Juneteenth Legacy Theatre Salutes
Mary McLeod Bethune for Women’s History Month

	Samuel L. Kelley

JLT celebrates Women's History Month with a mainstage production of Samuel L. Kelley's Faith, Hope and Charity: The Mary McLeod Bethune Story, a heart-warming bio-drama with a rousing gospel score, March 20- April 5, 2008, at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 236 E. 3rd Street. Bethune was an illiterate sharecropper's daughter, who founded Bethune-Cookman College in Florida, was an advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, and served as ambassador to Liberia.

The production stars Geany Masai, Angela Arnold and Ivan Thomas, and is directed by Sue Lawless. Mr. Thomas, who also serves as Music Director, has performed on Broadway in Riverdance and On the Town. Ms. Arnold’s credits include Aint Misbehavin, St. Louis Black Rep; Gospel at Colonus, African Globe Theater (Newark, NJ); and Shakin the Mess Outta Misery, Nuyorican. Ms. Masai’s recent credits are The Old Settler, Public Theatre of Maine; Neglect, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Morning Star, Bank Street Theatre (NYC). Ms. Lawless is an Obie-award winning director for In Gay Company. Mr. Kelley, a professor of Communications Studies at SUNY-Cortland, has several produced plays including Pill Hill, Arena Players (Baltimore) and New Horizons Theatre (Pittsburgh) and Thruway Diaries, Paul Robeson Performing Arts Center (Syracuse) and Jubilee Theater (Fort Worth, Texas.)

Angela Arnold, Ivan Thomas, and Geany Masai

Performances of Samuel Kelley’s Faith, Hope and Charity: The Mary McLeod Bethune Story will run March 20 – April 5, Thursdays through Saturdays, 7pm, at Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 236 E. 3rd Street, between Avenues B & C, in the East Village. All tickets are $18.00. For reservations and information, please call 212-964-1904 or email jlttix@aol.com To reach Nuyorican Poets Café by subway, take the “F” or “V” to "2nd Ave.", walk east to Ave. B; “R” to 8th St.”, walk south to 3rd St. and east to Ave. B; “#4” or “#5” to “14th St.”, walk south to 3rd St. and east to Ave. B; “#6” to “Astor Place” walk south to 3rd St. and east to Ave. B.

All of the artists have collaborated on past JLT productions. Ms. Lawless has guest-directed at the Juneteenth Jaboree of New Plays, and staged The Lives of Young Black Folk at the NYCFringe Festival (2005), and Motion and Location at the Midtown International Theatre Festival (2006). The actresses, Ms. Masai and Ms. Arnold, starred in Motion and Location. Also, Mr. Thomas and Ms. Arnold have performed in the company’s Juneteenth Blues Cabaret since 2007. JLT has produced two other Sam Kelley plays in Louisville, Driving While Black and Blue Vein Society, as part of the Jamboree and Bold Journey Tour programs.

This production of Faith, Hope and Charity . . . is funded by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.