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Larry Giddens

VA Art Festival To Stage "Stars" At Attucks Theatre

Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal & Guide
 
       For three years in high school, Larry Giddens was a Middle Linebacker for his varsity football team, the Nansemond River High School Warriors.
       He was an awesome force shutting down running backs seeking to gain ground or slamming quarterbacks.
       He did not care much for singing, so he thought.  But he was recruited for the school chorus. And he majored in Vocal Performance at Old Dominion University  (ODU).
       These days instead of being an intimidating and powerful force with his muscles on the gridiron, he stands on the stages of theaters in Hampton Roads and elsewhere, using his voice to overwhelm the artistic sensibilities of opera and musical lovers.
       Come April 25-26 at 8 p.m. at the Attucks Theatre and at 4 p.m. on April 27, at the historic theater, Giddens’ powerful presence will be among the artists performing in the Virginia Arts Festival’s version of  Kurt Weill’s “Lost in the Stars.”
       The Virginia Arts Festival’s  season is in full bloom and will last until early June with a stellar list of theater, dance and musical programs at venues all across Hampton Roads.
       The play is set in Apartheid-era South Africa and is based on Alan Paton’s novel “Cry the Beloved Country.”
       The dehumanizing effects of Apartheid, South Africa’s version of Jim Crow racial segregation, is studied through the lives of two sons, one Black and another White, and their respective fathers, and how each life is suddenly and tragically intertwined. 
       The character of the young white man is Arthur Jarvis, a progressive White who works  for the betterment of  Black South Africans. He opposes his father, James, who wants to retain the old order of  keeping Blacks in subservience.

     The play’s begins to unfold when Arthur, the progressive son, is  murdered in his home during a robbery by three young black men, one of whom is named Absalom Kumalo.
       Absalom is the son of a minister, Stephen Kumalo, who leads a small village where his church is the center of  life.  Minister Kumalo, seeks to reclaim his son before he falls into trouble. But  after a long period of  searching for Absalom through the streets of a South African city, he reaches him too late.
       Absalom, who is tried with his friends, is the only one who admits to committing the crime; the others lie to the court and go free.
       Despite appeals from the black father to the white father, Absalom is hanged. Later, a pained James Jarvis seeks to reconcile with Minister Kumalo.

The bullet of violence takes one son and the racist system takes another.
       Larry Giddens has the job in opera or musicals called the narrator. From the beginning of the performance,  Giddens leads the chorus of singers and performers who allow the theatrical blood to flow around the main actors and characters of “Stars”.

Posted April 16, 2008

      
       He has considerable exposure to the craft of using his powerful high baritonic voice with the  National Philharmonic and Virginia Opera straight out of college. And after “Stars”, he will be back on the road, overseas in Europe performing in Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”.
“My role  will be to capture the attention of the audience, initially and throughout the performance,” said Giddens, whose ultimate goal is to be a teacher. “I am telling the story from one scene and act to another,  so that the main characters can drive the play from one act to another.”
       “Stars” was performed in Pittsburgh at  the Byham Theater in late February. A delegation from Norfolk, including this reporter, were treated to the performance.  The Byham Theater, in downtown Pittsburgh, is  slightly larger than the Historic Attucks Theatre, so the number of folks in the chorus will be reduced for the local performance. That is probably the only major modification that Hampton Roads’ audiences can expect when they see it performed at the Attucks.
Director  Jonathan Eaton has crafted together a very talented group who balance the job of singing and acting adeptly.
        Kevin Brown, who will perform Minister Stephen Kumalo, has a  strong background in Pittsburgh area theater with roles in “Dance on Widow’s Row”,  “Checkmates”, and a “Soldier’s Story”.
        Dzidzofe  Avouglan will portray Irina, the pregnant girlfriend of Stephen Kumalo’s  wayward son, whose offspring will not see his father.
       Tearing herself  away from her own New York-based  cabaret act  Linda Hasten will perform Grace Kumalo, wife and “helper” to the old preacher.
       The officials of Virginia Arts Festival say that the racial overtones of 1950s South Africa resonate well with America’s racial background. Thusly, African Americans and Whites who attend the event may be able to identify with the complex social and  racially thematic threads which are weaved through the fabric of  “Lost In the Stars.”
       “I think we have pulled together a very talented  group to perform before my hometown crowd,” said Giddens, who lives in Virginia Beach with his wife, Jennifer, and  their newborn.  “I think people will enjoy the depth of the music and acting. Apart from the similarity of South African and American racial histories, there is the spirituality of the show, the connection we have with our children and our hope for forgiveness.”
       For information about “Lost in the Stars” and the Virginia Arts Festival call 757-282-2800 or visit www.vafest.com

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