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Past Performances: |
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September 6, 2009
April 16-25, 2009
April 8-11, 2009
December 12, 2008 - January 11, 2009
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“Yesteryear: Ladies of Song” (Syracuse, NY) — As part of the Great NYS Fair 2009 New York talent lineup at Chevy Court PRpac presents: “Yesteryear: Ladies of Song,” conceived and directed by William H. Rowland II, written in conjunction with Jackie Warren-Moore. This spectacular celebration, under the musical direction of William Cummings, will take a look at 50 years of pop music coming out of a gospel and Negro spiritual tradition. PRpac’s “Yesteryear: Ladies of Song” will be featured as the “Homegrown Talent Day"artists on Sunday, September 6, 2009 at 2:00pm. Tickets free for fairgoers. For more information call 315-442-2727. http://prpac.syr.edu/ www.nysfair.org/chevrolet-court Click here for press release flyer
June 16th The Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company (PRpac) is presents June 16th, written and performed by Ryan Travis, an African American Studies Department graduate student at Syracuse University. Travis begins the last phase of his final requirement for graduation with this thesis production. This one-man play explores the phenomenon of single parent formation in the African-American community. Derived from interviews with nine fathers, this play is a journey of absence and hope The show will run:
June 16th will be held at the PRPAC Black Box Theater Dee-Davis Room located at 805 E. Genesee Street in Syracuse. Tickets are free and open to the public.
The Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company (PRpac) is presents Invisible Women Melting in collaboration with Wrong Is Not Our Name Productions. This one act play, written by Jessica Ann Mitchell, an African American Studies Department graduate student at Syracuse University. Mitchell begins the last phase of her final requirement for graduation with this production. The play dramatically and colorfully illustrates the pain and turmoil that Black women all over the world endure, due to the negative effects of Climate Change and pre-existing global inequalities. Directed by Jackie Warren-Moore, this one act focuses on the often unaddressed ways in which African American and Tanzanian women are plagued by life threatening predicaments, caused by climate change in conjunction with poverty. Invisible Women Melting, focuses onthe lives of women from different communities fused into a dynamic emotional interwoven display. Highlighting these differences the play simultaneously stresses commonalities, which is portrayed by an intergenerational cast of women artists from the Syracuse University, High school, and Syracuse communities. The show will run:
Black Nativity, by Langston Hughes, a gospel musical drama. Black Nativity, directed by William H. Rowland II and Annette Adams-Brown. Rajendra Maroon Maharaj (Associate Artistic Director at Syracuse Stage) will serve as creative consultant. Black Nativity is slated to run December 12th through January 11th as follows:
Black Nativity will be held at the PRpac Black Box Theater Dee-Davis Room located at 805 E. Genesee Street in Syracuse. Tickets are $20 for the general public, $15 for students and seniors with ID and special group rates available upon request. Black Nativity is a foot stomping, hand clapping, jump to your feet shouting gospel drama that will delight the entire family. Hughes called it a “gospel song play.” Black Nativity is a re-telling of the classic Nativity story with a non-traditional cast. Traditional Christmas carols along with a few musical numbers created specially for the show are sung in gospel style by The PRpac Choral Ensemble. Black Nativity is a multi-generational cast of singers, narrators, poets, dancers and soloists will fill the theater with jubilation and praise. Through the vibrations of African drums and percussions the birth of Jesus becomes one of the most dramatic scenes of the show. Mary and Joseph, will dance right into your hearts. Originally written by Langston Hughes, the show was first performed on Broadway on December 11, 1961, and was one of the first plays written by an African-American to do so. |
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| Nov. 14 - 15, 2008 | No Matter What Butt-I-Fly |
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| Sept. 25 - Oct. 18, 2008 | "The Blue Vein Society" and "Sweat": Click Here for Post Standard Story. The Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company (PRpac) is pleased to present two riveting one act plays, “The Blue Vein Society” by writer/director Samuel L Kelley and “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, directed by SU student James Miller. Performance times are: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, September 25th through October 18th at 7:00 pm and Sundays for special groups only. Held at the Dee-Davis Room located at 805 E. Genesee Street in Syracuse. Tickets are $15 for the general public $8 for students and seniors with ID and $5 group rates. “The Blue Vein Society “ ... is not just about class and color among African Americans. It is about a world in which we still judge people more by the color of their skin than the content of their character. “It is an unflinching examination of the highly sensitive intra-racial issue of color and class within African American culture,” says Kelly. The play is based on Charles Chesnutt’s short story, “The Wife of His Youth.” Chesnutt is the first African American fiction writer to achieve international acclaim. Separated by slavery and war, a black woman searches for her long lost husband, only to find that he has changed his name and identity and is part of a club that excludes dark-skinned African Americans. He pretends not to recognize his darker skinned wife from slavery until she and his present fair-skinned fiancé force him to confront his past. "Sweat" is one of three short stories in Spunk by Zora Neale Hurston adapted for the stage play by George C. Wolfe. "Sweat" focuses on the turning point in the life of Delia Jones, a washerwoman from Hurston’s hometown of Eatonville, Florida. Beginning with an outburst against her abusive husband and finishing with her involvement in his death, the story follows Delia through a transformation, an upheaval of values that Hurston is interested in setting in the context of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. The author makes use of biblical allusion and African American folk culture to attack issues of gender and oppression that were taboo topics at the time and continue to have a wide significance today. PRpac is a not-for-profit theater co-founded in 1982 by Executive Artistic Director, William H. Rowland II and Roy E. Delemos. Named in the honor of Paul Robeson, a multitalented performer and activist whose seamless passion for excellence on the stage, screen, in musical concert, and social justice in society embodied what PRpac hopes to accomplish. In 1989 PRpac began its residency as a community outreach component of the African American Studies Department at Syracuse University.. PRpac is funded in part with funds from The New York State Council on the Arts. |
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Date: Thursdays July 10, 17, 24, 31, 2008 |
Basic Improvisation for Theater The Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company is excited to team up with Jeff Kinsler, Founder CNY School for the Performing Arts to present a theater improvisation Workshop. Improvisational skills can help both new and experienced actors to broaden their acting abilities, and can also be applied to better interpersonal communication in everyday life. Through exercises and theater games in this workshop, the student will learn, and be able to apply, the basic elements of improvisation. These include Scene Structure, Sensory Awareness, Object and Space Work, Active Listening, Conflict Resolution, and much more. This fun and fast-paced course will be taught by Jeff Kinsler. Jeff has over twenty years of experience as a performer and entertainer Time: 6:30-8:30pm
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Date: Fridays, Saturdays & Sunday, June 13th - 22th 2008 |
Father’s DayWritten and Directed by Jackie Warren Moore Time: 7:00pm Fridays and Saturdays and 6:00pm on Sundays |
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Dates & Times: Friday, June 6th 7:00pm |
“NO MATTER WHAT, BUTT-I-FLY!!!”Written & Directed by Antonio Winters The Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company, Inc., in conjunction with the Syracuse City School District presents “No Matter What BUTT-I-FLY. A children’s play brought to life through delightful drama, dance, and beautiful songs that will be an entertaining experience for the entire family. The play utilizes the captivating process of the metamorphosis of a butterfly to demonstrate how the decisions one makes in life, whether good or bad or indifferent, all have consequences. This production will feature a youth cast made up of members from the Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company Youth Ensemble, Danforth Middle School, and special appearance by Danforth in Motion. Saturday Matinee, June 7th 2:00pm For more info: call Marcia at 442-2727 |
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“The Concert”Written & Directed by Marcia L. Hagan Time: 7:00pm Fridays and Saturdays and 6:00pm on Sundays |
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Popular Culture |
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Thruway Diaries The Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company, Inc (PRPAC) presented this timely drama as our season opener. Visiting artist and director Samuel L. Kelley, Professor at SUNY Cortland, is a familiar face in the PRPAC family of artists. His play features a cast composed of members from both the Syracuse and Cortland communities and graduate students from the African American Studies Department. At the close of each production a discussion followed facilitated by members of Professor Adam Banks’ Malcolm & Martin community class. Kelley’s socially conscious and stimulating "Thruway Diaries" is a play about a black family that travels from Chicago down South to Mississippi in their newly purchased Cadillac and find themselves the target of police in a very ugly racial situation. Can it happen forty years later? As grandparents, they head south in their newly updated Cadillac to Virginia to their granddaughter's wedding. This time they are the targets of racial profiling by police. The mother and daughter are put through a humiliating strip search. The family is brought closer together as it seeks to maintain its dignity and move forward with life... Thruway Diaries ran Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00pm, October 25th, 26th, 27th & November 1st, 2nd, & 3rd, 2007 and was supported in part by public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) |
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Thruway Dairies |
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Armory Square Candlelight Series |
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Jazz in the City |
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Showcase Sundays featuring |
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Gifted & Talented Summer Camp |
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PRPAC Jazz Ensemble |
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An Afternoon with Alice Childress |
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An Afternoon with Alice Childress |
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May Fest Performance |
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Fusion: Time Together Economic Development, Education & the Arts |
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PRPAC “Motown” Performance |
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“MOM’S” Click Here for poster. The Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company celebrates its 25th Anniversary with “MOM’S” An Evening of Comedy with Jackie “Mom’s” Mabley and Her Ladies, written by and starring Clarice Taylor. The veteran actress Clarice Taylor blends Mom’s delicious humor with a tasty stroll through African American History, serving up a hilarious and moving brew of jokes and memories that evoke four amazing singers from the past: Ma Rainey, Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, and Mahalia Jackson. These Divas join her on stage and create theatrical magic. Clarice Taylor is a stage, film and television actress most recently known for her recurring role on television on The Cosby Show as Dr. Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable (Bill Cosby)'s mother, Anna Huxtable. She was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1986 for the role. This event will take place at 7:00pm on Friday March 23rd at Goldstein Auditorium, Schine Student Center at Syracuse University. Tickets are $20 SU faculty/staff with ID, $25 for the general public, & $30 for orchestra or table seating including admission to reception. (All ticket stubs get a $5 discount to the after party at Nahjae’s 441 So. Salina Street Next to the Galleries Downtown-Paul Robeson Performance at 11:00pm) For more information and tickets call The Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company at 315-442-2727 or the Schine Student Center box office at 443-4517. |
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Innovations |
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Studio Recording of Cultural Roots Visiting Artists |
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"Cultural Roots & Routes" Click Here for poster The Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company (PRPAC) is please to invite our Syracuse University family (faculty, staff & students) and the entire community to a "free performance" in celebration of our 25th Anniversary. PRPAC brings back to Syracuse, for the 4th consecutive year, a group of renowned artists who create an original performance each year. This year's event, "Cultural Roots & Routes," comes as a prelude to Black History month and is a gift to the entire community from PRPAC for their loyal support over the past 25 years. This collaboration is a rhythmic and poetic journey up from slavery in song, dance, music and verse featuring Guy Davis (Blues Guitarist and Storyteller), Karen Patterson (Jazz Cellist), Michael Wimberly (Master Percussionist and Composer, accompanied by Maia McKinney & Catherine "Cat" Foster (Master Dancers) from The Forces of Nature Dance Troupe and Special guests Rodney McCoy & Jerald Daymeon (Urban Jazz Violinists), PRPAC's Jazz Ensemble and other selected PRPAC artists. These artists will work with SU students and community artists in creating a Cultural Roots and Routes performance for Thursday evening. This event in the past has been creative and innovative as well as educational and entertaining. Come and join us. Karen Patterson is a gifted jazz cellist & lecturer who has performed in Europe, South America, and throughout the United States. She began her cello studies in an experimental school at age 8. She went on to earn an undergraduate degree from Ohio University and a graduate degree from Antioch International University, both of which combined the study of the performance with that of education. As a teacher, she has mentored inner city youth in music programs throughout New Jersey, which she designed under a special initiative for Rutgers University. She has also been a member of the faculty at Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Guy Davis His 'all' is the Blues. The routes and roots, of his blues are as diverse as the music form itself. It can be soulful, moaning out a people's cry, or playful and bouncy as a hay-ride. Guy can tell you stories of his great-grandparents and his grandparents, their days as track linemen, and of their interactions with the KKK. He can also tell you that as a child raised in middle-class New York suburbs, the only cotton he's personally picked is his BVDs up off the floor. He's a musician, composer, actor, director, and writer. But most importantly, Guy Davis is a bluesman. The blues permeates every corner of Davis' creativity. Davis performed with his parents, actors/writers Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, entitled "Two Hah Hahs and a Homeboy". Michael Wimberly, a percussionist and composer of both classical and contemporary music holds both a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Music from Baldwin Wallace Conservatory and a Masters Degree in Music from Manhattan School of Music. As a composer Michael has created commissioned scores for some of New York's most acclaimed dance companies including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Joffrey Ballet, and Philadanco. Accompanying Mr. Wimberly are featured dancers from Forces of Nature Dance Theater Company. Maia McKinney began dancing practically as soon as she could walk. She was introduced to dance through a traditional West African dance master, Ali Abdullah. She also danced with Maikot Family and Sabsabu Dance Theaters, two children/young adult traditional companies. Her techniques include Dunham and Horton modern, jazz, and hip-hop dance foundations as well as Afro-Cuban and Haitian folkloric dance. As a member of the Detroit Afro-Cuban Dance Theater she visited and performed in Cuba. Catherine "Cat" Foster received her training from DC Youth Ensemble (DCYE), Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA) and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. She has worked with and performed the works of noted choreographers including Kevin "Lega" Jeff, Donald Bryd, and Hinton Battle. She currently divides her time between the Fred Benjamin Dance Company (Artistic Director, Fred Benjamin) and the Forces of Nature Dance Theater (Artistic Director Abdel Selaam). Rodney McCoy a unique classical, jazz violinist, concert pianist and ordained minister who began studying music at age nine. For Rodney and the violin, it was love at first sight. He began studying the violin under the private tutelage of Sister Francis Assisi Gorham, Sisters of Charity, Director of the Suzuki School of Music Seton Center. By his early teens Rodney enrolled in the Pittsburgh's Musically Talented Center for the Creative Arts and later joined the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Ozanam Strings, Jazz Ensemble where he earned several music scholarships and awards. He attended Mount Aloysius College and also studied with Dr. Ed McGuire, Hank Levy, Jazz Music Director of the Towson State University in Baltimore, MD, and Dr. Nathan Davis at the Duquesne University and the University of Pittsburgh. Jerald Daemyon a young innovator willing to expand on music history and incorporate modern ideals, fusing the past with the present in a creative synthesis of styles to achieve a vibe that's wholly original. On his rhythmically diverse debut CD "Thinking About You", the Detroit native draws upon masters of Noel Pointer, Jean-Luc Ponty, Stuff Smith and Stephan Grappelli. Daemyon forges a unique sound all at once tender and percussive, complementing his masterful melodic performances with exciting landscapes from the R&B, hip-hop, funk, and contemporary traditions.
This event is funded in part by SU Student Centers & Programming Services, the New York State Council on the Arts. PRPAC is a community outreach components of the African American Studies department at Syracuse University. |
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Jazz Jam Session |
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"Reminiscing" |
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Saturday, August 19, 2006 |
God's Trombones by James Weldon Johnson Armory Square Candlelight Series |
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July 10 to August 4, 2006 |
Arts Experience Summer Camp 2006 South Presbyterian Church, 112 Colvin Street, Syracuse, NY |
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July 10 to August 4, 2006 |
M & T Syracuse Jazz Fest |
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June 23-25, 2006 |
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April 25, 2006 |
2006 Mayfest. God’s Trombones by James Weldon Johnson, Hendricks Chapel |
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April 17-25, 2006 |
Thursday, April 20 SU medal for Outstanding Achievement Article Wednesday, April 19, 2006 Tuesday, April 18, 2006 6:00pm Tuesday, April 18, 2006 2:00 pm Tuesday, April 18, 2006, 10:00am April 18, 2006 10:00 am April 18, 2006 April 17, 2006 10:00 am April 17, 2006 10:00 am April 17, 2006 Click Here for complete Souvenir Brochure (25,860Kb, Pdf.) |
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April 17, 2006 |
God's Trombones |
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March 2006 |
God's Trombones by James Weldon Johnson South Presbyterian Church, 112 Colvin Street, Syracuse, NY. Click Here to see poster. |
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March 14, 2006 |
Cultural Roots & Black History Final Performance
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February 21-23, 2006 |
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 Cultural Routes & Roots Blues Guitarist Guy Davis visits Dr. Rennie Simpson's(AAS 235)African American Drama class at SU AAS Dept. Wednesday, February 22, 2006 11:00am Cultural Routes & Roots Artists perform for students at Onondaga Community College Arts Across Campus, Storer Auditorium Wednesday, February 22, 2006 1:00 Cultural Routes & Roots Blues Guitarist Guy Davis visits Dr. Mugo's Creative Writing Workshop(AAS 338)at SU AAS Dept. Thursday, February 23, 2006 8:00pm Cultural Routes & Roots Public Performance in the PRPAC Black Box Featuring: Jazz Cellist Karen Paterson, Blues Guitarist Guy Davis, Master Drummer/Choreographer, Michael Wimberly ) and the Forces of Nature Dancers, and Violinist Rodney McCoy |
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November 2005 |
Living Legendary Artists Series: Featuring: Click Here to read Bryan and Dicy Shepard's review of show. |
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September 2005 |
CBT New Building Tour/Performance |
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2004 |
African American Mosaic of Music Awards Celebration |
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Dec. 5-20, 2003 |
It's a Wonderful World: A Holiday Happening Click Here to see poster (Pdf). |
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Faith, Hope & Charity: The Mary Mcleod Bethune Story Click Here to read Bethune's Legacy |
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2002: May 2
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The Cotton Club The Paul Robeson Company's "An Evening at the Cotton Club" is a colossal array of talent, a good time that stunningly evokes the heyday of Harlem in the 1920s,'30s and '40s. Click Here to read Neil Novelli's review for the Post Standard. |
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M & T
Syracuse Jazz Fest
Ruby
Lee Celebration 
African American Studies Department in the College of Arts & Sciences at Syracuse University.
805 East Genesee Street :: Syracuse, New York 13210 ::
Phone: (315) 442-2727 :: Fax: (315) 442-8707 (805 Genesee St.) :: Fax: (315) 637-1203 (Fayetteville Office)
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