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Thoms and Pinkins Begin L.A. Run of And Her Hair Went With Her April 25
By Kenneth Jones
25 Apr 2008
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Tonya Pinkins and Tracie Thoms.
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Tracie Thoms, of the film "Rent" and TV's "Cold Case," and Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins, of Jelly's Last Jam, star in The Fountain Theatre's production of And Her Hair Went With Her, Zina Camblin's play about African-American sisterhood and identity, starting April 25.
Diane Rodriguez directs the six-week Los Angeles run as part of the National New Play Network initiative. The production will play The Fountain Theatre through June 15; opening night is May 9.
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According to production notes, "Camblin's And Her Hair Went With Her is at once an hilarious celebration and a serious exploration of African-American sisterhood and identity. At the heart of the piece is the friendship between middle-aged Jasmine and single mom Angie, two women who run a beauty salon. The fun comes in as Pinkins and Thoms don various roles (and wigs) to also portray all of the salon's customers, exploring the diversity of black women and comically exposing stereotypes along the way. Get ready for a wild range of women, personalities, hairstyles and trends."
Fountain Theatre artistic director Stephen Sachs first saw a reading of the play last year. "It was a packed house, and the place just went nuts," he said in a statement. "It was uproariously funny, touching and moving. I was completely caught up in the fun of it and thought it would be a wonderful thing to share with the Fountain's audience."
And Her Hair Went With Her is supported in part by the National New Play Network's flagship program, the "Continued Life of New Plays Fund," a cooperative venture designed to insure that new plays see future productions beyond the initial world premiere. In the program, three theatres receive funds in support of multiple productions of the same new play.
Playwright Camblin recently completed a year-long residency at The Juilliard School, under Marsha Norman and Christopher Durang, as a part of the Juilliard Playwriting Fellowship. While at Juilliard, she received the Lecomte du Nouy Prize for playwriting. Past productions and workshops of her other work include Memoirs to Live (Brooklyn Arts Exchange), Bedroom Stories (Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts, San Francisco), Life's a Drag (U.C. San Diego) and Bunni and Clyde (Know Theater). As a consultant for NYU's Creative Arts Team, she helped to create several interactive theatre scripts for young audiences. As an assistant writer, she contributed to The Jonestown Project, a commission by Berkeley Repertory Theatre. She's a native of Cincinnati and received her MFA in Acting from U.C. San Diego where she was also a recipient of a San Diego Playbill Award. As an African-American playwright, "she is committed to creating unique and strong voices for women of color."
Pinkins received a Tony Award for her performance as Sweet Anita in Jelly's Last Jam and was also nominated for her roles in Caroline, or Change and Play On.
Thoms is best known for her role as Kat Miller on TV's "Cold Case." Thoms made her Broadway debut in Regina Taylor's Drowning Crow. She has also appeared in Off-Broadway and regional productions including Up Against the Wind (New York Theater Workshop), The Oedipus Plays (The Shakespeare Theater), A Raisin in the Sun (Baltimore CenterStage), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Missouri Rep), The Exonerated (Off-Broadway's The Culture Project) and The Antigone Project (The Women's Project). She was Joanne in the film "Rent."
Rodriguez is an Obie-winning actor, writer and director. She is currently associate producer/director of New Play Production at CTG where she commissioned and developed new works by Nilo Cruz, Jose Cruz Gonzalez, Octavio Solis, Oliver Mayer, Ricardo Bracho, Alina Troyano, Marga Gomez, Rogelio Martinez, Michael John Garces, Evelina Fernandez and Cherrie Moraga, among others, and is also co-director of the Mark Taper Forum's Latino Theatre Initiative.
Set and costume design for And Her Hair Went With Her are by Sandra Burns; lighting design is by Tony Mulanix; sound design is by Adam Phalen; assistant director is Ben Bradley; production stage manager is Elna Kordijan; and Stephen Sachs produces.
Alternates for Tonya Perkins and Tracie Thoms are Pam Trotter and Zina Camblin.
The Fountain Theatre is located at 5060 Fountain Avenue (at Normandie) in Los Angeles.
For reservations and information call (323) 663-1525 or go to www.FountainTheatre.com.
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