AFRICAN AMERICAN DRAMA COMPANY of California

HOW COMMUNITY RESIDENCIES WORK

An unusual aspect of the African American Drama Company’s (AADC) touring activities are its interactive workshops and lectures. The Company encourages communities to work with AADC artists in developing exciting class/workshop/mini performance sessions which are: selected from the below lists of our most popular past sessions or designed especially for the needs of the particular organization. All from a Black perspective! It is no wonder that AADC has been called a “traveling Black college”, for all of its artists have earned at least master’s degrees and are experienced teachers who are certified and trained to instruct at all age levels. Past sponsors have witnessed with disbelief AADC’s willingness to lead as many activities as can be scheduled within the day’s residency. Each community organization hosting a session during the day’s residency pays (based on their resources) a share of the residency’s costs. This unity allows no single organization to have to bare all of the costs of the residency. In addition to allowing broad program out-reach, with 29 years experience, the troupe has found these activities to be more effective public performance publicity than any amount of traditional advertisement. In other words, a full house that night without spending large amounts of funds on publicity costs.

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P MOST POPULAR RESIDENCY ACTIVITY LIST P

CAN I SPEAK FOR YOU BROTHER? & SISTERS, CAN WE SPEAK FOR YOU?

►  Developing Martin L. King, Jr. Holiday & Black History Month Activities

►  American History from a Black Perspective

►  Creative Dramatics for Teachers

►  The History of Black Leaders

►  The Politics of Black America

►  Minority Employee Management

►  Theatre and Sociology

►  Psychology Patterns in Black Drama

►  Audience Building Through Minority Groups

ARTS WORKSHOPS

  • Creating A One-Person Show

  • Performing Black Literature

  • Reader’s Theatre

  • Acting

MOST POPULAR ...BROTHER? RESIDENCY ACTIVITIES

EXPLAINED

Multicultural Sensitivity-six simple strategies www.MultiCulturalWorkshop.com

This audience active lecture/workshop explores several simple (if not easy) techniques which for decades have proven successful in making any person more sensitive to those different from themselves.

Perhaps Mr. Walker has become one of America’s most sought after Black speakers because he is a true new millennium Renaissance man. Being a Black man has encouraged him to speak on subjects relating to Afro-American culture. Being a Renaissance man has encouraged him to speak to such diverse audiences as: Suffolk University’s Graduate Management Seminar, to the Keynote Speaker for the National Association for Dramatic and Speech Arts, to the Gilford High School (NH) Graduation Speaker, as well as for over 2000 other educational entities nationwide.

Useful for people from all walks of life, this lively discussion encourages audiences to actively share their stories of success and failure in the area of multi cultural sensitivity. Designed to identify usable, concrete techniques rather than the nebulous philosophizing often connected to cultural sensitivity training, this workshop has been successfully presented in every State of the Union to employees, teachers, community members and youth alike.

“...positive and non-threatening...”, Sheila E. Carter, Office of Student Life, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Nov. 6, 1992

Body Language and Our Society

This workshop is appropriate for all persons (young and old) who live in our society. Active participants explore the effect of physical posture on society by using the extravagant gestures and postures of Comedia Dell’arte. Participants laugh and play as the workshop leader uses their actions to display how society passes opinions of us based only on how we communicate with our bodies. Phillip E. Walker leads the workshop using his near half century of training like Commedia Dell’arte acting with Ann Dennis-Jankovic, Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Beograd, Yugoslavis and experience such as assisting the physical comedy based San Francisco Mime Troupe’s earning of a Regional Theatre Tony Award.

“Grandview middle-schoolers said they were impressed”, Yakima Herald-Republic (WA), Saturday, February 13, 1993

Can I Speak For You Brother Youth/Child Assembly www.CanISpeakForYouBrother.com

A youth and/or child version of AADC’s flagship production, this assembly uses students as performers, rewards young audience members for correctly answering questions on Black history and employs its professional actor to bring alive historical African American leaders. The forty-five (45) minute mini performance includes a sing-a-long about Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Booker T. Washington/W.E.B. DuBois puppet show debate, a Frederick Douglass oration, the singing of an authentic slave folk song plus hear a comic slave folktale told in and among the audience.

“...universal appeal...”, D. Quincy Whitney, Boston Sunday Globe, March 1, 1990

Martin Luther King, Jr. for the New Millennium

www.MartinLutherKingJrHoliday.com

This fast paced lecture/discussion strives to accomplish two goals:

1. To review the legacy of Dr. King’s movement

2. To encourage the development of a new African American leader on the scale of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The first is both an informational and observational goal. In addition to the normal highlight of political/legal accomplishments now enjoyed due to the work of the King movement, plus a look at who benefitted from the Movement’s accomplishments, this session is unusual in its review of various popular culture celebrations of Rev. King including: popular music’s King references, media attention on Dr. King, annual MLK Holiday celebrations throughout America and more.

The second goal is attempted through inspiration. The lecturer pinpoints the preparations, circumstances and motivations which caused Dr. King to become the most popular serious Black person America has ever known. In doing so, Mr. Walker hopes to illuminate the similarities between these facts and the training/environment of today’s developing African American leaders. Hopefully, some youth will see that today’s African American community has similar needs as it did in Dr. King’s day, causing this young person to recognize that he/she possess the same abilities to do for today, what Rev. King did for yesterday.

“...[Walker] was animated and funny...”, Dale Rader, Mt. St. Mary’s College Mountain Echo, Emmitsburg, MD, Jan. 31, 2002

www.AfricanAmericanDramaCompany.org

The Plaza of San Jose, 30 E. Julian Suite #218, SJ, CA 95112-4076

(877) 376-0224 toll free enquiries ) (415) 378-0064 voice mail