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Mar.
14 - 31
Spiderwoman Theater
Company in
Presistence of Memory
Spiderwoman
Theater is celebrating its 26th anniversary. Spiderwoman
is a Native women's theater company which uses storytelling
to interconnect and weave stories and fragments of stories
with words, song, music, film, dance and movement to
create a complex emotional, cultural and political tapestry
in an overlay of interlocking designs.
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May
14 - 19
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..And
Bid Him Sing
by Lorna C. Hill , based
on the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar
...AND
BID HIM SING uses traditional music and dance from the
African-American experience to illustrate Dunbar's intention
to preserve the beauty, through laughter and tears,
of life for African-Americans from the pre-Civil War
era into the Gilded Age .
The real joy of performing and witnessing Dunbar's poems
in dialect is founded in a sense of how well we have
adapted our Africanisms to the culture of America. This
is the foundation of our survival.
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ADMISSION
Friday
& Saturday
$22 general admission
$18 senior citizens and students
Thursday
& Sunday
$20 general admission
$16 senior citizens and students
Exception:
Spiderwoman Theater Company in Persistence of Memory
$25 general admission
$21 senior citizens and students.
Ticket
Reservations:
Reservations are highly recommended. Tickets can be purchased
in advance by calling the Ujima Box Office (716- 883-0380)
or by stopping in the office at 545 Elmwood Ave.
Reserved and pre-purchaced tickets must be picked up no later
than 30 minutes before showtime.
Ujima
Company, Inc. serves to advance the interest and exposureof
the performing arts as created and interpreted by African-Americans,by
providing working opportunities for established artists and
training experience for student artists. Ujima Company, Inc.
is the only professional theatre company in all of Western
New York dedicated to the development and presentation of
work by African-American and other Third World artists.
Of all the theatre companies in Buffalo, Ujima supports the
longest standing acting ensemble. Ujima is among the most
heralded and awarded arts organizations in the region, and
was the first theatre company to receive the Outstanding Arts
Organization award given by the Greater Buffalo Chamber of
Commerce and the Arts Council in Buffalo and Erie County.
Focus
Areas:
•
Producing and performing plays, particularly those that are
created to reflect the lives of African-Americans and that
provide employment opportunities for member artists
• Presenting the work of new artists and performing arts
groups. Providing young people with workshops and experiential
training in the theatre.
• Serving as a resource to persons, community agencies,
and institutions serving non-violence, cultural diversity,
at-risk youth and positive values necessary for the development
of the beloved community.
History:
Ujima Company,Inc. was founded on December 15, 1978 as the
theatre component of the now defunct Center for Positive Thought
School of Movement and Dance. Some thirty artists accepted
the invitation issued by Lorna C. Hill, founder of Ujima Company,
to attend meetings and workshops in order to establish a group
that would develop into both a honed ensemeble and a professional
producing company.
The ensemble established its reputation by developing and
performing original works written and directed by Ms. Hill.
These works combined Afro-Caribbean folklore, African-american
literature, and African-American song and dance. Over the
course of its first two years, Ujima Company performed extensively
throughout Erie and Niagara Counties as well as in Southern
Ontario.
Ujima's ensemble soon turned its attention to already scripted
works. To this day, Ujima's record and repertoire of works
is marked by a diverse spread of scripts from the familiar
African American canon, lesser known works by African American
authors, premiers of new works, standard works of Western
theater, and contemporary American theater.
In 1981, having outgrown the protectorship of its parent organization,
Ujima established itself as an independent entity. The next
year, it began tenancy of studios located in the heart of
a thriving retail district. These studios are known as TheaterLoft.
Each year at TheaterLoft, Ujima presents and produces a season
of plays prominently featuring its ensemble and intern perforrners,
as well as guest artists from Buffalo's professional community.
Ujima has also presented world premieres of plays written
by founder and artistic director Lorna C. Hill.
For years, Ujima Company has entered into co-production arrangements
with other arts organizations in the Western New York area.
Each co-production is planned to share respective resources
for mutual advantage, allowing Ujima Company to present shows
on a larger scale without debilitating its resources.
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ujimatheatre.org/