For the first time in The Fire This Time Festival history, Season Five includes a fully realized production of a full-length play, Lords Resistance, by Season Two playwright Camille Darby, directed by Christopher Burris, which opened on Wednesday, January 22, 2014 at The Kraine Theater in New York.
Carmen LoBue, Leland Durond, Matthew Murumba, Tracey Conyer Lee. Photo by Lia Chang
Carmen LoBue, Leland Durond, Matthew Murumba, Tracey Conyer Lee. Photo by Lia Chang
The cast features Tracey Conyer Lee as Pauline (Off-Broadway hit Sistas), Lelund Durond as Harvey (Anthem at Baryshnikov Arts Center), Matthew Murumba as Okello (Death in Mozambique at Cherry Lane Theatre), and Carmen LoBue as Michelle (Say you Love Satan at Duplex Cabaret Theatre).
Life is good for the Whitakers until their adopted son–a former child soldier–arrives from Uganda to his new home in the suburbs of Chicago. As the two worlds collide, he is yet again a victim and perpetrator of a war just as damaging as the one he escaped.
The Fire This Time Festival’s Angelica Cheri and Kelley Nicole Girod. Photo by Lia Chang
The production team includes assistant director Barbara Matovu, stage manager Rebecca Bickley (lighting design), Carl Riehl (sound design), Jaimie Nicole Larson (production design and photography) and stage manager Jules Chaveco.
Christopher Burris, Matthew Murumba, Camille Darby, Carmen LoBue, Tracey Conyer Lee, Lelund Durond and Barbara Matovu. Photo by Lia Chang
Performances for the limited run of Lords Resistance at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery) at 8:00 pm are on Thursday, January 23rd, Friday, January 24th, Wednesday, January 29th, Thursday, January 30th and Friday, January 31st. Tickets ($15) are available online a www.horseTRADE.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.
Camille Darby. Photo by Lia Chang
Camille Darby (Playwright) was born in Jamaica, West Indies, but migrated to New York City with her family at 6 years old. Her constant attempts at adjusting to American culture—she soon discovered—were best manifested through her writing. It was her first play Mother, May I? written as a high school student during the Theatre Development Fund’s Residency Arts Program that drew the attention of acclaimed playwright, Wendy Wasserstein. With Wasserstein as her mentor, the budding playwright continued to study theatre, literature and film at Sarah Lawrence College where she received her B.A. in 2005. As the Horse Trade Theatre Group’s Fire This Time Festival celebrates it’s fifth season providing a platform for playwrights of African-American and African descent to present new work, Darby is thrilled to be a part of the festival for the third consecutive season. Her play, Exodus was produced in the sold-out 2011 Festival showcase. Darby is the recipient of the Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO, 2008) playwriting prize from the Bronx Council on the Arts for her full-length play Lords Resistance. The play was part of the 2012 Fire This Time Festival reading series, and was presented at the 2013 National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Darby is a 2011 finalist for the Van Lier Fellowship program at The Lark Play Development Center, and a 2012 Women’s Project Lab finalist. She holds an M.F.A (2007) in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s, Tisch School of the Arts.
Christopher Burris and Camille Darby. Photo by Lia Chang
Christopher Burris (Director) New York directing credits 2013 Bring a Weasel and a Pint of Your Own Blood Festival (co-directed with Benjamin Kamine), The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage (Geese by Samuel D. Hunter), TBTB-The Clurman Theatre (Supernova in Reseda starring Tonya Pinkins, and Geese), Union Seminary (The Anointed starring André De Shields), JACK (Outcry), FringeNYC (A Raisin in the Salad: Black Plays for White People), Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival *Winner* (The Mud is Thicker in Mississippi by Dennis A. ALLEN II) and *Finalist* (The Red Blood of War by Celeste Walker, Dixon Place (The Dr. O Show), Horsetrade (Outcry, Legendary: A Mantasia), The Fire This Time Festival (Within Untainted Wombs, Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, Exodus, By the Banks of the Nile), Sticky at Bowery Poetry Club (The Dr. O Show, It’s Goodbye, Falling Out with Gregarian Tunks, Life’s Terms, A Shadow with No Form, …In Which Bishop Eddie Long Loses a Battle with his Demons…, Gaga of the Dead). In addition to private coaching, Christopher has taught for such organizations as The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ars Nova, and NYFA. Assistant director for Tyson vs. Ali at 3LD. Twitter:@misterburris
Carmen LoBue and Tracey Conyer Lee in Camille Darby’s Lords Resistance at the Kraine Theater through January 31, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang
Lelund Durond and Tracey Conyer Lee in Camille Darby’s Lords Resistance at the Kraine Theater through January 31, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang
Tracey Conyer Lee in Camille Darby’s Lords Resistance at the Kraine Theater through January 31, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang
Tracey Conyer Lee and Matthew Murumba in Camille Darby’s Lords Resistance at the Kraine Theater through January 31, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang
Matthew Murumba and Tracey Conyer Lee in Camille Darby’s Lords Resistance at the Kraine Theater through January 31, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang
Carmen LoBue and Matthew Murumba in Camille Darby’s Lords Resistance at the Kraine Theater through January 31, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang
Lelund Durond and Tracey Conyer Lee in Camille Darby’s Lords Resistance at the Kraine Theater through January 31, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang
Tracey Conyer Lee. Photo by Lia Chang
Carmen LoBue, Matthew Murumba, Tracey Conyer Lee and Lelund Durond in Camille Darby’s Lords Resistance at the Kraine Theater through January 31, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang
Playwrights Camille Darby and Dominique Morisseau. Photo by Lia Chang
Camille Darby and Lia Chang. Photo by Christopher Burris
Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. She recently starred in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the 2013 National Black Theatre Festival opposite Pauletta Pearson Washington, Roscoe Orman, Lorey Hayes, Marcus Naylor and Phynjuar.
broadwayworld.com: Fire This Time Festival to Present Camille Darby’s Lord’s Resistance
Other articles on Camille Darby:
Jan. 22-31: Photos: Tracey Conyer Lee, Lelund Durond Thompson, Matthew Murumba, and Carmen LoBue set for Camille Darby’s Lords Resistance Featured in The Fire This Time Festival at The Kraine Theater
Jan. 22- 31, 2014: Camille Darby’s Lords Resistance Featured in The Fire This Time Festival at The Kraine Theater
Camille Darby’s The White Peacock in The Classical Theatre of Harlem’s inaugural Future Classics Festival at The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Center on June 27, 2012
Photos: Tonya Pinkins, Billy Eugene Jones, Matthew Murumba and Toccarra Cash in Reading of Camille Darby’s Lords Resistance
Reading of Camille Darby’s Lords Resistance Stars Tonya Pinkins, Billy Eugene Jones, Tocarra Cash and Matthew Murumba at The Red Room on January 18
Camille Darby’s Lord’s Resistance
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