Travel Review September 2015
National Black Theatre Festival, Winston-Salem, NC

By Jay Whipple

Trend Magazine Online™

Another Fantastic Affair!

The final curtain has closed on the 14^th biennial National Black Theatre Festival (NBTF) in Winston-Salem, NC, which was founded by the late Mr. Larry Leon Hamlin (1948 – 2007) who also founded the North Carolina Black Repertory Company in 1979 -- the same year that I was transplanted here from South Florida. We have been covering this fantastic showcase of Black theatre talent since 2011 and each edition is full of ooh's and awes and veteran thespians of the stage, small and big screen converge in the Piedmont area of the great State of North Carolina which was once a Slave-holding mecca.

This year’s media kick-off conference was once again held in the lobby area of the downtown Marriott on Monday August 3, 2015; two days after my birthday. I was not able to attend the previous media conferences because we were busy covering similar events in South Florida this past winter to early spring. I arrived early as usual to fetch my media credentials and snag a good seat near the front and stage right which is where the celebrities parade on and off the raised platform. My mission this go-round was to land an interview with none other than Ms. Debbi Morgan of Roots: The Next Generation (1979), All My Children (1982 – 2011), and Eve’s Bayou (1997) fame.

Ms. Morgan served as this year’s Celebrity Co-Chair along with Mr. Darnell Williams; together they are best known for their portrayal of “Angie and Jessie” on the long-running daytime television series All My Children. I am not that much of a daytime soap opera watcher but I must admit that I was once hooked on that series mainly because of their appearances. As usual, the celebrities began to parade in one-by-one the closer it became to the start time of 12 noon. I got a chance to say hey and shake the hand of one of my favorite NBTF celebrities Mr. Ted Lange of The Love Boat (1977 – 1987) fame who I will get back to later in this piece. Mr. Huggy Bear (from Starsky and Hutch [1975 – 1979]) -- Antonio Fargas --strolled past in his usual Super Fly Modus Operandi but as usual I got the feeling that he would bite my head off if I spoke to him. Smile!

One by one each celebrity walked by my seat until the stage was once again filled with a who’s who from the 1970’s and beyond. It is quite intimidating at first until you realize that they too are there to promote themselves and/or their projects. Unfortunately I was not able to catch Ms. Morgan as she snuck right pass me and was headed to the stage before I could plug my interview. The media conference was once again called to order by Mr. Brian McLaughlin who introduced Ms. Annie Hamlin Johnson, the mother of the event’s founder Mr. Larry Leon Hamlin. She was followed by Ms. Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin, his widow, who led the audience in the event’s chant “put on your purple and black.”

Shortly thereafter the dynamic duo and event Celebrity Co-Chairs Ms. Debbi Morgan and Mr. Darnell Williams were introduced to the audience of media and spectators. My mind quickly flashed back to my days of addiction to their soap series (All My Children) while employed by the Heilig-Meyers Service Center in Fayetteville, NC; just south of Ms. Morgan’s hometown of Dunn, NC. She once again plugged her book and play (of the same title) “The Monkey on My Back” which details the physical and mental abuse she endured courtesy of her late father (Mr. George Morgan, Jr.) and several of her past hubbies to include Mr. Charles Dutton of the TV show Rock (1991 - 1994) and the movie Rudy (1993) fame. I knew that she was destined for stardom after her spectacular performance as Elizabeth Harvey (Granddaughter of Kunta Kinte) in Roots: The Next Generation. I was so engrossed with that mini-series that I walked two miles nightly to watch it at the recreation center at Ft. Gordon outside Augusta, GA. The white soldiers in my Army barracks day room were not as keen about the series.

I am always quite interested to hear what Mr. Lange has to say when it’s his turn to speak because he typically addresses American history; one of my favorite subjects. This year he promoted his play “The Journals of Osborne P. Anderson”which is part of a trilogy that also includes “George Washington’s Boy,” and “Lady Patriot.” I am down with any actor that is as passionate about and willing to invest time and money into the preservation of our history in this great United States. In fact, I would love to work with him on one or more of his current or upcoming history projects. Stay tuned for an update via Trend Magazine Online^tm and our Queen City Tours and Travel Facebook page.