By Ken Keuffel
Those who celebrate the past are destined to revisit it—especially during the National Black Theatre Festival, which will be Monday through Saturday in venues all over Winston-Salem.
Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope, an inspirational revue about the African-American experience, opened the first festival, which the late Larry Leon Hamlin founded in 1989. It will return for a four-show run beginning Monday at the Stevens Center, energizing audiences there with continuous dancing and the singing of such songs as “I Gotta Keep Movin’” and “Time Brings About a Change.”
Much about the latest production will remind patrons of the first one, from its director, Mabel Robinson, to the performers engaged by the N.C. Black Repertory Company, which presents the festival every other summer in Winston-Salem. The latter will include Horace Rogers, Jannie Jones and John Heath.
“This is my absolute first time,” said Jones, a veteran stage actor, when asked if she’d ever appeared in two productions of the same show that were separated by so many years.
Jones seemed eager to appear in Cope again.
“I’ve had so many more experiences,” she said, referring to relationships and to acting work on Broadway and around the country. “Now I can take all those experiences, and I can bring it to this production and make it … even more excellent than it was before.”
Heath also sounded upbeat about reuniting with Cope, noting that “there are so many things I’ve experienced that have caused me to understand the piece even better after 20 years.”
Cope —with music and lyrics by Micki Grant—opened 38 years ago in Washington, D.C., and eventually wound up on Broadway, where it ran for more than 1,000 performances between 1972 and 1974.
Grant also performed in the Cope on Broadway. She and three other Broadway-cast members will attend the festival production, reuniting with Robinson, who saw the original Broadway production and eventually joined it as a dancer.
The first festival production of Cope helped establish Robinson’s reputation as a director-choreographer. It would become one of numerous shows she has directed for both N.C. Black Rep and the festival (Mahalia, Queen of Gospel, starring Jones, was the last one). Robinson, who has lived in Winston-Salem since the 1980s, has been N.C. Black Rep’s artistic director since 2007.
“I was just so engulfed with the essence of it and the subject matters that were being touched and the songs,” said Robinson, recalling her reaction to Cope when she saw it for the first time. “It was just so much like the feeling of the festival. When I came to Winston-Salem that was the first show that I brought to Larry’s attention. He invited me stage it (for N.C. Black Rep, in 1986).”
Robinson doesn’t seem surprised that Hamlin ultimately chose to make Cope the festival’s first production.
“It’s like a hymn to us,” she said. “And when you are going to have a festival that is supposed to be a celebration and a reunion of spirit, that’s a perfect way to kick it off.”
In Robinson’s eyes, Cope is similar to Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity in that it is frequently done nationwide and can accommodate periodic updates despite some subject matter that is clearly of another time (e.g., Black Power). The updates in the next Winston-Salem production will include a salute to President Obama as well as mention of Hamlin and the late Michael Jackson in the song “They Keep Coming,” which Robinson described as a kind of honor roll.
Although some of the material in Cope may seem dated, Robinson is still astonished at how much of the show’s lyrics have retained their relevance.
“How much change has there been?” Robinson asked. “The situations she has touched upon may have changed 2 percent. But we are hoping for 100 percent.”
That’s one of the reasons why the “story” can’t be lost amid all the singing and dancing.
“I constantly stress to the performers that you just can’t deal with the surface,” Robinson said. “You have to remember that you we are trying to emphasize black pride and dignity. We must invite the white audience in and illuminate them, rather than make them feel not wanted, so that they can want to understand and learn about us.”
■ The N.C. Black Repertory Company and the National Black Theatre Festival will present Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope beginning Monday at the Stevens Center. Shows will be at 9 p.m. Monday and at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Tickets are $42, except Monday, when the show is included in a special gala package for $251. To order tickets, call 723-7907. For more information about the festival, which will run Monday through Saturday at venues throughout Winston-Salem, visit www.nbtf.org.
■ Ken Keuffel can be reached at 727-7337 or at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)