Stay updated with breaking news from Joneshia jenkins. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Print It’s mere coincidence that Common Ground Theatre’s long-planned production of “Day of Absence” opened for streaming on Friday, just six days after the death of its venerated 90-year-old playwright Douglas Turner Ward. But the passing of Ward who cofounded and for many years ran the Negro Ensemble Company in New York reminds the viewer of how innovative a writer he was, and how this boundary-breaking 1965 play is still, unfortunately, relevant today. The filmed play, directed by Common Ground artistic director Yolanda Franklin, was presented for just three Zoom-based performances last weekend. “Day of Absence” is a satire described as a reverse minstrel show. Black actors wearing whiteface makeup portray the White citizens of a small Southern town in the mid-1950s, where all of the city’s Black residents mysteriously disappear for one day. The White residents become increasingly desperate, despondent and angry as they realize how dependent they a ....