Roxbury Community College - Yearbook (Roxbury, MA)

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not to die. But the question of how he will handle life is left open for the audience to determine. What the audience does know for sure, Says Hardaway, is that Leroy cannot any longer run, as he has been running at society's dictate, down the long, dark corridor of self-destruction. lt's on him now. .Hardaway says that drug ad- diction has no particular appeal to her as subject matter for a play. She chose drug addiction as one of a number of possible metaphors because, Drugs are a handy escape that we in this community and people in many other coni- munities use, she says, just as l have the dream mother escape into the'bottIe. ' Frederick Hayes choreographed the play for her. Anthony Jacobs was the musical director and arranger. There was a live band and Lita Myers, Phyllis Cheek, and Vernon Dent sang the four songs Hardaway had written. , Hardasway says that People's Theater has expressed interest in doinga production oftheshow. ' In Barbara Hardaway's three years at Roxbury Community college, the drama department has increased the number of courses it offers. She teaches public speaking, which is a three credit course that is a requirement to graduate in Humanities. The other two courses she teaches are electives. A survey of drama literature in- cludes plays from the classical Greek, African works, and con- temporary scripts. Opus 'Dubious was put on as part of a theater practicum that involved 35 students and community people, who were welcomed V through an open audition for the parts in the play. u Hartdway is leaving RCC at this term's conclusion. Because of health problems she is moving to Columbus, Georgia for the warmer climate. She says that she's going to rest for a while before she looks for a new theater opportunity. , She has given notice at RCC. Hut she does not know who--if anyone--will be keeping theater alive at Roxbury Community College. Hopefully, the title of her last production there is not a prediction of thefuture tor theater at RCCEV . NW., ix V I U x 1 N I I - ii - . '. I n 13 'V 'S i -it hw X' xr' 'v , V 1 w i.- y 't.- I 2-,ci N- X in 6'f' ' A 3-z' za-w 'FW . 5.-.3 riff i. , - ' V V ., ., ie-Vw' . ii 'I ,.',. . V , .. qi.-21'--' r4y. l..g-:-is- H x. x N xt- i. i , -, :wa X X .- V' i , ts ,A W, -x,-MV.-. . . ' - A- za-stab'-Q1 fag. 'X 5 . V me , H,-.-axeV..,.,'lg,...,,, ,Kg . 5 Y , Q ,:- V -'guvii-afice-1-:eV - i. ' - V 2- -Q: .4 .- its - V xx- .I . . , 5 ' f' ., ,f .!'?-:R -:j,13.7Q- ' ,-j. 2515, i . Q' 1 , 1-Mr:-?:.V'Ef53f'. l'73 :-:ren V' . ', , . R221 'xfm tzf' 9.1-1-r-AV. - A ' fa. . c'3'4-tix.. 'i'f..e5a- j 'W1,31. ,, M :-new--,gg 'f 3- -1 . ' firef- -f .. -. x. ,. I N, .551-e. ----QV ,N 'sv V.?,. 3 . i . . -A ,, , ,V i1.',,..u -' '?- . 5 ' ' xg -' 'iii vrstiici 4' K X. V M, T. ,L -'Hi-f-N '. rib'-an - H 'ia ' i '1 ' :Z-Y e '1-ph fi 'I' 4V ,arrays '-'fir253Psf? 'iS1s5ir-M 'bfV EY9ar'e'51-if-,ff-'rt h 5- ,im , .-Q ,,,.,,-uw. .'.,, , 'si Who. x---1. wh QE. ,,,,a5,, ' .V ' .X lA.f?f'2-ff:lz153?'q:l,1s - 'X-.1 r gg. VM' 4: Jil i'f'1 Y' G if ..-'S' ':s3'1 f' '. WP.. ' 1. .mg ' A 't 1 V r- . , . 1 vfV,w. ,. f'ffr,: ' ' .- N' 'WFifa'.V55Z3.'7f:-l?9'fi'5 7 ' Sh V. V , '- :Vw X V iL, 'vtw.,4-A, .,, 515:28 - .1 ' 'vm . . Barbara Hardaway iBanner photo by Tyrone Halll. 'E -M-Q6 V -RQXDUVY C0mlT1Unity College recently presented a two-act play entitled Opus Dubious. ln the fantasy scene pictured above. the cast demonstrates the night- marish world ot drug addiction. Cast members were Eliot Davis, Charlie Harris, Alan Brown, Beryle Fisher, Mansur, Jesse Check, Alverna Coney, Cleora Francis, -'Ulla TVIPP. Jacqueline Hayes, Leslie Johnson and Andre Gore. tBanner photo by Janice Meltonl.

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June 2,1977 Evfmw-vb the callboa rd t I -:YL t--.3 'W Although the drama department ' at Roxbury Commun ity College got .ghcrowded out of its rehearsal space 2 because the school had to set up . new shelves for books and tables for audio-visual equipment, the show still went on. Opus Dubious had three performances at the YWCA 4140 Clarendon Sth recently. lt is the third consecutive year the one-woman department has put on a play in the spring. Barbara D. Hardaway says that she had done improvisational theater with the RCC thespians before they staged a play. But Day of Absence --which she 'directed for the spring of '74--was the first show the RCC depart- ment put on. The next year they did Jean Genet's The Blacks. This year she wrote and directed Opus Dubious for themn. Hardaway, who is from Boston, says that she loves black theater. An early experience for her with black theater was during her undergraduate years at American International College in Springfield. lt almost got me sent to jail, she says, making up a hyperbole for the reaction the administrators had to her original script in which a black Lucifer rejectsa Iovelorn white God. Students, however, seemed to be more open-minded about The Miracle. The musical religious satire got a second run at a nearby campus, UMass- Amherst. Hardaway was 20 years old at the time. Hardaway then did graduate studies at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. My emphasis was directing and play writing, 'she 53Y3- .. K x by Kay Bgurne T i' Barbara Hardaway BlaQ.kItheaterthere is brimarily tribal and traditional African -theater. The irony of that ex- perience was that l went there to stwy under playwright Wole Soyinka. When l got there he was in exile because of his politics during the Biafran War. All l could do was read his books and that's what I was doing here tat home.7 Hardaway got a master's in drama from Ibadan and returned to Boston where she was recruited by The Arts Center Community Players in Dorchester to direct a murder mystery by Agatha Christie, The Mouse Trap. Meanwhile, Hardaway had enrolled in Emerson College's graduate drama department to get a second master's degree. She finishes in June with a master's in theater education. Most of my work at Roxbury ---v 1' ' 71 Community College has been done in conjunction with my work at Emerson, she says. The Plat' 'Opus Dubious' l'm using to meet my final requirement, for work at Emerson, Hardwaway took the title Opus Dubious from classical Latin. where it means doubtful work. The script was written and l didn't have a title for it says Hardaway, who decided to pick a title that would describe the creative process of writing a play. For the dramatist the whole creative experience is doubtful until you beginto see how it's lived out on the stage with your actors and audience there. The initials of the title--O.D.--are also pertinentto Opus Dubious. O,D. is the hidden theme of 'young Leroy, who is a drug ad- dict, says Hardaway describing the major character in her play. Eliot Davis did the part of Leroy. 1 -.i Leroy GEliot Davis! becomes a ciharacter in a dream he is having, a dream that the audience sees, she continues. He meets his iapt,her tBeryle Fishery who is degvd, the 'cracker' spirit lAlan Brbwnj who is a forebear of Leroy's, his diseniobidied soul tCharlie Harrisi, and an African oba or king tMansur.i All of them are coming to claim Leroy, which fulfills a wish he had, and they are coming to warn him to change his tdrug-orientedb lifestyle, advice which Leroy ignores, she says. The options to drug-addiction that Leroy's visitors offer, however, are a cure nearly as deadly asthedisease of addiction Leroy is suffering. l wanted to point out, says Hardaway, that exploitation comes in all disguises and don't be fooled by the master of disguise. Hardaway lists the other characters in the play as the dream servant tJesse Cheeky who is a utility character for the oba. He fans the oba, brushes flies off him, and announces Leroy. There are also dream dancers-- Julia Tripp, Cleora Francis, Jackie Haynes, Leslie Johnson, and Alverna Coney--who act out the enticing nymphs of the ritual that leads to Leroy's imaginary demise, she says. Much of the play is a dream- world setting. The fantastical environment is suggested by out- sized props tsuch as tlfe hypodermic needle shown in the photograph with the cast.J Leroy's writing table and bed are of normal size, however. The audience gets a hint to Leroy's O.dea'thMwish' from seeing which things are out of proportion. ,7 Like many other suicidal people. Leroy chooses at the lastaminute

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