by Donnie Wilson
Here’s a quiz. Charles Dickens is to A Christmas Carol as Langston Hughes is to: a) A Dream Deferred, b) The Harlem Renaissance, c) Black Nativity or d) Not Without Laughter? If your answer is c, Black Nativity, congratulate yourself and add one point to your intelligence quotient. For some reason beyond my ability to explain, I find great pleasure in taking these types of standardized tests. I often look for them in the back of airline magazines whenever I’ve become bored while flying. However, last night, I was not bored nor was I sitting in an airplane; instead, I was sitting front and center in the attractive Bishop Arts Theater for the TeCo Production of Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity.
Although Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of the most popular and beloved Christmas stories of all time, Langston Hughes’ gospel song play could be one of the most endearing. At the risk of sounding cliché, the production is soul stirring, hand clapping and toe tapping, but what other way is there to describe a good ol’ fashioned gospel infused musical?
Like its literary counterpart, Black Nativity is a Christmas story told in narrative and song. Unlike its counterpart, it is a joyful retelling of the birth of Christ by way of gospel music and poetry. It was first produced on Broadway in December of 1961. Its original title was Wasn’t It a Mighty Day? Alvin Ailey was an original cast member but quit when the name changed because he objected to the use of the word “black” in the title.
There are a couple of things about Teco’s production of Black Nativity that are very good. Namely, the classically trained singers of the performing arts ensemble, New Arts Six and particularly Linda Searight, the brightest star in this cast. Her moody contralto vocal range opens the first act with a Negro spiritual rendition of ‘Have You Heard’ and from that moment on you know that when she sings – your ears will sense heaven. Glenda Clay is an incredible coloratura soprano, who like Searight, understands her dramatic purpose.
The first act begins 2000 years ago in Bethlehem around the time Jesus was born. Because the roles of Joseph, played by Andre Taylor and Mary, played by Sequoia Houston, are mute, as written by Hughes, their presence on stage seems at times clumsy. The three Shepherds delivery of ‘No Good Shepherd Boy’, a brilliant and timeless piece that looks at pathologies facing Black men, is budding with possibilities but disappointingly falls short of its potential. However, all is not lost as New Arts Six follows with the most incredible soulful jazzy gospel version of Go Tell It On The Mountain I’ve ever heard.
The brief second act takes place in the African American Church of today and lacks the energy and passion of the first act. Yet consistent with the nature of this production, there is always a ram in the bush and she is Cynthia Navarette, the narrator of the first act. Navarette waits for this opportunity to shine in her interpretation of the preacher. Her performance here is both amusingly divine and divinely amusing.
Because Hughes wrote Black Nativity in a way that provides directors with liberty to use their creative juices in fashioning the production, I wish the director H. J. Steward had taken more risks and had a lot more fun with it. Nevertheless, his vision is still worth seeing.
Donnie Wilson is a Dallas, Texas based playwright and freelance writer for Walt Disney.
