Current students and alumni of Codman Square Academy (CA) will once take the stage as part of four-week program co-sponsored by the charter school and the Huntington Theatre Company (HTC).
For the past five years this Huntington-Codman Summer Theatre Institute has culminated in a production of a Shakespeare play, but in this anniversary year it will present “A Tribute to August Wilson.”
The public is invited to the free performances next Thursday July 28 at 7pm and Friday July 29 at 2p.m. and 7p.m. at the Huntington’s Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts.
The Wilson salute marks both 10 years of collaboration between the two institutions and the 30th anniversary of the HTC, which has produced nine of the ten plays in Wilson’s Pulitzer-Prize winning Century Cycle and will be presenting the missing one, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” next spring.
HTC, a founding partner of the Academy, helped shape the CA curriculum that routinely incorporates analysis and performance of Wilson’s work, as well as sophomore participation in the national August Wilson Monologue Competition.
Each year, Codman students study texts being produced by the Huntington in the classroom and attend productions at the theatre. During the school year, ninth and tenth graders work with Huntington staff and teaching artists two full days each month to immerse themselves in the workings of a professional theatre. The Institute’s summer theater boot camp allows selected students to continue their explorations by participating in a public production at the Boston Center for the Arts.
Huntington Associate Director of Education and Institute Director Lynne Johnson remarks, “My favorite part of this program is seeing our students blossom. Many of them start out shy and introverted, but they change and become more confident as a result of this experience.”
For the Wilson retrospective, Johnson has selected monologues and short scenes from all ten of the plays in the Century Cycle. Each drama is set in a different decade, depicting the comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience in the twentieth century and necessitating, she says “the biggest cast we’ve ever had.”
Several Dot residents have important roles in the show including CA alum Keith Nance who starred as Petruchio in the Institute’s version of “The Taming of the Shrew” last summer and Kyle Depina, a rising sophomore whom Johnson calls a “real bundle of energy,” performing roles in 7 of the 10 plays excerpted.
Other cast members hailing from Dorchester include Samuel Eyong, Asisa Harrison, William Henderson, Kershalee Levy, Derek Lindesay, Jenny Lucero, Lakhala Muse-Curry, Brandan Niles, and Thammy Pierre-Louis.
Mattapan residents include Midley Theork who appears in two selections as well as Jaida Montegomery and Malik Anderson.
Meg Campbell, Executive Director and co-founder of Codman Academy recalls, “Six years ago we became very worried about our students being safe in the summer especially between 3-7 pm when it is most dangerous. We approached [HTC’s Dept. of Education and Community Outreach] and they enthusiastically responded by creating a program just for Codman students and running it precisely between 3-7 pm.”
This co-created program has been recognized both locally and nationally as a model for improving urban students’ reading, speaking, writing, and presentation skills. The partnership was awarded the Commonwealth Award, the state’s highest award in arts and culture given by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. CA is the only public school to receive this recognition.
