Stylish play kicks off theater’s 30th year

“Sophisticated Ladies”

Through Nov. 6

Starring Gary E. Vincent, Christina Maria Acosta,… “Sophisticated Ladies”

Through Nov. 6

Starring Gary E. Vincent, Christina Maria Acosta, Kevin Brown, Sandy Dowe

Directed by Elizabeth Van Dyke

Alumni Hall, seventh-floor auditorium

(412) 624-7298

www.kuntu.org

The stage explodes in a frenzy of movement and tap-dancing while “Duke” and his band swing to the tune of “It Don’t Mean a Thing.” You are in Harlem’s Cotton Club, the hippest place in town, listening to the music and songs of the great Duke Ellington.

The University of Pittsburgh’s Kuntu Repertory Theatre has brought Ellington’s music to life in “Sophisticated Ladies” by Donald McKayle. This production kicks off the theater’s 30th anniversary season. Honoring the music of Ellington and the Harlem Renaissance, “Sophisticated Ladies” pays tribute to Billy Strayhorn as well, a Pittsburgh native who collaborated with Ellington, making this show the perfect opening to the season.

“It was an accident,” replied Dr. Vernell A. Lillie, founder and director of Kuntu, when asked about the birth of the Repertory Theatre. In 1974, a student of Dr. Lillie’s read a play in her course that “really spoke to what needed corrected.” When she found out that the playwright was Rob Penny, a member of Pitt’s Department of Africana Studies, and that the play was “Little Willie Armstrong Jones,” they held a staged reading of the work.

They received such a wonderful turnout that they decided to do “just this one show,” she said with a smile. Now, 30 years later, that “one show” was just the beginning for what was to become “one of the greatest producers of young black playwrights in the country,” performing locally, nationally and internationally.

Dr. Lillie defined the word Kuntu as talking “about things that come from the African continuum.” Community is central to any resolution and audiences will note the absence of a single protagonist in most works. The individual is developed for the greater good of society, rather than for personal gain or interests.

“There is no art for art’s sake,” Dr. Lillie said in a talk-back session after the performance. “It represents and preserves a piece of our culture.”

Indeed, Kuntu’s canon is a mingling of the past, present and future that strives to preserve and correct impressions, tell the truth about men and women, and break down stereotypes.

“We do have a story to tell, and we have a perspective that’s different,” Dr. Lillie said. This year’s Broadway season will add a glittering jewel to Kuntu’s impressive crown of productions. Through song and dance, the cast brings more than 25 of Duke Ellington’s musical numbers to life.

“It’s a big move,” said Kevin Brown, narrator of “Sophisticated Ladies” who has appeared in a number of Kuntu’s shows, “to bring Broadway to the University.”

The production company is composed of students, both on the high school and college level, as well as local actors from the Pittsburgh area and across the country.

“We have some larger ticket items with a New York [lead] actor [Gary E. Vincent] and New York director [Elizabeth Van Dyke],” Brown said.

The cast rehearsed for a mere three weeks before performing this Tony Award-winning musical, yet they execute their musical numbers and hit their marks as if they had been performing together the entire year. The show’s energy is undeniable. A perfect blend of slow and fast numbers, we are swept along with the heartache of “Something to Live For” and the cheerful sweetness of “Bli-Blip.”

The musicians, under the direction of James Alston, number only five, but they fill the auditorium with the heart and soul of Ellington’s music. The entire cast performs with such style and flair that, at times, you can’t tell the professionals from the students. Only the occasional microphone problems remind you that you are indeed in the seventh-floor auditorium of Alumni Hall.

“Dr. Lillie has an enormous vision,” Van Dyke said. “It is courageous, daring to have a season of four incredibly large musicals.”

This season promises to uphold what has become the Kuntu Repertory Theatre’s tradition with the style and grace befitting its 30th anniversary.