Viewers who videotape the Nov. 5 cable broadcast of the Insight/KMOJ Public Policy Forum may have a collector’s item in hand. Informed discourse on Black theatre from Penumbra Theatre Company managing director Jayne Khalifa was accentuated by live performance from premier spoken word artist Mankwe Ndosi.
With the historic Negro Ensemble Company’s demise and that of Crossroads Theatre, Penumbra Theatre Company, on its 25th anniversary, prevails as the nation’s leading African American theatre venue. The 2002-03 season, where August Wilson’s Two Trains Running will run during Black History Month, is dedicated to Wilson, a veteran company member and two-time Pulitzer Prize winning dramatist. Season opener Joe Turner’s Come and Gone played to vast acclaim and such audience response the run had to be extended.
Ironically, despite this season’s significance, African American attendance lags. Forum host Al McFarlane posed to Jayne Khalifa, “We in [the Twin Cities] have this treasure and act like it isn’t here. What’s going on?”
