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Ujima’s “Wedding Band” is a powerful look at race, love and resilience (podcast included)

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This year, Ujima Company, Inc., Western New York’s oldest repertory theater company, is actively celebrating its 45th anniversary. Sarah Norat-Phillips, who will retire at the end of this season, has currently served as interim artistic director of Buffalo’s Ujima Theater since 2020, but her connection to the company runs much deeper.

Norat-Phillips spent much of the previous 30 years as an Emmy Award-winning television executive in Buffalo and Detroit, but returned to help the company after the death of founding artistic director Lorna C. Hill’s , for whom the company’s West Side Theater space is named.

“I have worked hard with this young ensemble over the past four years…and we have been very, very active with some wonderful, critically acclaimed productions, like American son, And Choir boy, And Cranand just in the fall, the huge collaboration with Shea’s and Second Generation Theater of The color purple musical. The color purple in fact, we opened our 45th anniversary season, and we’re going to close it with an iconic black piece, Alliance.

A founding member of the company from 1978, Norat-Phillips initially worked actively on and off stage, directing, producing, performing and singing, while helping to develop what became the ensemble before moving to Detroit.

With more than four decades of experience behind her, she is last leading the company as director of Alice Childress. Alliance.

This is the third time the company has produced Childress’s play, and Norat-Phillips believes the company is returning to the play because of the incredible writing and the playwright, who has been “rediscovered” by the theater community in the sense wide in recent years.

“Alice Childress is probably one of the most neglected and least celebrated playwrights in modern American theater. She wrote this play and it was cast for Broadway, (but) they wanted her to tone it down. It was a play that was a little too difficult, a little too raw, a little too honest about racial hatred in America, and (Childress) refused… She was an important part of the Ujima canon. We’ve actually produced it several times, although it hasn’t been performed here in over 20 years, so it’s been a while.

Alice Childress (October 12, 1916 – August 14, 1994), American novelist, playwright, and actress, recognized as “the only African-American woman to write, produce, and publish plays for four decades.”

The plot of Alliance is as follows: Julia Augustine, an African-American seamstress in World War I–era South Carolina, is engaged in a forbidden romance with Herman, a white baker. Their love comes up against society’s prejudices, notably when Herman falls ill at Julia’s house, a victim of the Spanish flu epidemic in this country. Amid the upheaval of war and the flu pandemic, the play delves into love, sacrifice, and dignity amid injustice, promising to spark lasting conversations about race and resilience.

Norat-Phillips also believes that the play speaks directly to our recent history, adding:

“The themes of this piece, which are racial hatred, community ostracization, and a pandemic that is killing thousands, all converging at the same time, reminded me vividly of what we have endured in the very recent past here in the country. UNITED STATES. I told people about the show and said, “I think it reminds me how much we haven’I will not come as a nation. The problems are still widespread, endemic, worse than they have been in so long, when it comes to race relations in this country. And then of course, we survived COVID, and we’re still living with COVID, which has massacred thousands of people. There were just these coherent storylines, and I thought, “This is as relevant today as it was in 1966 when (Childress) wrote it, as it was in 1918, which is the period that she wrote.”

Sarah Norat-Phillips’ legacy has had a profound impact. You can see the entire company and its evolution over the past 45 years in the many photos of past productions hanging on the lobby walls, which visitors can view before entering the room.

Lorna C. Hill

Leadership transitions can be very difficult times for any organization. However, Ujima has faced more than her share of challenges, a transition to a new home in spring 2019, the 2020 passing of the incomparable Lorna Hill, to the global pandemic that shuttered stages for much of of this first period. There is no doubt that Sarah Norat-Phillips’ efforts over the past four years have strengthened the theater’s foundations and helped ensure the company’s stability.

Brian Brown, the current CEO of Ujima, had this to say about Sarah and the new transition:

“Similar to Lorna, Sarah has an exceptional sense of excellence and constantly encourages our Ujima community to break free from conventional thinking, especially in difficult and uncomfortable situations. Constantly asking ourselves the question “What did you do for Ujima today?” » Sarah’s dedication to preserving the integrity of Ujima and ensuring the continuity of our vital work is a true testimony of love. We are deeply grateful for his constant wisdom and guidance, which has been invaluable in nurturing and mentoring emerging talents like myself and the entire Ujima team. His confidence in our growing capabilities has given our new staff and artists the confidence to pave the way for a sustainable and prosperous future.

As she contemplates her departure as Interim Artistic Director at the end of the season and her well-deserved retirement, her contributions as an administrator, producer and director have not gone unnoticed.

When asked what she hopes for the future of the Ujima Theater Company, she says she hopes the foundation laid will allow the next generation of artists to propel the Ujima Theater to greater heights. “What Ujima needs is more people to come, more people to come. to support and get more people to donate. You know, people need to see it as an important community resource, and it’s an important part of Ujima’s heritage,” adding:

I think that’s part of why this business has continued to exist, because we see ourselves as a community resource. We do work that reflects people and voices that are not seen or heard, and we stand for that. We do it without shame. This is who we are. This is why we do what we do. And I think the community in general sees the value in that. We have a young core of very talented artists who now hold key positions in the theater company. And it is therefore on an internalized basis that everything is ready to last for another 30 years, as long as the finances continue to be there to support it.

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW:

WNY Sound StageWNY Sound Stage

WNY Sound Stage

The farewell season of Sarah Norat-Phillips, the enduring 45-year legacy of Ujima Theater, and the broader rediscovery of playwright Alice Childress



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Alice Childress Alliance runs May 9-19, 2024 at the Lorna C. Hill Theater, with shows Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 4:00 p.m. with an additional matinee on Saturday, May 11 at 2:00 p.m. PM. Tickets are available here.

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