special to viewFrom left, Ken Young, Neil Taffe, Shonica Murray, Andrea Connor, Jermaine Collins and VonCiele Fagget sing around Joseph and Mary, played by Jelani and Socorro Jones, in last year?s "Black Nativity."
special to viewPerformers dance around Jelani Jones, who plays Joseph, and Socorro Jones, who plays Mary, in last year?s production of "Black Nativity."
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A North Las Vegas-based theater company is retelling the Nativity story through dance and gospel music, with its second holiday presentation of Langston Hughes' "Black Nativity."
"It was really an African-American response to try to find some meaning in the Nativity story," said director Robert Connor of the musical, who, among other things, directs the theater department at Las Vegas Academy.
The Harlem Renaissance founding father's "gospel song play," as the writer called it, debuted on Broadway in December 1961.
Alvin Ailey was a part of the original Broadway cast when the show was called "Wasn't That a Mighty Day." He quit with some other performers over concerns that the word "black" in the title would be too controversial for Broadway at a time when the civil rights movement was still in a fledgling state. It was a time, late in Hughes' career, when the writer was developing a deep interest in black American spirituality and oral tradition.
Also, Connor describes it as a time when a black tradition in theater was taking shape and many grassroots black theater groups were forming.
"Black Nativity" has been performed at Tremont Temple in Boston since 1969. Since that, time it has become a holiday tradition, gaining in popularity with regular productions across the country -- now including Las Vegas.
Connor said when he moved to Las Vegas with his wife, Andrea Connor, a lead vocalist in the show, from Atlanta, they found it difficult to find the art and culture they were accustomed to.
"There was such a cultural void. We felt like we really came to an artistic desert," Connor said.
It wasn't long before Connor and his sister Anita Ross would set out on a bit of cultural missionary work. Placing his trust in her financial acumen as chief financial officer, and she placing her trust in his creative skills as artistic director, the two formed a professional theater company, Trinity Entertainment Group, 1631 W. Craig Road, Suite 9-100, and produced "Black Nativity" last year at the Nicholas Horn Theatre at CSN, 3200 E. Cheyenne Ave.
Connor described the effort involved in creating the company as "a test of faith." He had innumerable anxieties before the show went up, but it had a good run, he said. Tickets sold, the house filled and people talked about it. Connor said that experience let him know there was a real demand for cultural entertainment in Las Vegas.
This year, the group is returning with "Black Nativity" in the hopes of building on last year's success. Performances will be held at Cashman Center, 850 Las Vegas Blvd. North. Ross said the cast will be larger this year and some improvements have been made to the set.
But another purpose of Connor's is to present the holiday play for what it can show his adopted city.
He talked about "changing mind-sets about what African-American music is about -- beyond what's on the radio."
The show combines gospel with an interpretation of the birth of Jesus that imagines the characters in visceral life rather than inanimate figures in a traditional display.
Mary goes into labor center stage in an interpretive dance set to African drumming.
The production's cast is a mix of professionals from Strip shows and church musicians, who, while their vocal abilities may be formidable, have no professional theater experience. Some Las Vegas Academy students are in the show, as well, creating a cast that spans generations and a spectrum of body types.
"There are a lot of great singers in this town who don't get to showcase their talent," Connor said.
One thing that helps the work itself stay vibrant and relatable is the way most productions play with the book -- often adapting the book to the time and the city where the production takes place. This tendency usually comes to the fore in the second act, which parallels the Nativity with a similar story set against the backdrop of a modern-day black church. Some productions set the second act in an earlier decade, but the "Black Nativity" is squarely in the present.
Dancer and assistant choreographer Stephan "Isijah" Reynolds plays Le Travesti in "O" at the Bellagio and Joseph in "Black Nativity." He has been in several productions of "Black Nativity," including last year in Las Vegas.
"Everytime it's different," he said.
Choreographer Dawn Axam explained how the production and others like it differ from ones in the past.
"In 1961, as far as black America, they were careful," Axam said.
But times and performers have changed.
"I have artists that aren't afraid to step out," she said of the cast.
And Axam imagines this would warm the late author's heart.
"He wouldn't want it to stay in the '60s. That would be doing a disservice to his work," she said.
Next year, Trinity Entertainment Group will offer "Your Arms Too Short to Box with God," based on the book of Matthew, in time for Easter.
"Black Nativity" is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $25 in advance, available through www.brownpapertickets.com/event/20193, or $30 at the door. For more information on "Black Nativity" and Trinity Entertainment Group, call 994-2964, 386-7100 or go to www.trinityentertainmentlv.com.
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