HU Players and Company Presents The Colored Museum

Hampton, VA - The Hampton University Department of Fine Arts and the HU Players and Company present George Wolfe’s The Colored Museum at Hampton University’s Little Theatre in Armstrong Hall on Feb. 4 and 5 at 8 p.m. with a Sunday matinee on Feb. 6 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $8 for senior citizens, children and students and admission for HU students is free. For ticket information, call the Box Office at 727-5236 or 727-5402.

Written in the late 1980s and originally performed at Hampton University in the early 1990s, Wolfe’s satirical look at racial stereotypes still provokes commentary from post millennium audiences. The play presents 11 vignettes that range from a pert stewardess in Get on Board who instructs passengers on the Celebrity Slaveship to a black man who is determined to relinquish his past in The Kid and also to The Last Mama on the Couch that parodies A Raisin in the Sun and For Colored Girls. These "exhibits" from the museum of black history resonate with audiences who find themselves re-examining the myths of the black experience.

Daniel Wynne, Jr., a native of Williamsburg, Va., returns to the Hampton Roads area as the director of The Colored Museum. This is his first year with The Hampton Players and Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from North Carolina A & T State University and two master’s degrees from Virginia Tech, one in education and another in fine arts. His other credits include One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show, Only For a Moment, Tell Pharaoh, Mama, I Want to Sing, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Contributions. C. Perry Otto is the scenic and light designer for The Colored Museum. This is his seventeenth season with The Hampton Players, designing numerous Players’ productions including The Wiz, Crimes of the Heart, Mama Dee’s Girls, Dracula and Once on this Island. Gregory J. Horton, associate professor of theatre at St. Louis University, is serving as guest costume designer for the production. He is the national president of the Black Theatre Network and is on the board of directors of the United States Theatre Technologists.

The Hampton Players and Company is a professionally run performing arts ensemble. The performers are not limited to the HU stage, but have appeared on stages throughout the United States. The cast consists of HU students including Aziza Anderson, Jovana Brush, Imani Sims, Richard Gilmore and Quentin Miles.