REGINA TAYLOR NEWS, INTERVIEWS & UPDATES



News for 3/10/2005


Regina Taylor Joins The Unit


Scott Foley, Amy Acker and Regina Taylor are the latest additions to the ensemble of CBS' drama pilot "The Unit."

Based on Eric Haney's book "Inside Delta Force," "The Unit" looks at members of a Special Forces unit and their families. David Mamet ("Glengarry Glen Ross," "Heist") and Shawn Ryan ("The Shield") are executive producing the 20th Century Fox TV production. Dennis Haysbert ("24"), Michael Irby ("Line of Fire") and Regina King ("Ray") were previously announced for the cast.

Regina has been a regular on "I'll Fly Away" and "The Education of Max Bickford."

The Hollywood Reporter has no specifics on which parts the various actors will play.



News for 5/25/2004


The following article appeared in the March 2004 issue of Essence Magazine





Kenneth Jones
Playbill On-Line


Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery has announced its 2004-05 season, which will include Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Tom Stoppard and a world premiere by Regina Taylor.

In addition to Willy Russell's Shirley Valentine, Arthur Miller's All My Sons, Stoppard's The Real Thing and Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, ASF has Taylor's The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove, in January 2005. Taylor adapted Crowns for the stage and is also known for Broadway's recent Drowning Crow, inspired by Chekhov's The Seagull.

Part of ASF's Southern Writers' Project, The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove, on the Festival Stage Jan. 23-Feb. 13, 2005, is billed this way: "Follow the career of this African-American washerwoman who becomes Madam C.J. Walker, America's first female millionaire, as she builds her line of black hair-care products into an empire and discovers how wealth and influence affect personal happiness. An enlightening tale of talent, determination - and how to profit from life."

The season also includes the musical revue, Always...Patsy Cline; A Christmas Carol, adapted by Richard Hellesen; and Shakespeare's As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Coriolanus and student production of A Winter's Tale.

Family audiences can expect a Carol Delk Thompson Children's Theatre production of Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes, adapted by Kevin Kling in January 2005.

Single tickets go on sale approximately six to eight weeks prior to the first performance of any show. For more information, call the ASF box office toll free at (800) 841-4273 or (334) 271-5353.

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is among the largest Shakespeare theatres in the world. Designated as The State Theatre of Alabama, ASF has been located in Montgomery since 1985 when it moved from Anniston as a result of Mr. and Mrs. Wynton M. Blount's gift of a performing arts complex set in the 250-acre Wynton M. Blount Cultural Park.



News for 2/19/2004


Regina Taylor Gives Chekhov New Wings With Drowning Crow, Opening Feb. 19

By Kenneth Jones
Playbill


Playwright Regina Taylor has reinvented Anton Chekhov's world of fragile hearts, muscular egos and artistic aspirations — namely, The Seagull — as Drowning Crow, populated with African American characters, opening Feb. 19 at Broadway's Biltmore Theatre.The staging by Manhattan Theatre Club began previews Jan. 29 under the direction of Marion McClinton. The script borrows plot points from the famed Chekhov play about a midle-aged diva actress, her playwright son and the friends, lovers and other who visit their estate. Taylor has set the show in South Carolina, on one of the coastal Gullah islands where African-Americans have had a presence for generations.

Taylor, an actress and playwright known for Crowns and Oo-Bla-Dee, has said in interviews that she was struck by the Chekhov characters' link to the past, as descendants of serfs – enslaved servants in Russia. Likewise, the characters in Drowning Crow have their own history with social bondage, and the tensions in the story are informed by the idea that one generation has fought to break barriers while another was born in a more carefree time — with certain freedoms taken for granted.

Alfre Woodard ("Cross Creek," "Passion Fish") plays the matron-actress Arkadina, renamed Josephine Nicholas Ark Trip and Anthony Mackie is her performance-artist son, Constantine Trip, a.k.a. C-Trip.

Just as the title suggests contrast with the past (today's black crow is vividly different from yesterday's white seagull), the story, like the Chekhov original, flutters with conflict and competition: Josephine is a TV actress who was once a great theatre star (the Negro Ensemble Company is referenced); her hip-hop-hued son has no use for shallow TV or commercial theatre — but craves his mother's approval.

The 13-member cast includes Aunjanue Ellis as aspiring actress Hannah Jordan, Peter Francis James as popular TV writer Robert Alexander Trigor, Stephen McKinley Henderson (as Sammy Bow, who runs the estate), Stephanie Berry (as his wife, Paula Andrea Bow), Tracie Thoms (as their daughter Mary Bow) Paul Butler (as Peter Nicholas, Josephine's retired brother), Ebony Jo-Ann (as maid Jackie), Peter Macon (as Yak, a servant), Curtis McClarin (as Simon, a teacher), Roger Robinson (as Dr. Eugene Dawn) and Baron Vaughn (as Okra, a servant).

Director Marion McClinton is well-known for shepherding August Wilson's plays in recent years.

Sets are by David Gallo, costumes by Paul Tazewell, lighting by Ken Billington, sound by Dan Moses Schreier, and projections by Wendall K. Harrington. Original music is composed by Daryl Waters and choreography is by Ken Roberson.