The group’s ambition is to make Inglewood a major theatrical address.

Choreographer Ruth Ashton-Blake says the musical play, “The African American,” poses some real challenges on the big, bare stage of Inglewood’s Crozier Junior High School Auditorium.

The show, which centers on an old man’s attempt to help a bunch of unruly kids by telling them the proud saga of his family, weaves its way from the Africa of great civilizations, through slavery, to today’s world of crack and rap.

“We don’t have a whole lot of props,” explained Ashton-Blake, pointing to the simple stage flats that provide a permanent backdrop for the two-hour production. “We start out in Africa, and the question was how to make this Africa visually.”

The solution? An enthusiastic, 35-member cast playing multiple roles and keeping the stage alive with action. “We do it with singing, dancing and drama,” said Ashton-Blake. “When we show the slave ship, they have to feel the pain and see the water of the ocean.”

If the choreographer was challenged, so was everyone else in the new theatrical venture. The Crozier has been transformed on weekends into the Inglewood Civic Theatre under a lease arrangement with the Inglewood Unified School District.

The group’s ambition is to make Inglewood a major theatrical address, developing three youth and family focused plays a year that they hope will go on tour. It also plans to invite other groups to perform on the stage.

And from the cavernous confines of the 600-seat school auditorium, the group envisions the eventual construction of an Inglewood performing arts complex.

“We know it’s a risk, but we’re excited,” said Bill Overton. An actor and businessman, Overton has created the troupe with his wife, Jayne Kennedy--a film producer perhaps best known as the second woman to become a television network sportscaster--and Cepheus Jaxon. The writer and director of “The African American,” Jaxon has managed the Inglewood Playhouse at Centinela Park for 12 years.

“I’m an entrepreneur and gambler by nature,” said Overton. “I like the Emerson theory of self-reliance. The only way to get your head above the crowd is to stick your neck out.”

“We have to make this work. We’ve made a commitment that it will work,” said Kennedy, adding that given the tough realities of show business, it probably will be a struggle.

Since the show opened Feb. 2, the three say, audiences have been increasing, and there have been some full houses. And they are unabashed in appealing to the business community to make block purchases of tickets for theater parties or to provide opportunities for children to see the show.

“The African American” is not only the first venture of the Inglewood Civic Theatre. The play is the reason the theater was created and, with its theme of family unity, it has provide a theme for the theater itself.

Jaxon has staged the play several times since first presenting a small-scale version in 1981 at the Inglewood Playhouse. Overton, his friend for several years, saw it in 1985 and envisioned a major production, which later led to the leasing of the Crozier auditorium.

Jaxon said the play is about the power of family unity and self-esteem. “With all of the problems of today, if people can stay within the family unit, they can win.”

With almost a sense of mission in their voices, the directors of the company say they want to provide entertainment for families and teach children the theatrical ropes through an apprentice program. “Precious Lord,” a musical built around gospel music, is on tap for May.

Some cast members of “The African American” have credits in television, stage musicals and commercials. Others are children from the community, and there are even some, Jaxon said, who are office workers with the theater company during the day.

Lyric soprano Joy Matthews calls the show “a lot of fun, and a lot of work.” Because the cast understudies each other, Matthews--most at home in opera and musical comedy--found herself doing a rap number at one performance because the regular rapper lost his voice.

Monica Calhoun, an 18-year-old regular on the new television series, “Baghdad Cafe,” is already a veteran of Jaxon’s show from earlier Inglewood productions. She said she’s glad “The African American” is opening the new theater. You “definitely need family to help you to live,” she says.