Metropolitan Playhouse
Virtual Playhouse
Presents
A Screened Reading
of

THE CHIPWOMAN’S FORTUNE

Written by WILLIS RICHARDSON

Directed by LINDA KURILOFF

Featuring
CHINA L. COLSTON, BRENDA CRAWLEY, SJ HANNAH, & ROLAND LANE

Talkback following with MICHAEL DINWIDDIE, Playwright & Associate Professor at NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study

www.metropolitanplayhose.org/virtualplayhouse
Metropolitan Playhouse at YouTube.com

April 10, 2021 8 p.m.

Plays through April 14, 2021

THE CHIPWOMAN’S FORTUNE was the first play by an African American playwright to be performed on Broadway. The year was 1923 and reflects the post-war changes in culture and family relationships. Young black men had traveled far from home, seen things, done things. They realized that there was another world out there, outside the south and its attitudes.

A homeless lady called Aunt Nancy has been taken in by strangers to help nurse the ailing Miss Liza. She has done a wonderful job, using her herbal skills, digging up healing roots and plants. She also goes about picking up chips of wood and coal from the streets to help provide fuel for the stoves. She has been seen accepting gifts of money from people, too. She stashes that away to give to her son when he returns. She embodies the traditional past.

Miss Liza’s home reflects the “new” era. She has a Victrola! They play records, the few they have, to cheer up their day. The next Victrola payment is overdue. Men are coming to repossess it. Liza’s husband puts his foot down! Aunt Nancy will have to start paying room and board. Now we get to the heart of it. Is Aunt Nancy part of the family? Because that’s not how we treat family.

The whole production was brilliant, but BRENDA CRAWLEY gets a standing ovation for her perfect portrayal of Aunt Nancy.

-Karen D’Onofrio-