JUBILEE THEATRE IS PROUD TO PRESENT AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jackie Elliott
817-338-4204 ext. 2
Jackie.elliott@jubileetheatre.org
JUBILEE THEATRE PRESENTS AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’: THE FATS WALLER MUSICAL SHOW
FORT WORTH, TX - Jubilee Theatre closes its 2007-2008 season with the Tony Award winning Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show based on an idea by Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby, Jr. Directing Jubilee’s production of Ain’t Misbehavin’ is Ron Himes the Founder and Producing Director of the St. Louis Black Rep. The show will begin previews July 11 and opens July 18.
Ain’t Misbehavin’ is a vibrant musical revue and tribute to the black musicians of the early 1900s with music from Thomas “Fats” Waller, one of the most prolific musicians of the time. Bold, bright, and told with the cheeky humor for which Fats Waller was known, this Tony Award winning musical has become a classic of African-American theatre. The Harlem Renaissance was the Golden Age for venues like The Cotton Club and The Savoy Ballroom; a time when the dives along Lenox Avenue were ablaze from stride piano players banging out a new beat – swing. The musical is named after the 1929 Waller song Ain’t Misbehavin’. Five performers present an evening of rowdy and humorous songs that encapsulate the various moods of the era. This production is appropriate for all ages.
Directed by Ron Himes with musical direction by Joe Rogers and choreography by Sheran Goodspeed Keyton, Ain’t Misbehavin’ features a cast that includes Major Attaway, Ashley Duplechain, Sheran Goodspeed Keyton, Tiffany Mann, and Cedric Neal. Designers include set design by Brynn Bristol, lighting design by Michael Pettigrew, and costume design by Drenda Lewis.
Ain’t Misbehavin’ previews July 11, 12, 13, and 17; the show opens July 18; and the show runs July 18 through August 10, 2008. Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. Preview performance tickets are $10; tickets range from $16 to $25 for the run of the production. Post performance discussions will be offered on July 13 and July 24. Season tickets for Jubilee Theatre’s 2008-2009 season go on sale to the public July 11. Tickets can be purchased from the Jubilee Theatre Box Office by calling 817-338-4411 Tuesday through Friday between noon and 6 p.m. or online by visiting the Jubilee website: http://www.jubileetheatre.org.
About Ron Himes - Ron Himes is the Founder and Producing Director of the Saint Louis Black Repertory Company and the Henry E. Hampton, Jr. Artist-in-Residence at Washington University. The Black Rep has developed a national reputation for staging quality productions from an African-American perspective. He founded the company in 1976 while still a student at Washington University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. The Black Rep began touring to other college campuses and, in 1981, found a home in the former sanctuary of the Greely Presbyterian Church in north St. Louis City, which the company converted and renamed the 23rd Street Theatre.
In 1991, after a multi-million dollar renovation, the company moved into the former First Congregation Church building, located in the heart of the Grand Center arts and education district in midtown, renaming it the Grandel Square Theatre.
He has produced and directed more than 100 plays at The Black Rep, including August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, the Black Rep’s own I Remember Harlem II. His acting credits include starring roles in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Robert Johnson: Trick the Devil, Sty of the Blind Pig, The Meeting, When The Chickens Came Home to Roost, Boesman and Lena, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and I’m Not Rappaport. Other acting credits include the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, several productions with the St. Louis’ Theatre Project Company and the MUNY. In 1993, Himes appeared as Clarence Thomas in Unquestioned Integrity: The Hill/Thomas Hearings. In 1994, The Black Rep’s production of The Meeting moved to Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Himes national theatrical credits include work for the University of South Carolina; the Delaware Theatre Company; the Goldenrod Showboat, the Indiana Rep; the Studio Theatre in Washington D.C., the University of Illinois at Champaign; the Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska; and the Old Creamery Theatre in Garrison, Iowa, the People’s Light and Theatre Company in Malvern, Pennsylvania; and the Missouri Repertory Theatre in Kansas City.
In 2003, Himes was appointed the first Henry E. Hampton, Jr. Artist-in-Residence at Washington University, a joint appointment of the Performing Arts and African American studies departments. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award from Washington University College, St. Louis 2004 Heroes Pierre Laclede Award in 2004; The Arts & Education Council’s: Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001; The Better Family Life’s Creative Artist Award in 1997; the St. Louis Black Repertory Company’s Woodie Award for Best Direction from 1994-1997; and Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1993, and from Washington University in 1997; and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Life and Legacy Award from the National Pan-Hellenic Alumni council. In. 1993, the Ron Himes Scholarship Fund was established at Webster University in St. Louis.
Himes has served on boards, panels, and advisory councils for a number of arts organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts; the John F. Kennedy Center; the Arts and Humanities Commission, the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education; the Missouri Arts Council; the Regional Arts Commission; the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis; the Regional Commerce and Growth Association; the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Foundation; and the Midwest African-American Arts Alliance.
