NEW ORLEANS– Community theater was woven in the New Orleans fragment years ago, and one such theater is celebrating a big birthday.
Pat Hill McElveen explains, “Dashiki Project Theater had it’s beginning over 50 years ago, in 1968. It came as a vision for us who were young at the time and had come to the Dillard Player’s Guild. One of our professors was Dr. Theodore Gilliam. Once we graduated, we were looking for a way to continue black theater to put people on stage that our folk could identify with.”
Veteran stage performer and Dashiki member Carol Sutton says, “Free Southern Theater and Dashiki Theater were both in central city. It was very culturally rich there. It’s very important for you to see yourself in this society and know that there is a place for me here.”
This weekend The Amistad Research Center is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Dashiki Project Theater with a revival of “A Hand is On the Gate.”
Performances are Friday (2.8.19) and Saturday (2.9.19) at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz and Heritage Center at 1225 N. Rampart St.