Valetta Anderson teaches playwrights, opens play

Budding playwrights will get the opportunity to work with accomplished playwright Valetta… Budding playwrights will get the opportunity to work with accomplished playwright Valetta Anderson this weekend.

On Sat., Oct. 18 from 1 to 3 p.m. in room 3T01 WWPH, Anderson will be conducting a free workshop that offers tips to playwrights on how to develop scripts, make their stories more compelling and market their scripts without an agent.

A former professor of drama at Spelman College, Valetta Anderson teaches play writing to high school students in Atlanta, Ga. She is also a member of Alternate ROOTS, an organization that supports original art that is rooted in a particular community of place, tradition or spirit.

After attending the workshop, students have the opportunity to attend a performance of Valetta Anderson’s play, “She’ll Find Her Way Home” – at their own expense. The University’s Kuntu Repertory Theatre opens its season with Anderson’s play in the Seventh Floor Auditorium of Alumni Hall. Established in 1974, the Kuntu Repertory Theatre is dedicated to examining black life from a sociopolitical and historical perspective. Directed by Kuntu’s founder and artistic director Vernell Lillie, the play reflects this season’s theme: roles that blacks played in the development of the American West.

“She’ll Find Her Way Home” is the 1870s, post-Civil War America love story of Isaiah Montgomery and Martha Robb. These two remarkable people were the founders of the black city of Mound Bayou, Miss. The cast includes Jessica Burch, Rita Gregory, Julian Hicks, Bria Walker and Leo Beatty. This production promises to give a compelling look at how blacks helped the growth of the West.

The Playwright Workshop will take place Oct. 18 at 1 p.m. in Room 3T01 WWPH. Admission is free. “She’ll Find Her Way Home runs Oct. 16 through Nov. 1 in the Seventh Floor Auditorium, Alumni Hall. For more information, call (412) 624-7298.