Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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FSU Premiere Showcases Local Talent by MELVIN E. LEWIS support to each other in dealing with unemployment and death. Fayetteville is becoming a center for new and cutting-edge theater. On Bennett's characters share economic loss and social tensions caused Saturday, April 20, the world premiere of a thought-provoking play with by Wall Street bank failures, unemployment, death and the changing the themes of human denial, family lost, economic downturns and political landscape of the 2008 presidential politics. They are real Americans with change opened in the Butler Little Theater at Fayetteville State University. problems and challenges. This updated work pays tribute to Hansberry's And Then Came Tomorrow, a play written and directed by Walter Allen story set in the 1970s. Bennett uses the dancBennett Jr. with a cast of students, a soling skills of Barnett to recapture the movement dier and regional actors displayed the talof Beneatha Younger in the original play and ent and artistic potential of the Sandhills. movie and serve as a salute to African Diaspora Bennett, a former scriptwriter for The dances, dancers and rhythms. Cosby Show, and currently a visiting proThe comedy and storytelling in And Then Came fessor in FSU's Performing and Fine Arts Tomorrow are excellent. The jokes break tense Department was commissioned to write a drama during his two-year appointment. moments and bridge the conservative and liberal Bennett has taken the characters and the politics. The stage design by Dave Griffie is an exYounger family, developed in the American cellent use of student talent and local businesses. classic A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine The ensemble performances of FSU student Hansberry, and updated them. A Raisin Lydia Williamson (Theresa Richards) and soldier in the Sun is a story about access to open Lee Edwards Younger III (Steven Younger) show housing, a family trying to obtain a betthe talent and strength in the Cumberland County ter life and betrayal of commitments when metropolitan community and its theater programs. money from a lifetime of toil has arrived. The play is on stage Thursday-Saturday, April And Then Came Tomorrow is set in sub25-27 at 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday, April 28 at urban New Jersey, weeks before the presi3 p.m. in the Butler Little Theater on the West dential election between U.S. Senators Campus of Fayetteville State University, 1200 Raqi Barnett (Darlene Younger) and Sonny Kelly (Franklin Younger) in John McCain and Barack Obama. Steven Murchison Rd. Campus parking is available. (Sonny Kelly) and Darlene Younger (Raqi the new play, And Then Came Tomorrow. Tickets to the show are $5 for stuBarnett) are dealing with the fall-out of dents with an FSU ID and $15 for a layoff caused by a base closing. Rita all others. The box office is open (Robyne Parrish) and her husband, Cameron (Stephen Bates), are the Monday through Friday from MELVIN E. LEWIS, Contributing Writer. r. Younger's neighbors/best friends. This couple is dealing with the loss of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and an hour COMMENTS? editor@upandcomina son in Iraq. The two men, both in the midst of crisis, provide emotional before the start of the play. gweekly.com The Antique Bakery & Cafe With your helping hands, children can have a brighter future. Visit us for a Tasty Lunch Closed Monday Tues., Wed., Thurs. 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. Fri., Sat., 9 a.m. - 10 p.m. Sunday 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Daily breakfast, lunch and dinner specials 253 Westwood Shopping Center (next to the cinema behind the tree) 910.920.4231 20 UCW APRIL 24-30, 2013 April is Child Abuse Prevention Month Please join hands with us and learn how to protect children from abuse. www.childadvocacycenter.com WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM