Loni Berry | |
|---|---|
 Loni Berry in November 2014 |
Loni Berry (born November 16, 1954) is a theatre educator/artist. He has taught at numerous universities and is Artistic Director of Culture Collective Studio, a theatre production company in Bangkok, Thailand.
Loni Berry was born November 16, 1954, in Clifton Forge, Virginia, to Lonzia James Berry and Agnes Stevens. He grew up in Leesburg, Florida and attended Carver Heights High School and Leesburg Senior High School. He was an All-State musician (clarinet, oboe and piano) and was active in student government and lieutenant governor of Key Club.
Berry attended Brown University where he studied Biology and Music, receiving an AB degree in 1976. He moved to New York and began a career as a pianist/music director - primarily as music director to then Dreamgirl Loretta Devine. [1] His concert and cabaret work with various Broadway actors piqued his interest which led to work at the Mirror Repertory Theatre and the American Place Theatre.
He returned to Brown to study Performing Arts with George Houston Bass, John Emigh and Paula Vogel. His academic focus was American Minstrelsy and he directed the first college production of George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum which won him best director in the American College Theatre Festival and performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He began his work as a playwright with George Houston Bass, executor of the Langston Hughes estate, writing his first play …Love, Langston, [2] a collage of Langston’s Hughes’ works set to original music.
After receiving an AM from Brown in 1989, he studied directing at the Yale School of Drama with Lloyd Richards, Earle Gister and August Wilson. His thesis production was an original musical, Tom’s Suite, based on Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Graduating from Yale in 1992, [3] he received a Theatre Communications Group/National Endowment for the Arts Director Fellowship, which allowed him to study with various international theatre directors, including Anne Bogart, Lee Breuer, Peter Minshall, Tadashi Suzuki and George C. Wolfe.
Berry began his teaching career at Williams College in 1992. He has since taught at Smith College, University of California, San Diego and received tenure at California State University San Marcos. Throughout his time as a professor, he directed over 50 plays and has trained such artists as Michael Bakkensen, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Melody Butiu, Chris Butler, Ricardo Chavira, Maria Dizzia, Mary Catherine Garrison, Brian Sgambati and Jonathan Silverstein.
In 1995, Berry returned to Brown University to direct an original musical comedy entitled Brer Rabbit [4] at Rites & Reason Theatre. [5] The play was also produced at The National Black Theater Festival (NC). [6] As a professional director, he has served as Artist in Residence at Seattle Repertory Theatre, [7] and his work has been produced at The Public Theatre (NY), The Hartford Stage Company, California Center for the Arts-Escondido, and Great Lakes Theater Festival (Cleveland).
In 2000, Berry accepted a position with California Governor Jerry Brown, (then Mayor of Oakland), as founding director of Oakland School for the Arts. [8] During the six years there, Berry created and implemented the school’s unique interdisciplinary curriculum and developed the school from grades 7 through 12.
In 2006, Berry relocated to Bangkok, Thailand where he taught at Redeemer International School and Mahidol University. [9] In 2015, he teamed with Saratsa Sasitvirarom, Caitlin Haas, and Kelly B. Jones to create Culture Collective Studio, a professional English language theatre, where he serves as artistic director. Berry is also associate professor at Suan Sunandha Rajahit University School for the Arts.
Joel Chandler Harris was an American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his teenage years, Harris spent most of his adult life in Atlanta working as an associate editor at The Atlanta Constitution.
Song of the South is a 1946 American live-action/animated musical drama film directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson; produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is based on the Uncle Remus stories as adapted by Joel Chandler Harris, and stars James Baskett as Uncle Remus in his final film role. The film takes place in Georgia during the Reconstruction era, a period of American history after the end of the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery. The story follows seven-year-old Johnny who is visiting his grandmother's plantation for an extended stay. Johnny befriends Uncle Remus, an elderly worker on the plantation, and takes joy in hearing his tales about the adventures of Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox, and Br'er Bear. Johnny learns from the stories how to cope with the challenges he is experiencing while living on the plantation.
Uncle Remus is the fictional title character and narrator of a collection of African American folktales compiled and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris and published in book form in 1881. Harris was a journalist in post–Reconstruction era Atlanta, and he produced seven Uncle Remus books. He did so by introducing tales that he had heard and framing them in the plantation context. He wrote his stories in a dialect which was his interpretation of the Deep South African-American language of the time. For these framing and stylistic choices, Harris's collection has garnered controversy since its publication. Many of these stories are believed to have Creek Indian influence too.
Yale Repertory Theatre at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded by Robert Brustein, dean of Yale School of Drama, in 1966, with the goal of facilitating a meaningful collaboration between theatre professionals and talented students. In the process it has become one of the first distinguished regional theatres. Located at the edge of Yale's main downtown campus, it occupies the former Calvary Baptist Church.
Loretta Devine is an American actress and singer. She is known for numerous roles across stage and screen. Her most high profile roles include Lorrell Robinson in the original Broadway production of Dreamgirls, the long-suffering Gloria Matthews in the film Waiting to Exhale, and her recurring role as Adele Webber on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2011.
Arthur Burdett Frost, usually cited as A. B. Frost, was an American illustrator, graphic artist, painter and comics writer. He is best known for his illustrations of Brer Rabbit and other characters in the Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus books.
Trinity Repertory Company is a non-profit regional theater located at 201 Washington Street in Providence, Rhode Island. The theater is a member of the League of Resident Theatres. Founded in 1963, the theater is "one of the most respected regional theatres in the country". Featuring the last longstanding Resident Acting Company in the U.S., Trinity Rep presents a balance of world premiere, contemporary, and classic works, including an annual production of A Christmas Carol, for an estimated annual audience of 110,000. In its 52-year history, the theater has produced nearly 67 world premieres, mounted national and international tours and, through its MFA program, trained hundreds of new actors and directors. Project Discovery, Trinity Rep's pioneering educational outreach program launched in 1966, annually introduces over 15,000 Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut high school students to live theater through matinees as well as in-school residencies and workshops. As of 2016, Trinity Rep's educational programs serve students in around 60% of Rhode Island schools, and it has a 9 million USD annual budget.
Milan Stitt was an American playwright and educator.
Julius Bernard Lester was an American writer of books for children and adults and an academic who taught for 32 years (1971–2003) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Lester was also a civil rights activist, a photographer, and a musician who recorded two albums of folk music and original songs.
Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) is a visual and performing arts charter school in Oakland, California, United States. OSA opened in 2002 with a curriculum that integrated college preparatory academics with conservatory-style arts training. As of 2017, enrollment was 725 students in grades 6 through 12. It is a member of the Arts Schools Network and the National Association for College Admission Counseling. In 2009, OSA was named a California Distinguished School.
The Laughing Place is a traditional African American folktale, featuring Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear. It is famous for its inclusion among Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus stories.
Virginio Livraghi is an Italian comic strip artist and illustrator who worked for the British nursery comics Playhour and Once Upon a Time.
Br'er Rabbit is a central figure in an oral tradition passed down by African-Americans of the Southern United States and African descendants in the Caribbean, notably Afro-Bahamians and Turks and Caicos Islanders. He is a trickster who succeeds by his wits rather than by brawn, provoking authority figures and bending social mores as he sees fit. Popular adaptations of the character, originally recorded by Joel Chandler Harris in the 19th century, include Walt Disney Productions' Song of the South in 1946.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the Negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue."
Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear are fictional characters from African-American oral traditions popular in the Southern United States. These characters have been recorded by many different folklorists, but are most well-known from the folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, featuring his character Uncle Remus.
"Br'er Rabbit Earns a Dollar a Minute" is a traditional African American folktale, featuring Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear. It is famous for its inclusion among Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus stories. Although its folk roots most likely trace back to ancient Africa, the folktale's first written appearance was as a chapter titled "Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear" in Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings, published in 1881.
J. M. Condé was an early 20th century "golden age" book illustrator and comic strip artist best known for his ink and watercolor illustrations for books by Joel Chandler Harris and Albert Bigelow Paine. He also worked on at least two comic strips, one of which was derived from Harris's "Br'er Rabbit" stories.
The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit is a 1987 Children's book by Julius Lester and illustrator Jerry Pinkney. It is a retelling of the American Br'er Rabbit tales.
Daniel W. Owens known by most as Dan Owens is an American playwright.
Rites and Reason Theatre is a theater within the Africana Studies department of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1970 by Professor George Houston Bass, and Professor Rhett Jones, is one of the longest-running continuously producing black theaters in the United States. Writers for the theater have included Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Adrienne Kennedy. The theatre serves to develop theatrical and visual performance works that articulate and understand the expansive African Diaspora.
