The Legendary 1939 Harlem Rens Basketball Returns To New York On Stage in KINGS OF HARLEM

Layon Gray's Kings Of Harlem will have a special performance at 4PM on Saturday August 1st at the Actors Temple Theatre In Midtown Manhattan. The play was recently selected to perform as a main stage production at the National Black Theatre Festival in North Carolina. In February 2015 the play had a special performance for the Legends of the NBA during All-Star Weekend.

Written and directed by Layon Gray, Kings Of Harlem is inspired by the 1939 Harlem Rens basketball team. A story of seven men who overcame adversity to win more than 2,000 games while barnstorming throughout segregated parts of the country in the 1930s despite never being officially accepted professionally or socially. Harlem Renaissance Big Five was one the most successful renowned all-Black professional basketball teams in the 1920s and '30s that added grace and style to the game of basketball.

The team was formed five years before the Harlem Globetrotters, and provided African - American men with the opportunity to compete against white athletes equally on the court. The Rens got their name from playing at the Renaissance Casino ballroom in Harlem, New York, where they amazed fans with their innovative and unique style of play. It was the first ballroom in New York that was owned and operated by African Americans. In 1991 the Landmarks

Preservation Commission agreed to set out to landmark the building but the vote never passed. It closed in 1979 and for the next 30 years it became a haven for graffiti, dirt, walls caving in and tree branches falling through its roof. Despite a recent petition to "halt the destruction and demise of Harlem's historic building with over 4,000 signatories, it was bulldozed to the ground in April 2015 along with its memories. Kings of Harlem pays homage to the building and its most

famous occupants the Harlem Rens.

They toured the country competing against Black and white teams, and in the process, compiled the most impressive winning streak in Basketball history. In 1963, the entire team was inducted into the Professional Basketball Hall of Fame.

Featured in the cast are Delano Barbosa, Lamar Cheston, Thaddeus Daniels, Melvin Huffnagle, Ade Otukoya, and Jeantique Oriol. Director Layon Gray follows the success of his play

Black Angels Over Tuskegee, the story of the Tuskegee Airmen now in its 6th year off-Broadway, with this next installment of African-American historical theatre.

Actors Temple Theatre is located in Manhattan at 339 West 47th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues) it is produced by Edmund Gaynes, and Layon Gray American Theatre Company. Tickets, priced $30.00 and $59.50, are available through www.Telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6200. For more information on the show long on to www.KingsOfHarlem.com .

To post a comment, you must register and login.