There’s more to Orlando than Disney, I learned, during a visit to the University of Central Florida to headline Women’s Herstory Month celebrations, there, February 28 - March 3.
Associate Professor (and UofL alum) Be Boyd invited me to talk to several classes about “Black Theatre as Art for Social Change” and to perform readings from The Last Dust Track by Laurence Holder and my own work, Bang! Bang! Bang!
What an ambitious theatre department with 350 majors and a staff and faculty of 65! A concentration in virtually every aspect of theatre is offered. I spoke to a group of musical theatre first-year grads about white and black minstrelsy, Bert Williams and vaudeville, and the blues and jazz music of the Harlem Renaissance. I also played some cuts from the cabaret, Juneteenth Cotton Club Revue, and a very brave student, Debbie, tackled the song, Fine Fat Daddy, and did a splendid rendition.
UCF is a fairly new school, re-incarnated from a technical community college in the 1960's, and the classrooms are heavily wired. In a 200-seat lecture hall for dramatic literature students, there was a Dell deskstop computer at each station. I could not help remarking that I had never seen that much technology for theatre students, not even in a design lab!
I also spoke to Be’s Cultural Diversity class of mostly freshmen and sophmores, who were very curious about the life of a playwright, and lunched with Honors students whose building is butressed by a lovely outdoor arboretum.
With temperatures in the 60's and mild breezes, it was a wonderful respite from the cold and snow. That, combined with the opportunity to talk about Black Theatre as Social Change Art and a side trip to Zora Neale Hurston’s museum/home in Eatonville, ushered in a great start to the month of March!
Lorna Littleway
Associate Professor (and UofL alum) Be Boyd invited me to talk to several classes about “Black Theatre as Art for Social Change” and to perform readings from The Last Dust Track by Laurence Holder and my own work, Bang! Bang! Bang!
What an ambitious theatre department with 350 majors and a staff and faculty of 65! A concentration in virtually every aspect of theatre is offered. I spoke to a group of musical theatre first-year grads about white and black minstrelsy, Bert Williams and vaudeville, and the blues and jazz music of the Harlem Renaissance. I also played some cuts from the cabaret, Juneteenth Cotton Club Revue, and a very brave student, Debbie, tackled the song, Fine Fat Daddy, and did a splendid rendition.
UCF is a fairly new school, re-incarnated from a technical community college in the 1960's, and the classrooms are heavily wired. In a 200-seat lecture hall for dramatic literature students, there was a Dell deskstop computer at each station. I could not help remarking that I had never seen that much technology for theatre students, not even in a design lab!
I also spoke to Be’s Cultural Diversity class of mostly freshmen and sophmores, who were very curious about the life of a playwright, and lunched with Honors students whose building is butressed by a lovely outdoor arboretum.
With temperatures in the 60's and mild breezes, it was a wonderful respite from the cold and snow. That, combined with the opportunity to talk about Black Theatre as Social Change Art and a side trip to Zora Neale Hurston’s museum/home in Eatonville, ushered in a great start to the month of March!
Lorna Littleway
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