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Arts & Entertainment

The Old Settler

Two women test the bonds of sisterhood in John Henry Redwood’s bittersweet comedy, The Old Settler. Set in Harlem during World War II, when hot music played and swing dancers ruled the floor of legendary nightclubs like the Savoy Ballroom, The Old Settler is a funny and moving story about hope, love, dreams, disappointment and forgiveness. Middle-aged sisters Elizabeth and Quilly have learned to put past differences behind them. But when a handsome young man named Husband takes a room as a boarder, old hurts and new tensions are brought to the surface.

“It’s about the need for love and the pain of loneliness,” says director caryn desai. “But there’s also a lot of humor, and the play’s setting is fascinating. In 1943, Harlem was a hub of music and culture for blacks and whites alike. Remember, this was during the War, long before the Civil Rights movement”

The Old Settler was first performed at the 1995 Eugene O'Neill Theatre Conference in Waterford, Connecticut. It was seen there by the Russian Theatre Union, and in 1996, the play was produced in Sheleykovo, Russia, followed by a run in Moscow. In 1997, The Old Settler had its first American production at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, a co-production with New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre. Since then, there have been numerous productions of The Old Settler throughout the U.S. The Old Settler has been recognized with an American Theatre Critics Award, the Virginia Duvall Mann Award, the Beverly Hills/Julie Harris Playwrights Award, and the Bryan Family Foundation Drama Award for Southern Literature. In 2001, The Old Settler was adapted for television and presented by PBS, starring Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad.

“When I was in Russia," Mr. Redwood once said in an interview, "we had a question and answer session and someone stood up and said that the play is very Chekhovian. That's why it took so well over there. But the greatest honor came to me when a woman stood up and said that she didn't believe that a man had written this play. That was the greatest compliment in the world to me.”

John Henry Redwood was an actor best know for his roles in the plays of August Wilson, and a playwright whose works, The Old Settler and No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs, have been widely produced in recent years. He died in 2003 in Philadelphia. In his bio for a production of The Old Settler at New York’s Primary Stages he wrote, “John Henry, having once studied for the ministry, believes that being a good actor or dentist or golfer is only one's avocation. One's vocation is being the best human being one can be.” One of Mr. Redwood's favorite quotations was, "I shall pass this way only once, therefore, whatever good I can do, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again.”

International City Theatre is Long Beach’s Resident Professional Theater at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center and the recipient of the Margaret Harford Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle for “Sustained Excellence in Theater.”

International City Theatre
is located in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center at 300 E. Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach. For reservations and information, call the ICT Box Office at (562) 436-4610 or go to www.InternationalCityTheatre.org.

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