BLACK/WHITE: A LOVE STORY BY JACKIE TAYLOR
A play at the Black Ensemble Theater Company
Running from Oct. 4 to Nov. 15
Seen on Oct. 27
REVIEW BY : MAJA RIOS
This is the story of Chaz and Roger Ebert courtship and
marriage as conceived by playwright and director, Jackie Taylor. Having seen
many of Jackie Taylor's plays in the past, with great singing and dancing, that
were bio's, mostly about famous singers of the African-American past, this
theme was my favorite:. For a change the cast was a multi-cultural group of actors,
instead of just African-American.
This made for a more interesting, diverse play, centered on
the character of Chaz Ebert and told from her point of view by the wonderful
actress, Rashada Dawn. She totally inhabited the persona of Chaz, with great
warmth, sincerity and compassion for her character. I feel it was one of the
best portrayals of a real-life character, I. have ever seen.
Likewise the character of Roger Ebert, played by actor,
Kevin Pollack, who was a great 'look-alike' and inhabited his character with a
certain charm, humor and warmth, that made for a touching love story.
My favorite vocalist in the play was Qween Wicks, who
played Chaz's mother. She was a great blues singer and played the character of
the mother figure quite well ·accepting Roger into her family. She gave good
marriage advice to Chaz and Roger, and the character played by her was quite believable.
The show centered around their courtship and eventual
marriage that eventually became accepted by their friends and family. Their
real-life favorite musical songs wove the play together and were well performed
by the rest of the cast of actors who did little speaking but sang and danced
their way through the entire play with rock, blues, and pop songs that were
favorite ones of Roger and Chaz. The songs though not outstanding, in their delivery,
were nevertheless adequate to tell the story through song, too.
A live band played the songs, though at times was not as
tight as they could, have been.
All in all, it made for a thoroughly enjoyable evening,
as everyone loves a good love story.
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