African American Theatre Festival celebrates local talent
Among the highest encomia that performers reserve for one another is ''generous" -- as in, willing to share the spotlight. A seemingly indefatigable multitasker (as an actress, playwright, director, producer, teacher, and community activist), Jacqui Parker represents generosity to the nth degree. Although the centerpiece of this year's African American Theatre Festival -- the sixth she has helmed -- is the world premiere of her own play, ''Dark as a Thousand Midnights," in which she also stars, the first week of the festival is given over to ''Rhythm of the People," a variety show featuring a score of performers of all ages from the Our Place Theatre Project, a Roxbury outreach program for which Parker has served as artistic director since 2000.
The first half of ''Rhythm" features 10 interludes of dance, song, poetry, and drama. Standouts include a brief scene from the film ''Glory" (with Darius Omar Williams, Frank A. Shefton, and Montez Cardwell), Michelle Eunis playing a bereaved and angry mother in Leslie Lee's 1991 play ''Black Eagles," and Sandra Williams performing her poem ''Sister's Song," a paean to self-empowerment that transcends the genre's tendency toward cliche.
The overall earnestness of the first half does little to prepare one for the hilarity of what comes next. In a scene from Phillip Hayes Dean's 1971 work ''Sty of the Blind Pig," Talaya Freeman quietly kills as a passive-aggressive mother whose righteous hypochondria inadequately masks an iron will (Jackie Davis touchingly conveys the dilemma of her put-upon, stuck-at-home adult daughter). Three scenes from George C. Wolfe's ''The Colored Museum" will make you wish that the company had the wherewithal to mount a full-scale production of this 1986 satire. The ''Last Mama on the Couch Play" segment, a sendup of Hansberry-style realism and Shangean affectation, had the audience howling.
Parker's ''Dark as a Thousand Midnights," which opens Tuesday, is an ambitious look at a rural Mississippi family coping with the racial tensions of the summer of 1955, when the teenage Emmett Till, visiting from the North, was tortured and killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman. So rough was the pre-opening run-through seen for this review (David Curtis valiantly stood in, script in hand, for a missing cast member, and garbled light cues plunged some scenes into obscurity) that it seems unfair to assess potential failings. The play's length (three hours with one intermission) and ponderous pacing could be remedied with smoother scene shifts by the time it debuts.
As a playwright, Parker knows just when to toss in some leavening bits of humor to keep the tone from getting too heavy. Her Bell Mae may be a paragon of maternal strength, but she's also a playful lover (to her devoted husband, convincingly played by Keedar Whittle) and a worthy fighter (with her citified, self-absorbed sister, perfectly embodied by Valerie Lee). One structural flaw does emerge in the second act, when the family members seem insufficiently frantic at the disappearance of 12-year-old Tweet (Taylor Parker, who shares her real-life aunt's onstage ease and charisma).
Parker shows no signs of letting up. Tomorrow morning, Our Place will offer an acting workshop, followed by a free performance of ''Rhythm." Some people aren't content to make personal breakthroughs; they're compelled to keep opening doors.
African American Theatre Festival: Rhythm of the People
Revue in two acts
Directed by: Jacqui Parker. Through Jan. 15
Dark as a Thousand Midnights
Play in two acts by Jacqui Parker
Directed by: Darius Omar Williams. Tuesday through Jan. 22. Sets, James P. Byrne. Lights, Jonathan Bonner. Presented by Our Place
Theatre Project.
At: the Boston Center for the Arts’ Calderwood Pavilion. 617-933-8600.
CRITICS' PICK
''THE UNDERPANTS" -- Caroline Lawton excels in Steve Martin's simultaneously silly and sophisticated -- if somewhat slight -- adaptation of Carl Sternheim's 1910 comedy. At the Lyric Stage Company through Feb. 4. 617-437-7172, www.lyricstage.com.
For complete listings, visit ae.boston.com/events. 
