MEDIA ADVISORY - 3 pages

            Contact(s)            Sandra Varner, Varner PR, em: SV@VarnerPR.com, 510-910-5652 (cell/text)

                  Shirley Howard-Johnson, Gen. Mgr., em: Shirley@lhtsf.org, 415-345-3985 (office)

                  Marc Paquette, Audience Development, em: Marc@lhtsf.org, 415-345-3986 (office)

Award-Winning Lorraine Hansberry Theatre presents
the World Premiere of

Rejoice!
A Musical Celebration

Concept & Book by Ron Stacker Thompson
Music & Lyrics by Nolan Shaheed
Additional Lyrics by Ron Stacker Thompson

Directed by Margo Hall

Musical Director Jacqueline Hairston • Choreography by Traci Tolmaire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

December 6, 2011, San Francisco, CA - Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (LHT) will continue its 31st season with the world premiere of Rejoice! A Musical Celebration, by Ron Stacker Thompson and Nolan Shaheed.

A musical retelling of the biblical nativity story, the book is written by Ron Stacker Thompson, who is best known to Bay Area audiences as the founder of the Oakland Ensemble Theatre, but has gone on to write for films such as Hoodlum, Sister Act 2, The Cemetery Club, Deep Cover, A Rage in Harlem, Funny Valentines, Split Second and America's Dream. Songs for the production are by Nolan Shaheed, who has worked with such names as Marvin Gaye, Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Phil Collins, and Anita Baker.

Rejoice! retells the nativity story through glorious music and song. Margo Hall, who last wowed LHT audiences as Undine in Lynn Nottage's Fabulation; or The Re-Education of Undine, will direct the piece. Margo also directed two earlier productions at LHT, Word for Word's production of James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues, which was presented on the LHT stage; and The Story, by Tracy Scott Wilson, which was an SF Playhouse/LHT co-production presented at The SF Playhouse.  Jacqueline Hairston and César Cancino are the musical directors, and Traci Tolmaire will choreograph the piece.

An audio interview with Margo Hall at this link http://www.eddrick.net/margohalllhtsfversion.mp3

On opening night, December 10, Ron Stacker Thompson, will be in attendance. He will be fêted that night at a post-show VIP reception.

The principal cast for Rejoice! is Joseph: Reggie White; Mary: Kate Ball; Angéla: Margarette Robinson; King Herod: Jeff Jones. The rest of the ensemble includes Rudy Guerrero, Mirian Halloway, Darrius Johnson, Halili Knox, Rashaad Leggett, Amy Lizardo, Allison Payne, Traci Tolmaire, and Luther Michael Spratt.

Go to http://www.lhtsf.org/pressPixrj11.html for photos

Biographies:

Ron Stacker Thompson (concept, book & additional lyrics) has been a producer on such diverse films as A Rage In Harlem, Deep Cover, The Cemetery Club, Sister Act 2 and Hoodlum. Other feature credits include To Sleep With Anger and Grand Canyon. His film experience has afforded him the opportunity to work with such stellar talent as Whoopi Goldberg, Maggie Smith, Laurence Fishburne, Ellen Burstyn, Danny Glover, Christina Ricci, Jeff Goldblum and Andy Garcia.

In television, he has written and produced America's Dream, the highly acclaimed HBO Special nominated for nine Cable Ace Awards, two of which Thompson won for Best Writing and Best Producing of a Dramatic Series or Special. American's Dream starring Danny Glover and Wesley Snipes, was also honored with the prestigious N.A.A.C.P Image Award for Best Television Movie or Mini-Series. Thompson has also written Nat King Cole: Loved in Return for the award winning series Biography on the A&E Network, as well as the feature Funny Valentines, starring Alfre Woodard and Loretta Devine for BET/Universal.

However, it is in theatre where Thompson got his start, where he developed his unique ability to successfully blend all aspects of his talents. As founder and Artistic Director of the Oakland Ensemble Theatre he produced and directed over fifty plays, many of which he wrote. Since that time, he has directed national tours of Stompin' at the Savoy starring Harold Nicholas, Some of My Best Friends Are the Blues starring Della Reese, Soul Survivor starring Ted Lange and Achieving the Dream starring Yolanda King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King. He has also mounted productions at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the National Black Theatre Festival, and Off-Broadway at the Henry Street Settlement, AMAS theatre, and the famed Apollo theatre.

Thompson has always been deeply involved in education, teaching subjects ranging from literature and poetry, urban and ethnic studies to speech, theatre, dance and multi-cultural philosophy. He is presently a professor at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he is chair of the Screenwriting department.

He dedicates the creation of REJOICE! to his two grandsons, Magnus and Thaddeus, who make him rejoice every single day.

Nolan Shaheed (music & lyrics) was born in Pasadena, CA. He served as musical director for Marvin Gaye from 1974 to 1976. He then played lead trumpet with the Count Basie Orchestra from 1976 to 1979. Other notable credits include work with Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Phil Collins, and Anita Baker. He has also performed and toured with Eddie Harris, Teddy Edwards, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, Jeannie & Jimmy Cheatham, and Francisco Aquabea. Nolan has been one of LA's top studio musicians since 1974 and is in great demand in the Jazz scene. He currently owns a recording studio and is a music producer.

Margo Hall (director) is an award winning actor/director/playwright. As an actress Margo was last seen onstage in LHT's production of Lynn Nottage's Fabulation; or The Re-Education of Undine, at Fort Mason Center's Southside Theatre, and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet at A.C.T. Recently, Margo drew rave reviews in the lead role in Alice Childress's Trouble in Mind, at the Aurora Theater. Other recent productions include Marcus Gardley's A World in a Woman's Hands, for Shotgun Players.

She is a founding member of Campo Santo, a resident theater company at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, a theater company dedicated to producing new plays by people of color. Her acting credits for Campo Santo include Chinaka Hodges' Mirrors in Every Corner, Jessica Hagedorn's Fé in the Desert and Stairway to Heaven, and Naomi Iizuka's Hamlet: Blood in the Brain, 17 Reasons (Why) and Polaroid Stories, floating weeds, a world premiere by Philip Gotanda, References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, by Jose Rivera, Bethlehem by Octavio Solis, and Hurricane, by Erin Cressida Wilson. She has toured France with Word for Word as Missie May in The Gilded Six-Bits by Zora Neale Hurston, and Oceola in The Blues I'm Playing by Langston Hughes.

She debuted as a Director with the world premiere of Joyride, from the novel Grand Avenue by Greg Sarris, which was the Bay Area Critics Circle Winner for Best Original Script; the SF Weekly Black Box Awards for Best Production, Best Ensemble, Best Director; Drama-Logue Awards-Northern California for Best Production, Best Ensemble; the Backstage West-Garland Awards-Northern California for Best Production, Best Ensemble, and the Bay Guardian GOLDIE Award Winner for Stage, and directed Mission Indians, a new play by Greg Sarris, with Nancy Benjamin. She co-directed Erin Cressida Wilson's award winning The Trail of Her Inner Thigh with Rhodessa Jones. She also directed Hotel Angulo, by Luis Saguar, and Sam Shepard's Simpatico for Campo Santo. She most recently directed The Story, by Tracy Scott Wilson, a SF Playhouse/Lorraine Hansberry Theatre co-production. Prior directing credits include Sonny's Blues a story by James Baldwin, for Word for Word, which toured France. She co-directed Bulrusher with Ellen Chang, a play by Eisa Davis, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and Spunk, The Trojan Women, It Falls, Ragtime, and A Streetcar Named Desire for Chabot College.

Margo completed her first writing project in April 2005 with the World Premier of The People's Temple at Berkeley Repertory Theater, which won the Glickman award for best new play in the Bay Area for 2005. She was a part of a collaborative team of four writers who used interviews of survivors, and archival material to form a play exploring the People's Temple movement and the tragic ending at Jonestown. The play went on from Berkeley Rep. to The Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Margo was also part of the acting ensemble.

Margo has also embarked on producing a food show for kids: DooF (food backwards), which explores fun ways for kids to make healthy food choices. Margo has a MFA from Catholic University of America and teaches acting at Chabot College and the University of San Francisco.

ATTENTION CALENDAR EDITORS:

Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (LHT) continues its 31st season with the world premiere of Rejoice! A Musical Celebration, by Ron Stacker Thompson and Nolan Shaheed. Margo Hall will direct.

WHEN                                                                                    WHERE

PREVIEWS                                                                        Lorraine Hansberry Theatre

TUESDAY-FRIDAY, December 6-9, 8pm                                    450 Post Street

                                                                                    San Francisco, CA 94102

OPENING

SATURDAY, December 10, 8pm                                                PRODUCTION RUN

                                                                                    December 6-31, 2011

TIME                                                                                   

8pm Thursday-Saturday                                                            TICKETS

2pm Saturday Matinêes                                                            Wednesday-Friday $43

4pm Sunday Matinées                                                            Saturday-Sunday $53

The Matinée on Sunday, Dec 11 is 2pm                                    Discounts are available for students, seniors (65+)

No 2pm performance Dec. 24                                                            and groups of 10 or more

No performance Dec. 25                                                                       

December 31 performances, 2pm & 7pm           

To purchase by phone or in person, call or visit the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre box office, 450 Post Street, second floor, San Francisco, at 415 474-8800, Tue-Sat, Noon-4pm. The box office is also open one hour prior to each performance. Tickets are available online at www.lhtsf.org. For more information, group ticket sales, or to subscribe, call 415 474-8800, or on the Web at www.lhtsf.org.

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