Word: smith
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Black is black and white is white, and never the twain shall meet. In a period of what most Americans deem racial healing. director Brett Milanowski of the small, professional Peabody House Theater in Sommerville has chosen to mount The Death of Bessie Smith to punctuate our healing with a question mark. Despite the good intentions of the cast and some genuine moments of radiant acting, The Death of Bessie Smith fails in its appointed role as wakeup call to the insidious prejudice which still permeates our society. The play may not accomplish precisely what the director...
...Fishman conjures up the shadow of a slow-turning fan that cuts the oppressive heat of the show's Memphis setting. Albee intertwines two seemingly unrelated plots: One plot perceives a hospital staff as microcosmic to the discussion of racism; the other tells the story of the singer Bessie Smith. The two collide only in the end, when Bessie's companion Jack crashes and Bessie dies. Her death is a result of inattention by two hospitals which turn the man away because of his color...
...becomes aquatinted with the play's governing force from the outset in the form of Bessie Smith's spirit, who croons the blues from behind an ephemeral scrim which effectively separates the realms of action. Casting a huge black shadow on the white of the gauzy scrim, she is a strong symbol of guilt hovering as an angel over a white world, and she is central to any success this show finds in its ability to condemn. Bessie's soulful vocal chords are those of Boston veteran actress Michelle Dowd, whose blues tunes are harmoniously accompanied by a talented...
...panel discussion of the show following itsperformance, the director aNd several actors takeup the issue of the script's resilience. They hopethat The Death of Bessie Smith will not becordanted off into the traditional box of racialissues. However the interaction with audiencemembers quickly digressed into an actor's personalaccounts of racism and how his mother was affectedby them in her childhood. This works against whatthey are attempting to accomplish and proves asdoes the play that the opposite is true. We havemade progress since 1937, and more than condemningthe residual racism which exists today, theoutrages in this play underscore the achievementsthat...
...women: the Women's Initiative fundedby a $1.25 million gift from James R. Houghton '58and Maisie K. Houghton '62, a new women'sleadership award funded by the $50,000 TerrieFried Bloom '75 endowment, the celebration ofco-residency in the Yard last fall and a recentgift from Amy Smith Berylson '75 to sponsor anannual lecture featuring women professionals...