A Rockford theater troupe will celebrate poet Langston Hughes, unnamed women in the Bible and a local playwright through its reading series.
"They Speak" celebrates African American storytelling. Dorothy Paige-Turner, coordinator and director of the series, said she taught a class about Hughes at Rock Valley College.
"I could only scratch the surface in that class," she said, "so basically this is an extension of the class that I taught because he was more than a poet. He was a playwright, a journalist — he was just some of everything.”
Next month, the focus will turn to unnamed women in the Bible.
"These women were able to do enormously wonderful, spiritually gifted things, you know, like the Samaritan woman," she added. "After meeting Jesus at the well, she went and evangelized her entire town as a result of that.”
In August, the theatre will pay homage to local playwright Nathan Alan Davis. Paige-Turner said she has known him since sixth grade.
"He has written eight plays, so since he has that body of work," she said, "I wanted to take time to showcase his work and to make the public in Rockford aware of his artistry and his enormous talent."
The Rockford Readers Theatre will perform "I Dream a World — The Poetry, Plays and Publications of Langston Hughes" on June 27 and 28 at the West Side Show Room.
July and August dates are listed at the West Side Show Room's website.
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