Front row (L to R):  Linda M. Merritt, Andrea El-Mansura, Beverly Frank.  Back row (L to R):  Christopher M. Williams, Jason Mitchell, Ceth R. Watson, Bobby R. Toomer Jr., Brian Foy Jr., Harold X. Evans.

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Ritual Murder, first written in 1968 by author Tom Dent and directed by Chakula cha Jua, is a 45-minute stage play that deals with the agonizing theme of black-on-black violence.

Last summer, Joe Brown Jr., murdered his best friend, James Roberts, for no apparent reason. Why did this murder happen? No one knows. But the people who know Joe Brown Jr. best have ideas.

The story revolves around Joe Brown, Jr., a 19 year old black youth who murders his best friend James Roberts on a Saturday night "for no apparent reason." A narrator is used in the style of a television documentary to interview all the people who knew Joe Brown Jr. well, to determine why this murder happened. By the end of the play the audience learns that there are reasons for the murder--reasons which are "personal and common." Audiences will be astonished to learn the real reasons behind the murder as Ritual Murder examines and analyzes this agonizing problem like it has never been dealt with before.

Ritual Murder was first written by Dent when he was employed by the historic Free Southern Theater as resident playwright. The play never received a production until 1976 when Chakula cha Jua directed it for Ethiopian Theater.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Tom Dent (1932-1998), poet, essayist, oral historian, dramatist and cultural activist, was born in Flint Goodridge Hospital in New Orleans on March 20, 1932.  In the early 1960s, he was a member of New York's legendary Umbra Workshop and won attention in literary circles as the editor of Umbre magazine. In 1965, Dent returned to New Orleans, to become an associate director of the Free Southern Theater. In 1973 he founded the Congo Square Writer's Union which enabled a number of New Orleans writers to develop their talents. Dent's reputation as a poet, essayist, oral historian, and playwright grew rapidly in the 1980s. Dent's poems, reviews, and essays have appeared frequently in such journal as Freedomways, Southern Exposure, Black American Literature Forum, and Calliloo.  His poetry is included in the anthologies Schwarzer Orpheus, New Negro Poets: USA, and New Black Voices. Dent co-edited the book The Free Southern Theater by The Free Southern Theater, (1969) with Gil Moses and Richard Schechner.  His two collections of poetry are Magnolia Street, (privately printed) and Blue Lights and River Songs (Lotus Press). Tom Dent also worked as Executive Director of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. In 1996 Dent’s book Southern Journey was published.  The book was his findings resulting from revisiting towns and cities which were major sites of Civil Rights activities in the south.  

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

ABOUT THE COMPANY

# posted by Ashe Messenger @ 12:20 AM