Ernest McCarty is a native of Chicago, who has authored and co-authored more than 24 produced plays and musicals, and has been associated with the ETA in Chicago and Quaigh Theatre in New York City before becoming Artistic Director for New Horizon Theater, in Pittsburgh. His first production, I Dreamt I Dwelt In Bloomingdales, was presented at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City in 1970.
Other theatrical works produced in New York City include Dinah! Queen of the Blues, presented at the Westside Arts Theatre, starring Sasha Dalton; When The Spirit Moves, starring Tony Award winner Trazana Beverley; The Exchange; and The Separate Vacation.
Among his plays and musicals produced in Chicago and Pittsburgh are Madame Hortense (Joseph Jefferson Award), the tone poem A Cosmic Night, Recollection Rag (Hoyt W. Fuller One-Act Play Festival Award, aired on PBS), and Love Spirit! McCarty is a member of the Dramatists Guild and was named Prolific Playwright of 1998 by In Pittsburgh newspaper. Discussions are underway to make Recollection Rag a motion picture.
McCarty’s directing credits include Humbug Man, Brazilian Rendezvous, A Cosmic Night, The Separate Vacation, Madame Hortense, Recollection Rag, The Exchange, Samm-Art Williams’ Home, A Window to Home, Life After Coma, Give Us Another Tune, The Region (an American opera), and Cheryl West’s Jar The Floor.
Synopsis
The play, containing
equal parts of drama and comedy, is about the
chance meeting of two retired women making their monthly stop at
the local bank to cash their social security or pension checks. They
behave at first with the usual social graces, not revealing too much,
just being polite. After being in each other’s company, and under
the
influence of afternoon tea spiked with spirits, they let their guard
down and decide to act dangerously. They both discover that each
has kept a diary/journal of important and private moments in their
lives. A decision is made to exchange diaries so that each can read
the other’s story. The agony and outcome of such a decision is
an
emotional study of human nature.
(Hoyt W. Fuller One-Act Play Festival Award winner)
(It can be adapted to most cities/any language since the subject is universal.)
Synopsis
Fall
in love all over again, cabaret style.
A musical revue, seen off-Broadway in New York,
has over 20 songs about the ins and outs and
the ups and downs of being in love. The performers “jazz” you, “Samba” you and “blues” you
through
the joys and heartache of opening up your heart
in today's less than perfect world of relationships.
(The musical was also performed in Chicago with a cast of 9 with a complete neighborhood as its backdrop and in Pittsburgh as a cabaret review with 5 actor/singer/dancers).
Time & Place: The here and now.
Synopsis
A
Cosmic Night is a tone poem, based on the poetry of Poet Laureate of
Illinois, Gwendolyn Brooks,
as compiled in her book To Disembark. When a mother
sees reflected in her son’s eyes all the frustrations of
centuries of struggle, it triggers a detailed account
of a turbulent time in America and the effect it had
on the lives beyond story takes us back to a Chicago
neighborhood on the day Martin Luther King was assassinated. While it is a different day and time now, it seems that some things are still the same. This musical work points up that order can and does come out of chaos.
Time & Place: A Chicago neighborhood, the evening Martin Luther King was assassinated.
ABOUT POET GWENDOLYN BROOKS
Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas and grew up in Chicago. Poet
Laureate of Illinois,
she is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Among her awards:
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
Award, Shelley
Memorial Award, two Guggenheim fellowships, 40 honorary doctorates and
the Kuumba Liberation
Award. She taught at Columbia College, Elmhurst College, the University
of Wisconsin at Madison,
Northeastern Illinois University and City College of New York. She also
lectured at hundreds of
colleges and universities and was the author of 15 books. A Cosmic
Night is based on her 1981
book To Disembark.
Synopsis
Madame
Hortense, en route to Hollywood to make a long-awaited screen debut, reflects
on her colorful
past through an interview with a not-too-impressive
newspaper reporter. She flamboyantly describes
through song, dance and skits, how she survived
the pitfalls and struggles of her climb up the ladder
of success and how with determination she is
transformed from saloon singer to the most sought
after “star” of her time.
(Winner Joseph Jefferson award)
© Ernest
McCarty. All Rights Reserved
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