Here’s more information about the play-reading I’m doing on the 19th of February.
Theatre
Saturday, February 19/11 7:30pm?$5
Mondo!Clarke
Winnipeg Talking Radio Orchestra presents
George Elliott Clarke’s Beatrice Chancy
Starring Lorraine James, Sheldon Atts, Tim Nhlazane, Kelly Hughes, and George Elliott Clarke
Beatrice Chancyis a 1999 Canadian opera. The libretto was written by George Elliott Clarke, and the music by James Rolfe. Based on Percy Bysshe Shelley’s play The Cenci, the opera transplants the story from 16th century Italy to the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia in the 19th century. In this adapation, Beatrice is the multiracial daughter of Francis Chancy, a brutish white slave owner, and Mafa, a Guinean slave woman who was raped by Francis. After Francis forces Beatrice into an incestuous encounter in a monastery, Beatrice and Mafa conspire to murder him.
The University of Mantoba’s Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture and Aqua Books are pleased to feature Governor General’s Award-winning Canadian poet, playwright, cultural activist and literary critic George Elliott Clarke. Clarke will be the featured poet in our annual poetry festival, Mondo!Poetry. In celebration of both Clarke and of Black History Month, Aqua Books will host various events and performances daily from February 15th – Februrary 19th, 2011.
George Elliott Clarke was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, a seventh-generation Africadian. He is a poet, playwright, novelist, and critic, with a Governor General?s Award for Poetry and a Martin Luther King Achievement Award among his many honours. His works include several acclaimed collections of poetry, including?Whylah Falls and?Execution Poems, the libretto for the jazz opera?Beatrice Chancy, the novel?George and Rue, and several plays. Clarke lives in Toronto where he is the EJ Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at University of Toronto.
Lorraine James 