Native Showcase at ArtsMarket!

Native at ArtsMarket ~ Booth #131

November  6 - 8, 2017.

 

We can't wait to see old friends and make new ones in Durham in November! ArtsMarket is the biannual statewide performing arts conference, hosted by NC Presenters Consortium and The North Carolina Arts Council.

EbzB's ArtsMarket showcase of Native is at 9:25 a.m. on Wednesday, November 8th at Carolina Theatre, 309 W. Morgan St, Durham, NC 27701.

EbzB Productions' booth in the exhibition hall is #131 and we'll be there throughout the entire ArtsMarket Conference: Monday, Nov. 6th - Wednesday, Nov. 8th.  Please visit and say hello. While there you may inquire about Native and the EbzB Roster including: War Bonds, '69 Seasons, Life Is So Good, In One Era and Out The Other, Night Before Christmas Carol, and more.

Information at www.ebzb.org

James "T" Thomas Honored at Mars Hill University with Black Box Theatre Dedication

James "T" Thomas

10/20/17

James "T" Thomas, founder of Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, is  honored at Mars Hill University with the dedication of the new Black Box Theatre.

Keynote speaker David zum Brunnen of EbzB Productions talks about Jim Thomas' tremendous influence on our theater community. The dedication takes place on October 20 as part of Mars Hill University's homecoming events.

https://www.mhu.edu/event/dedication-black-box-theatre/

Compliment: Native [Hillsborough, NC]

10/16/17

David,

It was so nice to meet you and the EbzB crew. Thank you for bringing Native to us and more importantly working it up as a production that you could bring it to us.

• Very professionally done!!!!!!!!!!

• Loved the set and the music and image enhancements.

• Loved that you essentially brought everything you needed.

• Loved your upbeat and personable energy.

• Loved that Serena found my earring before I realized I had lost it.

• So grateful that Devra brought you to our attention.

• You and J. Mardrice were amazing in your parts.

Although not part of the stage production having audience members respond as a spontaneous chorus was very effective in underlining the truths that the character of Richard Wright was witnessing to. It validated two strong messages of the play: the assertion that it matters who tells the story, and the notion that freedom of choice is no freedom if, choice is not equally attainable or realizable for all.

The play modeled conversation about our sad state of race relations. We don’t often see this conversation around us. The conversation just does not start, or it abruptly ends in anger or fear.  Or, we hear the two positions talking to their home team but not talking to each other; talking at but not to or with. The two characters were respectful of each other to the end, even when it got hard. Both said I didn’t know that. Both learned something new and internalized that information. There was resolution but not reconciliation. Not a happy ending but one that explored both the loss and gain of their struggle. It serves as a silent challenge for all of us to dig deeper.

All the best,

 
Mary Rocap

Faith and The Arts

St. Matthew's Episcopal Church

Hillsborough, NC 

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Wonderful! I want to know where you will be doing it again.

-Sara Caskie, Patron

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I was there and can attest to the importance and power of the evening. I hope that EbzB can take this brilliant theatre piece all over the state & country.

-Glen Sumner

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I went to the Hillsborough production [of Native] and it was so powerful.

-Debra Kaufman 

 

Compliment: Native [Hillsborough, NC]

POWERFUL...............GRIPPING...........RIVETING
There are so many adjectives that could be used to describe the performance of Native, a play by High School drama teacher Ian Finley and directed by Serena Ebhardt and starring David zum Brunnen as Paul Green and Josh Henderson as Richard Wright and produced by EbzB Productions, that this review would just be too long. 

Set in 1941 before America enters WWII in a hotel in New York City between the Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright Paul Green and the author of "Native Son" Richard Wright to finalize the script adaptation of Wright's book into a Broadway play the story starts off placidly, but quickly escalates between the two men as to how the final scene should end. Flashbacks of childhood and into the heart of the story of Native Son are interspersed to bring the audience into the minds of the men and their backgrounds. One a well-known southern professor and playwright, the other a black author born poor in Mississippi and later raised in the Chicago slums. Although the setting is 1941 it could just as easily be 2017. Both actors give strong performances to pull the audience in to their struggle to present the Truth about the villain/hero of the play they are finishing and how the final scene should answer that question. When the performance ends there are so many questions left with the audience to answer for themselves as to who we are as a people and who we are as Americans. Have we really improved as a nation over the last 75 years and can we do better?  The performance that I saw was at St. Matthew's church in Hillsborough, NC as part of their Faith and the Arts series. What better place to see this play that questions man's morality than in a holy space.

What an incredibly powerful play and performances by great actors. If Native is showing anywhere near you it is worth the trip to see this.

-Charles Thomas, Patron