2003-2004
			MOTHER’S DAY TRADITION ...AND BID HIM SING by Lorna C. Hill, based on the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar directed by Lorna C. Hill May 7 – 16
			...AND BID HIM SING uses traditional music and dance from the African-American experience to illustrate Dunbar’s intention to preserve the beauty, through laughter and tears, of life for African-Americans from the pre-Civil War era into the Gilded Age. ...AND BID HIM SING, while scripted, is a constantly evolving work, changing from year to year in response to new artistic direction from the director, the music director and the choreographer. This evolutionary process makes the play fresh and challenging for returning artists and the returning audience. The real joy of performing and witnessing Dunbar’s poems in dialect is founded in a sense of how well we have adapted our Africanisms to the culture of America. This is the foundation of our survival.