The final curtain has closed on the 14th
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.
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.
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