Theatre Fest a Time to Reconnect : Theater: Resembling a family reunion, the event with productions and workshops recognizes African American living legends as well as those beginning to make strides.

For many families, annual reunions are the only time for grandparents, cousins, great-grandchildren and aunts and uncles to see one another and catch up. Though family ties were substituted with actors, directors, writers, costume designers and producers, the same family-reunion quality has pervaded the National Black Theatre Festival taking place here this week.

With much hugging, communing and handshaking going on, African Americans in the theater world have used this biennial festival, which originated in 1989, to reconnect. The theme for this year’s event, which began Monday and ends today, is “An International Celebration and Reunion of Spirit.” Attended by more than 30,000 people, the festival has offered 20 different stage productions, as well as dramatic readings, symposiums, workshops and poetry readings by people from all over the world.

It has been a time to honor African Americans considered to be living legends, such as Nick Stewart, who with his wife, Edna, founded L.A.’s late, legendary Ebony Showcase Theater; actress Leslie Uggams and New York theatrical producer Woodie King Jr. It has also been a time for recognizing those who are only beginning to make strides in their various theatrical fields. And it is a place to see and experience new contemporary black theater, a place for professional African Americans to network with colleagues.

This small town, population 150,000, might not seem to be the predictable venue for this biennial historic event, but that’s part of the charm of this festival, which was started by Larry Leon Hamlin, the artistic director and founder of the North Carolina Black Repertory Company. During the festival, Winston-Salem becomes, in effect, a small African American village. And as John Amos, formerly of the ‘70s sitcom “Good Times,” put it, “The village has decided to get together again, dropping all of our differences to celebrate.”

Monday night’s traditional star-studded opening-night gala celebration dinner and awards ceremony was highlighted by a procession led by the Otesha Creative Arts Ensemble, a North Carolina-based West African-influenced dance and music troupe. Attended by more than 1,300 people, the evening featured speeches by such celebrities as actor-choreographer Debbie Allen; Tony Award winner Geoffrey Holder; his wife of 40 years, former American Ballet Theater dancer Carmen de Lavallade and Billy Dee Williams, the latter serving as this year’s festival chairperson.

Williams drew a big round of applause when he summed up the event’s purpose: “The beauty of this whole situation is that it’s an opportunity for all of us of the same culture, the same colors, the same hues, to be able to have dialogue, a communication, a network.”

Also in attendance was the festival’s first chairperson, poet and writer Maya Angelou, a North Carolina resident. “It was she, when all others would not believe [in the festival], who graciously lended her resources,” Hamlin said. “She lended her resources to help the effort. When you ask someone of that stature to lend support and invest themselves, and the event goes well--it feels good.”

The gala was followed by the sold-out revival of playwright Ntozake Shange’s landmark “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.” The play, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, focuses on the complexity, emotions and intelligence of black women and the need for them to respect and love themselves. Though today it appears a lot less angry than when it first premiered at the New Federal Theater in New York two decades ago, the themes’ relevance persist, and Shange has updated this version to touch on issues of AIDS, rape and the use of condoms.

For Shange, the presentation had personal significance: “To come to the festival in a professional capacity is deeply moving. It was very hard to be an isolated talent and seer, but now that there are more of us, it’s a nourishing experience.”

Following the opening night, festival attendees got down to the business of seeing more plays and attending dramatic readings, the latter conducted by Garland Lee Thompson, executive director of the New York-based Frank Silvera’s Writer Workshop and this writer’s father. The readings showcase new works by up-and-coming playwrights who go on to have their plays produced--often at the following festival.

Themes this year explore blues music and African roots, as well as black history, among the more traditional theater productions, such as a play starring Della Reese called “Some of My Best Friends Are the Blues” and “A Dream to Fly and a Black Woman Speaks,” a story of the first black aviatrix, written and performed by Madeline McCray.

Alternative performances also have been featured in a “New Performance in Black Theatre Series,” curated by Rhodessa Jones and Idris Ackamoor, who co-direct the San Francisco-based Cultural Odyssey. A highlight was the solo work “The Huey P. Newton Story” by Roger Guenveur Smith, seen in Los Angeles at the Actors’ Gang last January.

Also among this year’s entries was the Los Angeles-based, black male performance-art collective the Hittite Empire. Under the direction of Keith Antar Mason, the Hittites performed their “Undersiege Stories,” seen previously at Santa Monica’s Highways, which focuses on incarceration and its effects on African American men in the United States. Antar Mason warned audiences that he might offend, but in the name of encouraging people to think and discuss the issues affecting African Americans today.

Though plays are the focus of the festival, it also has included an education component, featuring daily workshops called “International Colloquia--Black Theatre; A Stage Beyond National Boundaries,” which prompted a dialogue about how black theater reflects the way the black experience is expressed. There were also workshops on how theater companies can take advantage of the Internet, and sessions on publishing, producing, costuming, acting and funding.