Telling Tales Out of School at Castillo Theatre

Following an enthusiastically received work in progress of the play last May, New Federal Theatre (NFT) will present the world premiere of "Telling Tales Out of School," a new play by Wesley Brown, from October 18 to November 12 at Castillo Theatre/ASP, 543 West 42nd Street. The play offers a unique perspective on the Harlem Renaissance by providing a character study of four of its most-noted female prime movers, revealing their ambitions, longings and resentments and illuminating the feminine energy they brought to the movement. Director is Woodie King, Jr., founder and Producing Director Emeritus of NFT and an iconic figure of Black Theater. King and NFT received a 2020 Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre and the Off-Broadway Alliance named him a "Legend of Off-Broadway."

In the play, it's June, 1954 and a memorial service for Alain Locke, architect of the Harlem Renaissance, is being held at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Among the attendees are Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Jessie Fauset and Nancy Cunard. Not having seen one another in over twenty years, they gather at the Hotel Theresa after the funeral. Over tea, an afternoon of boundless praise of Locke unravels into disturbing revelations about the great man and the four women who have come to honor him.

Beate Hein Bennett reported on the work-in-progress for New York Theatre Wire, writing: "Wesley Brown’s play brings to life these four very different women as they engage each other in a rather bold unmasking of each one’s 'vulnerable vulnerabilities' (to use an Alain Locke phrase)…[raising] questions as relevant today as they were for these women: questions of identity, of self-identification, of language as social signifier, of social relationships in a society that is fractured by competition, racism, gender distrust, and political hypocrisy." Susan Hall added in Berkshire Fine Arts, "Broadway bound? Come hear a reading and join the discussion."

The four leading women of the Harlem Renaissance are played by four distinguished actresses of Off-Broadway. Richarda Abrams plays Jessie Fauset, June Ballinger plays Nancy Cunard, Petronia Paley plays Nella Larsen and Elizabeth Van Dyke plays Zora Neale Hurston.