THEATER

ProArts works with St. Edward's on African classic

Theater collaboration extends opportunities for African American artists in Austin.

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARTS WRITER
Sunday, February 10, 2008

"Death and the King's Horseman," the ambitious collaboration to bring the poetic and dramatic play by Nobel-winning Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka to the stage at St. Edward's University, accomplishes many things.

For starters, the show, which opens Wednesday for a two-week run, aligns the efforts of Austin's ProArts Collective, an African American multidisciplinary arts organization, with St. Edward's long-recognized professional undergraduate theater program — a program that regularly uses professional actors and directors in tandem with theater students.

What better way to bridge the so-called town and gown gap: Give students a chance to work with theater professionals, give local theater professionals a paying gig and give Austin audiences a production of a rarely staged jewel of 20th-century world theater.

"It allows us to do the type of programming that we envision, but we don't necessarily have the resources to do entirely on our own," said Lisa Byrd, ProArts' executive director. "And it gives us the opportunity to pursue another goal of ours, which is to stimulate an arts and culture environment that provides professional opportunities to African American artists."

That last point is critical, Boyd says.

"Austin is a great place to get your chops down, but where do you go to develop professionally beyond that?" she said. "We want to be able to offer African American artists professional opportunities."

Enter professional actors Shelby Davenport, Carla Nickerson and Marc Pouhé. The trio of seasoned performers — all members of Actors' Equity, the professional actors union — will join St. Edward's students in the cast of "Death and the King's Horseman."

That students get to rub elbows with professional actors not only serves to broaden the theater learning experience, it lays the groundwork for the future. "Part of the agenda is to interest African American students in attending St. Edward's University and studying theater," said Ev Lunning, theater professor at St. Edward's, noting that the performance is timed to overlap with St. Edward's open house weekends for interested high school students. "We're thrilled with the joint project with ProArts."

The effort to pull talent from the community netted Stephen Gerald, a director, actor and University of Texas theater professor who has considerable experience in contemporary West African theater. Although UT is not an official collaborator — the university will host Soyinka's March 5 visit to the UT campus — Gerald says he is nevertheless thrilled with the current project. "This is the way to build another voice for the community," he says.

All the more, he adds, because Soyinka's play — praised for its combination of Yoruban and European culture and language and frequently read in world literature classes — isn't often performed outside Africa.

"American audiences don't typically have an ear for African literature," Gerald said. "(Contemporary African dramatic language) tends to be very poetic. Though we may see Shakespeare's plays and become attuned to Elizabethan verse, when it comes to contemporary African plays written in verse, we're not used to it. And it makes the audience feel outside the action."

As Gerald points out, there are three competing dialects and accents in Soyinka's play, which is set in 1940s Nigeria: the British dialect spoken by the colonizing forces, the English dialect spoken by those associated with the royal house of Nigeria and the dialect of nonroyal Nigerians.

"Death and the King's Horseman" — considered by most critics to be Soyinka's greatest play — tells the story of Elesin, the king's horseman, who is expected, according to Yoruba spiritual custom, to commit ritual suicide following the death of the king. Elesin fails do to so after British officers interfere. The story is based on actual events in 1946, when a royal horseman was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the British colonial powers. However, in Soyinka's version, the horseman holds responsibility for his own actions. Personal duty, the relationship of life with death and the power of religion are Soyinka's concerns, not just the collision of colonialism and Africa.

"The issue is really what modern politics dictates versus what a belief system dictates," Gerald said. "It's a question that still troubles us today."

jvanryzin@statesman.com; 445-3699