AfroSolo presents 29th AfroSolo Arts Festival: “Train Stories” June 9 & 10
AfroSolo Theatre Company presents Program 3 of its 29th annual AfroSolo Arts Festival: “TRAIN STORIES”, June 9 & June 10 at 7pm PDT at Potrero Stage and simulcast, with on-demand access through June 30. All performances are admission-free and available both in-person and live-streamed (donations gratefully accepted). For more information or to reserve tickets, click here.
The final weekend of the 29th Annual AfroSolo Arts Festival features an original play by Wayne Harris. A passionate storyteller, Wayne delivers a runaway locomotive of a play that pulses with the mesmerizing rhythms, dreams, and contradictions of those who ply their trade on the railroad. Each of three men tell their own chilling take of the events of Spring 1948. While they give their individual account of a particular event, the play itself speaks to the complicated connection African-Americans have as a result of slavery and legislation. It poses the question: How do Black men find their place in America, with all of its challenge, while maintaining their dignity and pride?
Wayne Harris is an award-winning solo performer, writer, educator, curriculum innovator and musician. His plays include Mother’s Milk, which was both an homage to his mother and a nuanced picture of St. Louis during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement. Mother’s Milk ran for 14 Weeks in San Francisco and garnered a Fringe Award at the Vancouver International Fringe Festival. In The May Day Parade, Wayne fused his love for drum and bugle corps with his personal childhood battle with polio. Wayne was invited by the U.S. State Department to travel to the Middle East and perform his play, The Letter; Martin Luther King at the Crossroads. Wayne is currently Program Director for The Marsh Youth Theater in San Francisco, CA serving underprivileged students in after-school programs and Summer Camps.
Tony Cyprien found the stage through improv 11 years ago. Supportive teachers nudged him toward the stage where he won his first MOTH StorySlam and created a new story for the GrandSlam. He would go on to be invited to two Moth Mainstage performances and for selection on NPR Moth Radio. Other invited storytelling performances of original material included “Bay Area Storytelling Hijacked” (BASH) at Shotgun Players Theater and the “Gather” where invited storytellers collaborated with BATS improvisers. Support, encouragement, and collaboration have included the Marin Shakespeare Company’s Returned Citizens Theater Troupe and the Formerly Incarcerated People’s Performance Project. He appreciates the early opportunities for solo work at Solo Sundays at Stage Werx and at Marsh Theater through Monday Night Marsh and Tell it On Tuesday as well as other venues throughout the Bay Area.
Kirk Waller plays the role of John Henry in Train Stories, is excited to be a part of this production. Kirk has been involved in storytelling, solo performance and theatre for over 25 years. Recently Kirk played Troy Maxson in Pittsburg Theatre Company’s production of August Wilson’s Fences, which he won Best Performer in a Play (Broadway World 2022). His performances has carried him across across the country and beyond. Kirk is a proud papa of two young men and is recently remarried!
About AfroSolo
AfroSolo Theatre Company’s mission is to nurture, promote and present African American and African Diasporan art and culture through solo performances and the visual and literary arts. Since 1994, we have presented the annual AfroSolo Arts Festival, a forum for African Americans and the larger African Diaspora, as a way to give voice to the unique experience of being Black. Through art, we bring people of all ethnicities together to explore and share the human spirit that binds us all. For more information, visit https://www.afrosolosf.org.