Lonesome Blues

" A dynamic and rewarding evening in the theatre!" - Show Showdown
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"Akin Babatundé is OUTSTANDING!" - Theater Pizzazz
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"Powerhouse Vocals!" - DC Metro Theater Arts
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" A Tour de Force Performance!"- Wolf Entertainment
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"Lonesome Blues impresses one mightily with the scope and feeling of its subject’s art. Blind Lemon’s expressions of the highs and lows of his own humanity should make even the most lonesome in his audience feel less so." - Ron Cohen
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About

Lonesome Blues
World Premiere at the York Theatre Company, June 12-July 1, 2018

Lonesome Blues is the celebration of the legendary bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson: born blind, but ultimately able to express his deepest emotions through music. Discovered on a street corner in the Deep Ellum section of Dallas, Texas in 1925, Jefferson made more than 80 records over the next four years, becoming one the most prolific and influential performers of his generation and propelling the growth of rhythm and blues, soul, doo-wop, rap, . . . and hip-hop.

BIOS:

Akin Babatundé is an accomplished actor, director, and writer whose theatrical career spans Broadway, regional theatre, film and television. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Arts and Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas He has been a resident company member of prestigious theatrical institutions throughout the country: Trinity Rep (Providence, R.I.), Alley Theater (Houston, TX), La Mama Theater (NY City) and the Dallas Theater Center. He is founder and artistic director of Vivid Theater Ensemble of Dallas and founder of Ebony Emeralds Classic Theater Company. Babatundé was the first African-American to direct for the Dallas Shakespeare Festival in the celebrated diverse production of Taming of the Shrew in 1993. As a writer, his work has been commissioned by Florida Stage, La Mama Theater, the Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, Brown University, the Black Academy of Arts and the and Core Ensemble. His work Shakespeare – Midnight Echoes tours in Texas paying homage to black performing artists who performed Shakespeare from slavery to the present. He has toured extensively with Core Ensemble in Of Ebony Embers – Vignettes of the Harlem Renaissance. His one-man show, Before the Second Set – A Visit with Satchmo, which he co-wrote with Emmy award-winner Obba Babatunde, has received critical acclaim at theaters across the country. Babatundé co-wrote and starred in Blind Lemon Blues, Television appearances include “Law and Order” and “Wishbone,” the PBS literary show for children. Babatundé is a renowned arts educator, having undertaken five long-term artist residencies in underserved communities in Florida, creating new music theatre works alongside at-risk teens and community members. Babatunde is the recipient of the 2016 Theodore Holger distinguished artist in residence for the visual and performing arts at Lehigh University. Recently Dallas Critics Forum Award, D-FW Black Arts Irma Hall Award for Theater Excellence, and the Fort Worth Live Theater League Diversity Award.

Alan Govenar is a writer, playwright, photographer and filmmaker. He is the director of Documentary Arts, a non-profit organization he founded in 1985 to present new perspectives on historical issues and diverse cultures. Govenar is a Guggenheim Fellow and the author of twenty-nine books, including Everyday Music, Untold Glory: African Americans in Pursuit of Freedom, Opportunity and Achievement, Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound, Lightnin’ Hopkins: His Life and Blues, Stompin’ at the Savoy, Jasper, Texas: The Community Photographs of Alonzo Jordan, and Deep Ellum: The Other Side of Dallas. His book Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper’s Daughter won First Place in the New York Book Festival (Children’s Non-Fiction), a Boston Globe–Hornbook Honor, and an Orbis Pictus Honor from the National Council of Teachers of English. Govenar’s film Stoney Knows How was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and was selected as an Outstanding Film of the Year by the London Film Festival. Govenar has also produced and directed numerous films in association with NOVA, PBS, and La Sept/ARTE. His documentaries, The Beat Hotel, Master Qi and the Monkey King, and You Don’t Need Feet To Dance are distributed by First Run Features. Govenar co-wrote the musical Blind Lemon Blues, which was produced at the York Theatre in New York City and toured to ten cities in Europe, including the Forum Meyrin in Switzerland, Maison des Cultures du Monde in France, and Leidse Shouwburg in The Netherlands. The off-Broadway premiere of Govenar’s new musical Texas in Paris, directed by Akin Babatunde, received rave reviews in The New York Times and The Huffington Post and garnered nominations for a Lortel Award and four Audelco Awards. Texas in Paris was presented in its European premiere at the Festival de l’Imaginaire in Paris in December 2016. Govenar is the recipient of a Keeping the Blues Alive Award from the Blues Foundation in Memphis. His 30th book The Blues Come to Texas will be published by Texas A&M University Press in January 2019.

Katherine Owens (Director) is Artistic Director and a founding member of the Undermain Theatre in Dallas’ Deep Ellum. In New York she has directed the premieres of Neil Young's Greendale and John O'Keffe's Glamour at the Ohio Theatre, Jeffrey M. Jones' A Man's Best Friend at WalkerSpace, and Lenora Champagne's Coaticook at the SoHo Think Tank's Ice Factory Festival. At Undermain she has directed the world premieres of several plays including Len Jenkin's Jonah, which she and Jenkin developed at the Sundance Institute, and his Abraham Zobell's Home Movie, Time in Kafka and Port Twilight, as well as Gordon Dahlquist's Tomorrow Come Today, which went on to win the James Tait Black Award for Drama in 2015. Other recent Undermain credits include Chekhov’s Three Sisters, Brecht’s Galileo, and Strindberg’s Easter. Katherine is a recipient of the AAUW Texas Woman of Distinction Award, the 2013 Dallas Historical Society Award for Excellence in the Creative Arts, and was nominated for the 2013 "Texan of the Year" by the Dallas Morning News. She is a fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, a native of Odessa, Texas and graduate of the University of Texas in Austin.

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