Filming Native: Systemic Racism, Richard Wright and Paul Green

Native details the metamorphic debate between Paul Green and Richard Wright. The authors are originally brought together by the Mercury Theatre to adapt Wright’s novel, Native Son, for the stage. Green, a white southern professor who advocates for social justice, and Wright, a self-educated African-American with communist sympathies, forge a deep respect for each other as they discuss systemic discrimination against African-Americans. They start their collaboration in Chapel Hill, North Carolina like a “house on fire.”

Then, in 1941, with World War II on the horizon, the two authors meet again in New York for rewrites. Orson Welles’ Broadway production is already in rehearsal. Differences over a single page of the script create an impasse between Green and Wright. A life-changing dialogue about who has the right to tell the story of racial, political and class injustice ensues. In spite of their common goal to affect social change, the scintillating argument dissolves the friendship of the two influential social justice authors.

The film version of Native is based on the stage play by Ian Finley & EbzB Productions.

Foul Weather: EbzB Arts Integration Residency with Silk Hope School, Chatham County, NC

"Foul Weather" - Silk Hope Elementary School fifth-graders in Chatham County did the research and wrote the script, but Covid19 kept them from performing it. So the leaders of our Chatham County Community put voices to the words, and images to the ideas to complete this arts integration residency with EbzB Productions. Sponsored by Chatham Arts. Voices by Allen Baddour, Ed Bronson, Dorrie Casey, Serena Ebhardt, Gina Harrison, Karen Allen Howard, Anne Kissel, Lesley Russell Landis, Greg Lewis, Gilda McDaniel, Sheriff Mike Roberson, Mike Wiley, Jordan Wiley, Coleman Wiley, Carlton Zum Brunnen, & David Zum Brunnen