Kuntu Presents Journey of the Spirits: A Celebration of Gospel Music

The University-based Kuntu Repertory Theatre continues its 2007-08 season with Journey of the Spirits: A Celebration of Gospel Music, written by Ernest McCarty.

Performances continue through Feb. 9, running Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 4 p.m. and a Saturday, Feb. 2, matinee at 1 p.m. They are held in the Seventh-Floor Auditorium of Alumni Hall.

McCarty, a Chicago native, has authored more than 25 plays in a writing career that spans 30 years. McCarty is the recipient of two Onyx Awards—Best Director for Purlie Victorious and Best Producer for Charles Randolph Wrights’ Blue. He was named the 1998 Prolific Playwright by In Pittsburgh. His play Recollection Rag (The Exchange) received the Hoyt W. Fuller One-Act Play Festival Award, and his play Madame Hortense received a Joseph Jefferson Award.

Multifaceted performer Herb Newsome will serve as director of Journey of the Spirits. Newsome’s directorial credits include In Devil’s Heaven at the Manhattan Theatre Source; Forgivable Sins, which was a finalist in the Samuel French One-Act Festival; and a national tour of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry for the National Theatre of Arts and Education. He also appeared in the film The Brother From Another Planet and had a role on the daily CBS serial Guiding Light. Newsome made his Kuntu directing debut with Sing Black Hammer in 2006.

Journey of the Spirits musicians will include McCarty and Patrick Sousoff, keyboards; Dwayne Dolphin, bass; Carlos Johnson, guitar; and William Jevon Rushton, drums. The cast includes actors Ben Blakey, Joseph Edgars, Marcia L. Jones, Katrina Bello, Teri Bridgett, Dante Snooks, Lamar “Quest” Fields, Stevie Akers, Jada Ginyard, Ashley Coney, Terri Smith, Tasha Michelle, Jacen Morris, Delana Flowers, and Twyla Glasgow.

Kuntu is celebrating 33 years of Black theater with a season of new plays and old favorites. Admission is $20 for adults; $14 for Pitt staff and faculty; $13 for senior citizens, students, and children ages 4-18; and $5 for Pitt students with a valid ID. Groups of 10 or more receive 25 percent off the single-ticket price. For more information, call 412-624-7298.