Huey p. newton story1/16/2024 ![]() ![]() The opening exchange also establishes a context for an African American call-and-response tradition, suggesting that the audience will play an integral role in the performative event. By breaking the frame, Guenveur-Smith immediately establishes rapport with the audience his intimate interaction with the spectators during the performance will be both affectionate and confrontational. This odd opening moment, significantly, breaks down not only the distance between the performer and the audience but the mood of solemnity that typically accompanies the appearance of a historical personage in a traditional history play. After a lengthy pause, the audience reluctantly responds to his question and reassures him that the equipment works. This awkward moment lasts for quite some time. Then, Guenveur-Smith's Newton takes the stage and begins tapping the microphone and gesturing to the audience ("Is this thing on? Testing 1-2-3. The play begins with an audio-montage of media clips spanning Newton's career, including a report of a 1989 drug-related incident during which Newton was gunned down. Newton Story presents itself as an informal conversation with the charismatic revolutionary as if he were alive today the script and Guenveur-Smith's performance are largely assembled from Newton's autobiography Revolutionary Suicide and various interviews. For example, the historic "shoot out" at the Panther Headquarters and Newton's famous Alameda County Court House trial in 1968 are omitted. Guenveur-Smith avoids the epic events in Newton's life. Instead of merely recounting the "greatest hits" of Newton's career, Guenveur-Smith places his version of Newton in our historical moment he is alive and in the flesh-breathing, smoking, and telling jokes to the audience. Guenveur-Smith deliberately avoids the proverbial stroll down memory lane commonplace in plays about pop culture icons (William Luce's Barrymore is a recent example of this trend). In many respects, the show repudiates the "wax figure" approach to historical memory. The play's popularity can be attributed to the production's compelling approach to historical representation and solo performance. The film is also scheduled to appear on PBS and the African Heritage Network. For those who have not seen the production, Guenveur-Smith's performance has been preserved on film the New York production was taped by director Spike Lee and screened on the Black Entertainment Channel in June of 2001. Fittingly, the show closed in Los Angeles, where it began as a work-in-progress at the Mark Taper Forum in 1994. The show has been touring, on and off, for the last seven years and has been performed over 600 times in North American and European theatres, including San Francisco's Magic Theatre, the Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, London's Barbican Centre, Brussels' Kaaitheater, and many other venues. However, Guenveur-Smith's solo performance is more than just an exercise in theatrical phantasmagoria and keen impersonation. Melvin and Frederika seemed to be seeing a ghost during the ninety-minute performance. After the performance, Melvin shared how eerie it was to observe Guenveur-Smith's remarkable physical resemblance to the young Newton and his stunning recreation of Newton's physical quirks and vocal rhythms. Newton Story at Laney College in Oakland, both Newton's widow, Frederika Newton, and his older brother, Melvin, were in the audience. ![]() When Roger Guenveur-Smith performed A Huey P. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: ![]()
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