The June 17th performance of Three Men: Three Women: The Stories of Six Strangers at the Schwartz is at 7pm. Tickets are $30 and available at the door. For more information about the show, email Omar Rashada at omarrashada@yahoo.com.
The Schwartz for the Arts Center lights up for Juneteenth with Omar Rashada’s Three Men: Three Women: The Stories of Six Strangers.
Wilmington playwright, actor and director Omar Rashada presents the latest rendition of his work in a single performance at the Schwartz Center in Dover June 17th in honor of Juneteenth. The play premiered last August at the Wilmington Drama League.
Rashada first came on the Wilmington theater scene in 1999, in a production of James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner. As a writer, Rashada has turned out six plays. His latest, Three Men: Three Women: The Stories of Six Strangers, takes place in Los Angeles at an African American Community Center. The six characters have been chosen to participate in the center’s first cultural awareness group. As the play unfolds, two narrators observe the tensions rise and the group’s interactions uncover a rash of relational problems, including infidelity, molestation, social injustice and racial struggles. Rashada ties the three acts into a conclusion that features the youngest members of the cast acknowledging Juneteenth’s significance as the characters resolve the simmering challenges.
Rashada points out that “The youngest cast members are ten and twelve so it’s a learning experience for them. As a matter of fact, they’re going to present what Juneteenth is, and who better to preserve what Juneteenth is than children so they learn at an early age.”
Delaware actor K.O. Simms plays one of the narrators, Wilbert “OG” Thompson - a husband and father who happens to be blind. According to Simms, who has worked with Rashada before, the character of Thompson “...is going to bring the past into the present and make reference to quite a few things that are actually present-day … that really haven’t changed through his lifetime.”
Rashada also discusses the challenges beyond the creative development while wearing the many hats involved in a production.
“I would say the biggest challenge is financial and another challenge is filling the seats up. You’ve got to do some very aggressive advertising, make sure that the theater has a decent crowd. The goal is always to be jam-packed, standing room only - sometimes it doesn’t happen so you’ve just got to try your best to get the word out - marketing strategy. I would say marketing and producing are probably the two biggest challenges.”
The June 17th performance of Three Men: Three Women: The Stories of Six Strangers at the Schwartz is at 7pm. Tickets are $30 and available at the door. For more information about the show, email Omar Rashada at omarrashada@yahoo.com.
