Historic Arcade Theatre • Fort Myers River District Robert Cacioppo, Producing Artistic Director PRESENTS THE DEVIL’S MUSIC THE LIFE & BLUES OF BESSIE SMITH BY ANGELO PARRA SPONSORED BY THE FRED & JEAN ALLEGRETTI FOUNDATION STARRING MICHE BRADEN* with AARON GRAVES • JIM HANKINS • KEITH LOFTIS CONCEPT, MUSICAL STAGING & DIRECTION BY JOE BRANCATO** MUSICAL DIRECTION & ARRANGEMENTS BY MICHE BRADEN* SET DESIGNER LIGHTING DESIGNER BRUCE R. BAILEY STAGE MANAGER TODD O. WREN*** COSTUME DESIGNER AMY L. MASSARI* SOUND DESIGNER PATRICIA E. DOHERTY*** KATE SMITH THE DEVIL’S MUSIC: THE LIFE AND BLUES OF BESSIE SMITH had its world premiere at Penguin Rep Theatre (Joe Brancato, Artistic Director, and Andrew Horn, Executive Director) in Stony Point, New York. 2010-11 GRAND SEASON SPONSORS Arthur Zupko • John & Marjorie Madden • Cheryl & David Copham Gholi & Georgia Darehshori • City of Fort Myers Public Art Committee This entire season sponsored in part by in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture. Florida Repertory Theatre is a fully professional non-profit LOA/LORT Theatre company on contract with the Actors’ Equity Association that proudly employs members of the national theatrical labor unions. *Member of Actors’ Equity Association. **Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. ***Member of United Scenic Artists. THETHE CASTCAST Bessie Smith ............................................................................................... Miche Braden* Pickle/Bass .................................................................................................. Jim Hankins* Piano .......................................................................................................... Aaron Graves* Saxophone .................................................................................................... Keith Loftis* TIME & PLACE Monday, October 4, 1937 and the Saturday night, nine days earlier. Memphis, Tennessee, in a “buffet flat,” one of many private establishments around the country where Blacks could gather after hours for food, drink, gambling, lodging, entertainment, and amusement of all kinds! It provided a refuge and respite from white segregation. The Devil’s Music is performed without an intermission. The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited. PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTES The daughter of a preacher, Bessie Smith overcame Southern poverty to become the greatest and most influential classic Blues singer of the 1920s, earning the honorific “Empress of the Blues.” Her turbulent life encompassed a tragic childhood, a flamboyant lifestyle and stormy marriage, and a fickle public that eventually turned its back on the Blues in favor of Swing. Despite all this, Bessie, an immensely talented but hard-drinking, lusty, and volatile woman, was almost single-handedly responsible for thrusting African-American-Southern Blues into mainstream music. Among the songs she made famous are “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” “St. Louis Blues,” “Baby Doll,” “Gimme a Pigfoot,” and “Tain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do.” Though the record industry was still in its early years, Bessie made over 160 recordings and, at the height of her popularity, she sold more recordings than anyone other than Caruso and Al Jolson. Over the decades, stars like Ethel Waters, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, and Janis Joplin have acknowledged their debt to Bessie’s groundbreaking work. In 1980, Bessie Smith was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame and, in 1989, into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith is the darling offspring of a collaboration between Penguin Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Joe Brancato, the incomparable jazz and blues star Miche Braden, and the playwright. Enjoy! *The Actors & Stage Manager employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) was founded in 1913 as the first of the American Actor unions. Equity’s mission is to advance, promote and foster the art of theatre as an essential component of our society. Today, Equity represents more than 40,000 actors, singers, dancers and stage managers working in hundreds of theatres across the United States. Equity members are dedicated to working in the theatre as a profession, upholding the highest artistic standards. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions and provides a wide range of benefits including health and pension plans for its members. Through its agreement with Equity, this theatre has committed to the fair treatment of the actors and stage managers employed in this production. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. For more information, visit www.actorsequity.org. THE DEVIL’S MUSIC THETHE CREATIVECREATIVE TEAMTEAM MICHE BRADEN (Bessie Smith) is a singer, actor, musician, songwriter, arranger, and musical director. She is a product of the rich musical heritage of her hometown, Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit she was an Artist in Residence with the Detroit Council of the Arts, the founder & former lead singer of Straight Ahead (women’s jazz band) & was a protegé of Motown musicians Thomas “Beans” Bowles, Earl Van Dyke (leader of The Funk Brothers), & Jazz Master Composer Harold McKinney. As an actor, Miche has appeared in & served as Musical Director/Arranger in The People’s Temple, Gee’s Bend, The Bluest Eye, Mahalia: A Gospel Musical, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, Hot Snow: The Story of Valaida Snow, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom & The Devil’s Music: The Life & Blues of Bessie Smith. Her collaboration with director Joe Brancato (Cobb) & playwright Angelo Parra for this show has garnered rave reviews everywhere it is performed. It placed third in THE DAILY NEWS Top Ten Off Broadway shows for 2001. She was nominated for the coveted Carbonell Award in Florida & the Connecticut Critics Award for these performances. She originated the character of Duchess DeLovely in the original cast of HATS: The Red Hat Society Musical, which had its World Premiere at the Denver Civic Theater Fall 2006. AARON GRAVES (Piano) was raised in Reidsville, NC. He eventually moved to Washington, D.C. at the age of sixteen to play bass guitar with Richard Smallwood and attended The Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts. After touring with various artists like Richard Smallwood, Myrna Summers, The Voices Supreme, and Henry Davis, Aaron entered Howard University and received a Special Talent Scholarship. After two years he transferred to the University of the District of Columbia to study with Jazz Master Calvin Jones. While studying at UDC Aaron was awarded a National Endowment of the Arts grant and studied with Jazz Masters Kenny Barron, Barry Harris and Stanley Cowell. Aaron has been blessed to perform and/or record with greats such as: Stanley Turrentine, Dakota Staton, Houston Person, Ernie Andrews, Marlena Shaw, Cassandra Wilson, Greg Osby, Bill Lee, Grady Tate, Frank Foster, Grover Washington, Jr., Earl May, The Blackbyrds, The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis, The Boys Choir of Harlem, Jann Parker, Donald Byrd, Kevin Mahogany, Barbara Montgomery, and many others. Selected television credits include: award-winning documentary “Eyes on the Prize with Sweet Honey and the Rock,” “The Bill Cosby Show,” “The Lou Rawls Show,” “Conjurers: Women in Jazz with Cassandra Wilson,” and the theme for the Carol Randolph Show. He performed on the soundtrack for the movie Ashes and Embers and was the conductor on Broadway for Truly Blessed, about the life of Mahalia Jackson. Aaron was also conductor for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill with Criss Calloway in Edinburgh, Scotland, and for Essentially Ellington at The Prince Theatre, Philadelphia, PA. He has also performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. JIM HANKINS (Pickle/Bass) an original Devil’s Music cast member, is originally from Detroit where he lived in a neighborhood that was loaded with talented musicians and singers. His high school buddies included Alto Sax master Charles McPherson, Trombonist George Bohanon, Drummer Roy Brooks, Pianist Kirk Lightsey, and two of Motown’s Temptations, Melvin Franklin and Richard Street, as well as the iconic Little Willie John. Jim started his musical career as a trombone player, but at the age of 18 he switched to bass. Jim has performed and/or recorded with Jazz/Blues /R&B luminaries including Lou Rawls, Betty Carter, Donald Byrd, Arthur Prysock, and Sonny Stitt, besides being a studio musician at the iconic Motown Records. Jim now resides in New Jersey and performs regularly in the NY/NJ/PA region when not on tour. THE DEVIL’S MUSIC KEITH LOFTIS (Saxophone) has been described as one of the most dynamic jazz saxophonists of today. Keith was born in Dallas, TX where he began his study of jazz and classical music as a child. He is a graduate of the nationally recognized Booker T. Washington High School of the Visual and Performing Arts in Dallas, with fellow classmate and two- time Grammy Award winner, Roy Hargrove. Keith received his B.A. in music from the New School for Social Research in NYC, and his Masters in Composition/ Film Scoring from New York University. Over the course of his career, Keith has performed with several jazz legends, such as Benny Carter, Cedar Walton, Nancy Wilson,