May
2002
Passage
Theatre celebrates life of Paul Robeson with play
From
May 1 through May 26, Passage Theatre, a professional theatre
company in Trenton that performs in the Mill Hill Playhouse on
East Front Street, will be putting on Paul Robeson, a play with
music, written by Phillip Hayes Dean and starring Tony award-winning
actor Chuck Cooper in the title role.
Paul
Robeson was born on April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey, the
youngest of five children. His father was a runaway slave who
graduated from Lincoln University, and his mother came from an
abolitionist Quaker family. In 1915 he earned an academic scholarship
to Rutgers University, where he won 15 varsity letters in baseball,
basketball and track) and was twice named to the All-America football
team. He graduated as valedictorian.
At Columbia Law School, Robeson met and married Eslanda Cordoza
Goode, who later became the first black woman to head a pathology
laboratory. Robeson took a job with a law firm, but racism led
him to pursue a different career. He left the practice of law
to use his artistic talents in theater and music to promote African
and African American history and culture. His 11 films included
Body and Soul, Jericho, and Proud Valley.
Robeson used his deep baritone voice to promote black spirituals,
to share the cultures of other countries, and to benefit the labor
and social movements of his time. In the 1930s Robeson became
an advocate for peace and freedom and for civil rights. In the
1940s, he continued to perform and to speak out against racism,
in support of labor, and for peace; he questioned why African
Americans should fight in the army of a government that tolerated
racism. Accusations by the House Un-American Activities Committee
that he was a communist nearly ended his career prematurely.
In 1950, the U.S. revoked Robeson's passport, leading to an eight-year
battle to resecure it and to travel again. During those years,
Robeson studied Chinese, met with Albert Einstein to discuss the
prospects for world peace, published his autobiography, Here I
Stand, and sang at Carnegie Hall. In 1960, Robeson made his last
concert tour to New Zealand and Australia. In ill health, Paul
Robeson retired from public life in 1963. He died on January 23,
1976, at age 77, in Philadelphia.
Paul Robeson the play features tunes such as "Old Man River,"
"This Little Light of Mine" and "Swing Low Sweet
Chariot," songs that Robeson was famous for. Tickets for
preview shows (May 1-3) are $15. Opening night (May 4) tickets
are $30. For the rest of the monthlong engagement, tickets are
$20.
Actor Chuck Cooper won the 1996 Tony award for best actor in a
Broadway musical (The Life). Television audiences know Chuck from
such television shows as Law and Order, Cosby, NYPD Blue, N.Y.
Undercover, and 100 Centre Street, among others. Most recently,
he played Billy Flynn in the Broadway hit, Chicago. Other Broadway
shows he has done include Passion, Someone to Watch Over Me, Rumors,
and Amen Corner.
# # #
For
tickets or more information call 609-392-0766 or visit the Web
at www.passagetheatre.org.
