were the house band at the Savoy, it was a natural fit. *Andy Razaf added lyrics later.
To make it work on stage, the New Orleans jazz band following Billy and Tharbis trailing the funeral cortege at the end of the first act BECOMES the Chick Webb Band as the music segues into the Irving Berlin song. Ella appears above the stage under a single spotlight in the same position she'll appear at the opening of the second act singing at the Savoy. As she sings, Billy and Tharbis dance below her until the song ends, the lights dim and the 1st Act ends.
Up Date (10/8/13): Here are the revised pages reflecting the addition of Irving Berlin's "Let's Face the Music and Dance" which concludes the first act with the climax of four different storylines and the death of Miss Thelma during her rent party. Music symbols are used to note the beginning, end, and continuation of songs; numbers, the song in the playlist. COLL is the ruthless mobster "Mad Dog" Coll who kidnapped Cotton Club owner OWNEY Madden's associate Big Frenchy DeMange. CANDY is Billy's best friend. WHITE is the legendary founder of the Jolly Fellows (JFs) gang (and Lindy Hoppers) who ordered Candy to kill Billy. The Comedy Club was a front for a gambling house in Harlem. MADAME St. Claire is the numbers queen of Harlem. Coll's murder is based on the conjecture of others that he was "kept on the line" by Madden long enough to give his hit men the time they needed to get there to knock him off. Madame St. Claire is also said to have hidden under her bed to avoid hit men from Dutch Schultz's mob.
♫ (Billy, Tharbis, and others help lift Miss Thelma off the floor and thread their way through the crowd, disappearing among the people. LIGHTS/MUSIC DOWN.)
BILLY’S VOICE IN THE DARK
You’re gonna kill her if you don’t get her a doctor.
ANOTHER VOICE IN THE DARK
Ain’t no doctor gonna come here this late in Harlem! Now get outta here!
THARBIS’ VOICE IN THE DARK
Billy, what’s wrong?
BILLY’S VOICE IN THE DARK
I don’t know but I think it’s her appendix. What they’re doing in there isn’t going to help. It’s just folk medicine bullshit. Dammit!
+♫(10) (ST. JAMES INFIRMARY as a STREETLIGHT comes on at the back of the stage and bathes a phone booth in harsh light next to a street sign
that reads: 23rd and 8th Avenue. Coll is on the phone.)
These new characters helped me reimagine a new and much more theatrical and moving ending to the first act. But I still wasn't happy with the ending. I wanted it to segue more into the 2nd Act, to connect everything that preceded it to everything to come-- with special emphasis on the foreshadowing of the danger to come-- to make the audience impatient during the 15-minute intermission to see how the story ends.
And then, last week, it happened. While switching channels, I stumbled onto a PBS Great American Songbook series hosted by Michael Feinstein. The show reminded me of Irving Berlin's wonderful 1936 hit "Let's Face the Music and Dance." Once I heard the lyrics I knew this would be the song and mechanism to close the first act. Up to that point, my new closing of the first act ended with Billy and Tharbis dancing an emotional jazz, tap, modern, and balletic infused number to the music of a New Orleans jazz band playing a gospel song for a nighttime funeral cortege through the streets of Harlem (which was typical back then since black workers couldn't afford to take off work during the day to bury their dead). The thing that made the solution jell for me was listening to the lyrics: they mirrored dialog and mood and touched upon another theme in my play; i.e, using moonlight as a metaphor for the change in Billy's single-minded behavior of eschewing love and romance for a career in show business where, at the end of the play, Billy opts for love.
BILLY
Darling, I entered this contest for myself but tonight,
I danced for you, my dear, brave Tharbis. Take the money, honey. I don't need it or the spotlight no more.
As long as I got you, moonlight will more than do.
Irving Berlin used similar language in the song which opens with a line that captures Billy and Tharbis' dread about entering a dance contest that may cost them their lives:
"... There may be trouble ahead...
but while there's moonlight and music and love and romance...
Let's face the music and dance...
soon we'll be without the moon, singing a different tune..."
Are you kidding me? It all came together at that moment: I would use the song to bridge the first and second acts. Billy and Tharbis would interpret the music in what I like to think is a choreographer's dream-come-true opportunity to "strut their stuff, " to reimagine the original and defining dance number by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in contemporary terms. Thankfully the song was from that period as I've made it a point to only use music within a 10-year span starting in 1929. I wondered if it had been recorded by an African American? Thanks to YouTube I quickly discovered Ella Fitzgerald had recorded it (along with hundreds of other singers including Frank Sinatra, Willy Nelson, and some guy named Taco).
Are you kidding me redux? Ella Fitzgerald was already in my play. She opens the 2nd Act at the Savoy Ballroom where she sang for the Chick Webb band. Although she was only about 14-years-old at the time of the play's 1931 setting, using a playwright's God-given right to use creative license, I made her 19-years-old when the song was released to the public. By that time, Ella had segued from a tough childhood where her mother died and she was placed in an orphanage. In her early teens she began running numbers (for Madame St. Clair I suspect since St. Clair was the only game in town at that time). By her late teens she was singing in the band (having been discovered at 17 singing at an amateur night at the Apollo Theater in 1934). The song she opens the 2nd Act with is the 1934 hit Stompin' at the Savoy. Because she and Chick Webb are attached to the song (it was written for the band by its alto saxophonist Edgar Sampson*) and were the house band at the Savoy, it was a natural fit. *Andy Razaf added lyrics later.
To make it work on stage, the New Orleans jazz band following Billy and Tharbis trailing the funeral cortege at the end of the first act BECOMES the Chick Webb Band as the music segues into the Irving Berlin song. Ella appears above the stage under a single spotlight in the same position she'll appear at the opening of the second act singing at the Savoy. As she sings, Billy and Tharbis dance below her until the song ends, the lights dim and the 1st Act ends.
Up Date (10/8/13): Here are the revised pages reflecting the addition of Irving Berlin's "Let's Face the Music and Dance" which concludes the first act with the climax of four different storylines and the death of Miss Thelma during her rent party. Music symbols are used to note the beginning, end, and continuation of songs; numbers, the song in the playlist. COLL is the ruthless mobster "Mad Dog" Coll who kidnapped Cotton Club owner OWNEY Madden's associate Big Frenchy DeMange. CANDY is Billy's best friend. WHITE is the legendary founder of the Jolly Fellows (JFs) gang (and Lindy Hoppers) who ordered Candy to kill Billy. The Comedy Club was a front for a gambling house in Harlem. MADAME St. Claire is the numbers queen of Harlem. Coll's murder is based on the conjecture of others that he was "kept on the line" by Madden long enough to give his hit men the time they needed to get there to knock him off. Madame St. Claire is also said to have hidden under her bed to avoid hit men from Dutch Schultz's mob.
♫ (Billy, Tharbis, and others help lift Miss Thelma off the floor and thread their way through the crowd, disappearing among the people. LIGHTS/MUSIC DOWN.)
BILLY’S VOICE IN THE DARK
You’re gonna kill her if you don’t get her a doctor.
ANOTHER VOICE IN THE DARK
Ain’t no doctor gonna come here this late in Harlem! Now get outta here!
THARBIS’ VOICE IN THE DARK
Billy, what’s wrong?
BILLY’S VOICE IN THE DARK
I don’t know but I think it’s her appendix. What they’re doing in there isn’t going to help. It’s just folk medicine bullshit. Dammit!
+♫(10) (ST. JAMES INFIRMARY as a STREETLIGHT comes on at the back of the stage and bathes a phone booth in harsh light next to a street sign
that reads: 23rd and 8th Avenue. Coll is on the phone.)
COLL
Where’s the money, Madden? I’ve been here long enough.
(TABLE LAMP comes on next to Madden sitting in a plush chair directly in front of the phone booth toward the front of the stage as he talks on a phone and sips whiskey from a glass.)
OWNEY
Hey, Coll, thirty-five thou isn’t easy to come by.
Where’s the money, Madden? I’ve been here long enough.
(TABLE LAMP comes on next to Madden sitting in a plush chair directly in front of the phone booth toward the front of the stage as he talks on a phone and sips whiskey from a glass.)
OWNEY
Hey, Coll, thirty-five thou isn’t easy to come by.
|
COLL
Are you kidding me? You rake in more than that in a week from the club. OWNEY Coll, relax, the money is on its way. COLL I’m tired of feeding the fat frog. He’s eating into my profit margin. OWNEY I hear ya. DeMange can put it away that's for sure. (A MOBSTER steps into the phone booth light and taps on the glass door. Coll turns to see the guy unloading his Tommy gun. Coll falls through the opening and dies.) |
(LIGHTS UP on another part of the stage: Comedy Club. Candy is approach-
ing White with a butcher knife as he plays cards with other JFs.) CANDY Old man, you can’t make me do what I don’t want to do. (Candy raises the knife high over his head. JFs knock their chairs over to get out of the way. White doesn't move as Candy stabs himself in the stomach and falls onto the poker table, knocking it over and spilling money, chips and cards every-where. Group, table and chairs retreat OUT OF THE LIGHT to the back of the stage.) |
(LIGHTS UP on another part of the stage as Miss Thelma lying upright in bed, moans and writhes in pain. She’s praying. Beverly is holding her
hand as another woman mops her brow. An egg, browned on both sides, has been placed on her exposed belly. Miss Thelma suddenly sits up and screams.) MISS THELMA No! (Group and the bed retreat OUT OF THE LIGHT to the back of the stage.) |
(LIGHTS UP on another part of the stage: Madame’s bedroom as
she rushes through the door-way, locks the door and throws herself under the the bed. LOUD KNOCKING on the door.) GANGSTER (OS) Queenie, open the damn door! (Madame is shaken. Sud-denly the door is kicked in and GANGSTER enters with a smoking Tommy gun. Group retreats OUT OF THE LIGHT to the back of the stage.) |
OWNEY
Hello? Mr. Mad Dog Coll, are you there?
MOBSTER
(picks up phone, speaks)
He’s been called away.
Hello? Mr. Mad Dog Coll, are you there?
MOBSTER
(picks up phone, speaks)
He’s been called away.
...♫ (11) (Owney laughs and hangs up as he, the table and lamp retreat OUT OF THE LIGHT to the back of the stage and MUSIC SEGUES to Peace in the Valley as a New Orleans style jazz band leads MOURN- ERS toward the front of the stage. They split at the front of the stage, turn and walk toward the back of the stage to reveal Billy and Tharbis
holding each other walking toward the front of the stage and INTO
THE LIGHT. Billy is wearing a black zoot suit and a large black fedora with a white hat band. Tharbis is wearing a long, slim, black
dress cut at mid-calf and a black wide-brim hat with a white hat band. Mourners exit, the swing band remains.)
THARBIS
Billy, what’s happening? What’s happening? Miss Thelma’s dead. Candy’s dead. They’re saying Owney Madden killed Big Frenchy’s kidnapper. What’s happening?
BILLY
(staring ahead)
We’ve gotta win that contest.
(turns to Tharbis)
“There may be trouble ahead... but let’s face the music and dance.”
holding each other walking toward the front of the stage and INTO
THE LIGHT. Billy is wearing a black zoot suit and a large black fedora with a white hat band. Tharbis is wearing a long, slim, black
dress cut at mid-calf and a black wide-brim hat with a white hat band. Mourners exit, the swing band remains.)
THARBIS
Billy, what’s happening? What’s happening? Miss Thelma’s dead. Candy’s dead. They’re saying Owney Madden killed Big Frenchy’s kidnapper. What’s happening?
BILLY
(staring ahead)
We’ve gotta win that contest.
(turns to Tharbis)
“There may be trouble ahead... but let’s face the music and dance.”
(As Billy grabs Tharbis’ hand and throws her out in front +♫ (12) of him, the funeral band BECOMES the Chick Webb swing band. A young and lithe ELLA FITZGERALD appears under a single spot above the stage in the same place Act 2 will open at the Savoy Ballroom. She’s singing Let’s Face the Music and Dance. The band forms a semi-circle around them but it remains in shadow as Billy and Tharbis begin the dance like Fred and Ginger but soon throw away any comparisons to those golden age icons of dance by using new tap, jazz, modern, and balletic moves to express their pain and sorrow. He lifts her when the music soars and lets her ride his body downward in a tight embrace when the music sinks with its heavy emotion. When the music dwindles down to its final notes, they are gently swaying from side-to-side and embracing each other to hold themselves up and to tap each others strength. LIGHT DROPS on Ella. As Billy and Tharbis STEP OUT OF THE LIGHT and exit White STEPS INTO THE LIGHT smoking a cigarette. He watches them disappear, exhales smoke, stomps out his cigarette, and follows.
♫ LIGHTS/MUSIC FADE OUT.)
(End of Act I.)
♫ LIGHTS/MUSIC FADE OUT.)
(End of Act I.)
3/31/13 News:
Here's a video clip shot by Benja K Thomas during the sold-out 3/23 NYC reading. Khalil Kain, in the starring role of Billy Rhythm, takes on Bojangles (Peter Jay Fernandez) in the Hoofers Club, the legendary "unacknowledged world headquarters of tap dance." The Hoofers Club was basically a storage closet in the Comedy Club, the Jolly Fellows' Harlem hangout. It was just big enough to squeeze in an upright piano and a bench and still have enough floor space left over for two tap dancers to work their stuff. Bojangles challenges the desperate, injured and impetuous Rhythm to "trade fours." If he dances as well as he says he can, Bojangles will call off the Jolly Fellows who are bent on beating him up good. Pamela Monroe is reading the stage directions. Directed by Petronia Paley at the Tada! Theater. Music is based on the "Buck Dancer's Lament," a turn-of-the-century little riff in the public domain aka "stop-time."
Tickets to the Saturday, March 23rd Show!
Click here to open the Brown Paper Tickets page. Once there, click the Date box on the left and scroll down to the Saturday, March 23rd 9:00 pm time slot. There are only 99-seats and tickets are going fast so don't delay!
News: 3/19/13
Here's a sneak preview of choreographer Jeffrey Page's dance for the "slow drag" scene with Khalil Kain and Afi McClendon. Music: Jitis Blues by Memphis Minnie (1930).
News: 3/14/13
Afi McClendon
Afi McClendon, AFI, AFTRA, SAG, has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! as the Dancer. Broadway: Fela! on Broadway (Ensemble)- Bill T.Jones, Eugene O’Neill Theatre; Fela! World Tour (Principal)- Sandra Iszadore; Once On This Island-- Little Timoune-- Original Cast-- Graciella Daniele, The Booth Theatre; 1991 and 2010 Tony Awards telecast; Off-Broadway: Holiday Heart-- AUDELCO Award Nominee, Lead Actress, Tazewell Thompson, MTC; Taking Control (Principal)-- Nikki-- Terrance Jenkins, Young Playwrights Festival at Playwrights Horizons; The Children’s Legacy-- AUDELCO Rising Star Award, Lola Louis; Regional: Good Goods (Principal)--- Sunny-- Yale Rep Theatre; Film: Fresh-- Hillary-- Boaz Yakin, Lawrence Bender.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
News: 3/14/13
Stephanie Williams
Stephanie Williams has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! Stephanie will be playing women from both races plus a young boy! She is a native New Yorker who graduated with a B.A. in Theater from Temple University. She is thrilled to be a part of this reading. Special thanks to family and friends who are greatly supportive.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
News: 3/14/13
Hope Harley
Hope Harley has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! She'll be playing multiple roles and age ranges from a wisecracking Jolly Flapperette to an old woman landlord. Ms. Harley is pursuing her lifelong dream to become an actor after a long and suc-cessful corporate career. Last year she appeared as Lena Younger (Mama) in the Gallery Players production of A Raisin in the Sun. She has appeared in productions at the Polaris North Theater Cooperative, the Strawberry One-Act Festival, and in two episodes of the Biography channel’s Celebrity Ghost Stories. She is a student at I The Actor, led by Petronia Paley.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographerJeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographerJeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
News: 3/14/13
Clinton Roane (AEA) has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! He'll be playing multiple rolls including that of Cab Calloway. Clinton is excited to be a part of Jitterbug! Some theatre credits include The Scottsboro Boys on Broadway, Hello! My Baby and My One And Only. He is a graduate of Howard University and CAP21.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
Here's a clip of Clinton singing "If She Were Coming Home" from the musical Next Thing You Know by Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham (with Salzman on piano).
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
Here's a clip of Clinton singing "If She Were Coming Home" from the musical Next Thing You Know by Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham (with Salzman on piano).
News: 3/13/13
Jim Bray
Jim Bray (AEA) has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! He'll be reading multiple rolls including that of mobster Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll. Jim's credits include tours in Greaseas Doody (Euro tour); New York Theatre: Daisy in The Great Pretender, Daniel in It’s Karate, Kid! The Musical. Regional: Plaid Tidings, Chicago, Man of La Mancha, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Singin’ in the Rain, Avenue Q, The Producers, Hair Spray, Sweeney Todd, Forever Plaid, All Shook Up, Bat Boy, Blood, Drive, Fallen Angel; Film/TV: Mona Lisa Smile (Columbia Pictures), CAMP(Killer/Jersey Films); Strangers With Candy (Comedy Central); Recordings: Sympathy Jones, It’s Karate, Kid! The Musical.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographerJeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographerJeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
News: 3/12/13
Pamela Monroe
Pamela Monroe, a co-producer for the 3/23 reading at the Tada! Theater in Manhattan, has been cast by Petronia Paley to read the stage directions to DC Copeland's Jitterbug! Her most recent credits include Pearl’s Gone Blue (NYC International Fringe Festival 2011 winner for the “Award of Excellence for Best Musical Production”), A Long Last Poem Before Dying; Mina by OBIE Award winning and TONY nominated playwright Leslie Lee; What Would Jesus Do?; The Vagina Monologues; Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery. Film credits include: Doing the L.A. Thing (HBO Best Feature at Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival); Pieces of a Puzzle, Kali’s Vibe and the short film Mateo’s Room featuring Anthony Laciura (Boardwalk Empire).
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographerJeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographerJeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
News: 3/11/13
Mark Lang
Actor Mark Lang has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! Mr. Lang will play multiple roles including that of Cotton Club mobster "Big Frenchy" DeMange, a role he previously played to great acclaim in last year's shortened "radio" version at the National Black Theatre in Harlem. Mark is a 12-year Harlem resident who has appeared on stage, film and television. Recent credits include ‘Roy Bryant’ in Whistle in Mississippi: The Lynching of Emmett Till, ‘Dag Hammerskjold’ in A Season in the Congo, ‘White Cop’ in The Bronx is Next and ‘Capt. Zuelke’ in Camp Logan and Lepidus/Euphronious/The Clown in Take Wing and Soar’s production of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Other film and TV credits include multiple guest star roles on The Young Riders(MGM/UA) and Hey Dude (Cinetel). Mark has also had principal roles in a number of low budget thrillers and regular spots on CollegeHumor.com. He has performed in more than 40 stage plays and worked as a stunt man at Old Tucson Studios.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
News: 3/1113
Richard Vincent Weber
Richard Vincent Weber has been cast by director Petronia Paley as the Radio Announcer at the Savoy Ballroom dance contest and as mobsters Herbert Block and Owney Madden in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! He has worked off-Broadway and regional theatre across the country, including: Classical Theatre of Harlem, Manhattan Theatre Source, Theatre for the New City, Park Theatre, NJ; Prometheus Fire, CT; and Matrix Theatre, LA. Last seen in Neil Labute's Stand Up and is currently working on an adaptation of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Marlowe The Poet for the Spring. Film: Melvyn Van Peebles’ Confession of an Ex-Duffus. TV: Silk Stalkings, Fade Out, Rolling Thunder, Vanishing Son, Renegade. Special thanks to the memory of Jack Colvin and Chris Seina for their inspiration.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.
News: 3/8/13
Peter Jay Fernandez
Veteran TV and film star Peter Jay Fernandez (AEA) has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! He will double as the legendary Herbert White, founder of the Harlem street gang known as the Jolly Fellows and the globe trotting dance troupe Lindy Hoppers and equally legendary tap dancer and film star Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. His TV credits include: House of Cards, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Body of Proof, The Good Wife, Blue Bloods, Damages, Fringe, Hack, Law & Order, The Prosecutors, Cosby, New York Undercover, The Adventures of Superboy. Film: The Adjustment Bureau, Deception, Preaching to the Choir, The Egoists. Stage: Played Donald Jackson in Charles Fuller’s Zooman and the Sign at the Peter Norton Space in NYC, Shaka in Oni Faida Lampley’s play Tough Titty at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, MA; Marvel Thunder in Thunder Knocking on the Door, a musical by Keith Glover, Keb’ Mo’, and Anderson Edwards at the Minetta Lane Theater in NYC.
News: 3/7/13
Cezar Williams has been cast by director Petronia Paley in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! He will be playing two characters: Candy, the lead character's best friend, and Charlie Buchanan, part owner of the world-famous Savoy Ballroom. Theater credits include James and Annie, by Warren Leight at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (dir: D. Lynn Meyers) and the Williamstown Theatre Festival (dir: Jack Hofsiss), Ascension at The National Black Theatre Festival (dir: Petronia Paley) and Yanagai! Yanagai! at La Mama (dir: Harold Dean James and Karen Oughtred). Television appearances include Law and Order, NYC 22, Blue Bloods and What Would You Do?
News: 3/6/13
Andi Bohs
Actress Andi Bohs has been cast by director Petronia Paley as the female lead in DC Copeland's Jitterbug! This will be Andi's second time around in the dancical. Last March she had a smaller part in the shortened "radio" version at the prestigious National Black Theater in Harlem. While in Chicago she was featured in a number of regional productions including a dual-role performance as Mama/Hannah in A Midnight Cry at the historic Auditorium Theatre and Richard III at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Since moving to New York she has performed as Belle de Costa Green in Ventfort Hall’s production of Belle of the Books, a role which was remounted for both the Metropolitan Playhouse’s 2011 Harlem Renaissance Festival and the 50th anniversary of the Union College Library. She most recently performed in Fresh Ground Pepper’s All the Rats and Rags and Tiny Rhino's Valentine's Day Eve Celebration.
News: 3/3/13
Khalil Kain
We are thrilled to announce that Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character in Jitterbug!
He first appeared in the 1992 film Juice as Raheem. Some of his credits include Suddenly Susan, Friends, Living Single, Moesha, Angel, and Sister, Sister.
Kain portrayed Marvin Cox in the 1997 romantic comedy, Love Jones and golfer Tiger Woods in Showtime's The Tiger Woods Story. He was also in Bones with co-star Snoop Dogg. Kain has been an avid student of martial arts since 1996, and holds a black belt in hapkido.
He appeared as Darnell Wilkes on the UPN/CW TV series Girlfriends from Seasons 2 through 8. He replaced Flex Alexander, who left to star in the sitcom One on One.
He also played the role of Bill in the 2010 movie For Colored Girls.
The music and dance-filled reading will take place at 9pm, Saturday, March 23rd at the Tada! Theatre in Manhattan. Jitterbug!, the award-winning "dancical" by DC Copeland is participating in the "by invitation only" New Works Festival by Emerging Artists Theatre (EAT).
He first appeared in the 1992 film Juice as Raheem. Some of his credits include Suddenly Susan, Friends, Living Single, Moesha, Angel, and Sister, Sister.
Kain portrayed Marvin Cox in the 1997 romantic comedy, Love Jones and golfer Tiger Woods in Showtime's The Tiger Woods Story. He was also in Bones with co-star Snoop Dogg. Kain has been an avid student of martial arts since 1996, and holds a black belt in hapkido.
He appeared as Darnell Wilkes on the UPN/CW TV series Girlfriends from Seasons 2 through 8. He replaced Flex Alexander, who left to star in the sitcom One on One.
He also played the role of Bill in the 2010 movie For Colored Girls.
The music and dance-filled reading will take place at 9pm, Saturday, March 23rd at the Tada! Theatre in Manhattan. Jitterbug!, the award-winning "dancical" by DC Copeland is participating in the "by invitation only" New Works Festival by Emerging Artists Theatre (EAT).
News: 1/31/13
Jeffrey Page
Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page joins the Jitterbug! team as Choreographer. Mr. Page offers an energetic fusion of traditional African Dance, hip-hop, funk and
soul. Page's intricate movements have been featured on Fox's So
You Think You Can Dance, Beyonce's
Tour - The Beyonce Experience, MTV's
Video Music Awards, the BET Awards,
and the World Music Awards to name a
few. A talented dancer in his own right, Jeffrey Page is also a trained actor,
director, and musician. To each job, Page brings a wealth of dance, theatre,
and film knowledge. To see his choreography reel, please click "The Choreographer" link on the left.
News: 1/24/13
"Jitterbug!" invited to appear in the seventh-annual Emerging Artists Theatre (EAT) New Works Festival. The month long event will feature the work of a handful of playwrights at the Tada! Youth Theatre in Manhattan. Directed again by Petronia Paley who directed the world-premiere of the shorter "radio" version last March at the National Black Theatre in Harlem, this reading will be of the full 3-act play. It will also include music and swing dancers. This honor is a direct result of Ms. Paley pitching the play to theatre producers at the Theatre Resources Unlimited (TRU) "Speed Date" where Paul Adams, artistic director for EAT, first heard of it.
News: 1/17/13
Listen to your dramaturg. I had been wrestling with the mouthful of a title for this play for a long time. If you believe "less is more," than something had to be done with "Once Upon A Time In Harlem: A Jitterbug Romance." I had been thinking "Jitterbug" would be better but it took Jaz Dorsey, dramaturg and founder of the African American Playwrights Exchange (AAPEX) to suggest it to me without knowing I had been thinking along the same lines, that it would look better up on a marquee. He's right and here's the new logo.
News: 8/1/12
OUATIH is invited to a Broadway producer's "Speed Date."
I'm happy to announce that my play made the cut in an invitation only opportunity to pitch it to a dozen Broadway and Off Broadway producers thanks to Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) "Speed Date." Since I was unable to attend, Petronia Paley represented me and the play in NYC, Sunday, July 22nd.
Up Date: Got two requests to read. Keeping fingers crossed.
I'm happy to announce that my play made the cut in an invitation only opportunity to pitch it to a dozen Broadway and Off Broadway producers thanks to Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) "Speed Date." Since I was unable to attend, Petronia Paley represented me and the play in NYC, Sunday, July 22nd.
Up Date: Got two requests to read. Keeping fingers crossed.
News: 2/28/12
The National Black Theatre (NBT), celebrating 44 years of "keeping soul alive!", is presenting the "radio" reading version of D.C. Copeland's award-winning play "Once Upon A Time In Harlem: A Jitterbug Romance" at 7pm, Friday, March 30th in Harlem. Directed by noted actress, director, and teacher Petronia Paley, the multimedia production is a re-imagining of the play as a radio broadcast from the swinging 1930's. Swing dancers courtesy of The Harlem Swing Dance Society. RSVP for free tickets by calling the NBT at 212-722-3800 or via email at [email protected]. NBT is located on 5th Avenue between 125th and 126th Streets in America's most mythic city: Harlem.
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