This week’s ”Stage” page offers a very nice interview with Gloria Abbs, one of the founding members of Jubilee Theatre. Abbs knew the late artistic director Rudy Eastman way back when they were part of The Sojourner Truth Players in the 1970s, one of the first African-American theater troupes in North Texas.
Here’s a preview of Jubilee’s current show God’s Trombones to whet your appetite for the live performance. James Weldon Johnson, the poet and activist who wrote the 1927 “sermon poems” on which the musical is based, also penned the lyrics to “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as The Black National Anthem. Singer Kim Weston offers a brassy, defiant version – complete with upraised “Black Power” fists and an intro by the Rev Jesse Jackson – at a stadium rally in the ‘70s.
