Ocracoke Alive will collaborate with Reclaiming Our Time Productions of Raleigh to present the Ocracoke premier of EbzB Productions’ “Native,” by Ian Finley.
The public performance of this one-act play will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, in the Ocracoke Community Center.
Admission is free with a suggested donation of $5 per person.
“Native” dramatizes the true-to-life friendship and collaboration between North Carolina playwright Paul Green and Richard Wright.
The authors are brought together to adapt Wright’s novel, “Native Son” for Broadway.
It’s 1941 and Paul Green is a UNC Chapel Hill professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who is also known for the long-running outdoor drama in Manteo “The Lost Colony.”
Wright is the controversial author of “Native Son,” a groundbreaking work on the systemic discrimination of Black Americans.
While Wright and Green respect each other, a heated discussion over a single page of their Broadway script ensues over issues of race, politics and personal agency.
Ultimately the revelations shared between the two threaten to dissolve their friendship despite their common goal to effect social change.
Written by heralded Raleigh playwright and a previous Piedmont Laureate, Ian Finley, the production will feature its original professional cast with J. Mardrice Henderson as Richard Wright and David zum Brunnen as Paul Green.
The stage production was adapted into the award-winning feature film “The Problem of the Hero,” available on Internet streaming services.
A performance for Ocracoke high school students will precede the public performance.
A post-show discussion with the cast and creative team will follow the evening performance.
At 10 a.m. Saturday morning, Sept. 19, in the Deepwater Theater, the cast and crew, most of whom are members of Actors Equity, will conduct a workshop open to all on the profession of acting.
The Ocracoke Community Library’s book club will be reading Wright’s “Native Son” and will discuss it at 7 p.m. on Sept. 14.
Copies are available at the library.
