Sarasota's WBTT rides a soul wave back to National Black Theatre Festival

The Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe will be traveling with a healthy dose of soul for its fifth production at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The six-day festival, Aug. 1-6, features more than 30 Black theater troupes from around the country performing one-person plays, cabaret shows, biographies, and musicals like WBTT’s “The Soul Crooners featuring Sistas in the Name of Soul,” a combination of two past revues that were most recently presented outdoors during the pandemic.

The troupe will present a preview of the production for Sarasota audiences in a sold-out performance July 30.

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The show marks the troupe’s fifth visit to the national festival, a biennial trip that began in 2013 with “The Soul Crooners.” The company has returned every two years with other revues created and directed by the company’s founder and Artistic Director Nate Jacobs.

“That first time, we took our guys from the Sarasota and Bradenton area and introduced them to a national platform. It was another validation of the dream we had for WBTT,” Jacobs said.

At the last pre-pandemic festival in 2019, the troupe performed the revue “Soul Man” in one of the festival’s largest venues, Jacobs said he was told his company “set a whole other standard at this festival. They said you are professional in all ways. You bring a quality product and we make sure we give WBTT a good venue because we know you will bring the best product.”

That assessment was offered by the festival’s longtime producer Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin, who died in January at 76. She was the widow of the festival’s founder Larry Hamlin, who died in 2007. Larry Hamlin, who also founded the North Carolina Black Repertory Company, created the festival as both a showcase for Black theaters and a chance to bring leaders of those companies together to share their struggles and successes.

“He noticed that every Black theater in the country was struggling drastically and none of us had any money, buildings or support. He wanted to come up with something to help each other, and he created the National Black Theater Festival so we could come together,” Jacobs said.

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Jacobs himself first went to the festival with his solo show “Aunt Rudele,” and Larry Hamlin took him under his wing, encouraged Jacobs to develop the piece and introduced him to a wide range of people.

The Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, which Jacobs launched in 1999, is one of the few in the country with a majority white audience and support network. The company struggled for a decade before finances stabilized and the troupe was able to buy two buildings which now house theaters, rehearsals, educational programs, and administrative offices.

For the troupe members, the festival performances are “super rewarding and exciting,” said Julie Leach, the theater’s executive director.

“The audience is from all over the country and it’s a majority of African-Americans in the audience, which is not their experience here in Sarasota,” she said. “Sometimes there’s a different feeling from the audience, they’re more loudly responsive than you’d get here from polite theatergoers. That’s exciting for them. There’s a bit of a homecoming feeling to it.”

The festival, which is usually presented in odd-numbered years, was delayed until 2022 because of the pandemic.

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Leach said festival organizers reached out earlier in the year to determine if some of the major theater companies might be able to bring a show this summer.

It’s a major undertaking for WBTT for the cost of travel for cast members, crew, sets, props and costumes. About a dozen singers and dancers are featured in this year’s presentation, which opens with “Sistas in the Name of Soul” and closes with “The Soul Crooners.”

The show features such hits as “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” “Superstition,” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Proud Mary,” “Respect” and more.

Jacobs, who will be joining the cast on stage, said he will offer a tribute to the Hamlins to acknowledge how “they took me under their wing, introduced me to people and me feel like part of their family.”

The production features many performers who have long been associated with the troupe, including Syreeta S. Banks, Ariel Blue, Christopher Eisenberg, Donald Frison, Derric Gobourne Jr., Delores McKenzie, Michael Mendez, Raleigh Mosely II, Leon Pitts II, Sheldon Rhoden and Stephanie Zandra.

Music Director Etienne “EJ” Porter will lead a live band that includes Jamar Camp, Brad Foutch, Jordan Henry and Alan Robinson. There also are crew members who will be making the trip to Winston-Salem.

They will be cheered on by Leach, several board members and other supporters who plan to travel to the festival and see some of the nearly three dozen productions. Leach said the national recognition is always a boost for the troupe.

“It’s an indication of a sort of professional achievement level. They do select companies from submissions and it’s great to have a national stage to perform on,” Leach said.

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It’s also a chance for her and staff members to meet other leaders from dozens of Black theaters around the country.

“It’s good to make those kinds of connections,” said Leach, who was involved in developing the National Association of Black Theatre Building Owners, made up of leaders of seven organizations that own their own performance spaces. It includes companies in Chicago, Baltimore, Houston, Memphis and New York City.

When the group was announced last year, the members described their building-owning theaters as “an indestructible force” as a home for Black theater artists. “We offer permanent shelter and an opportunity to live, grow and thrive while moving forward in our commitment to perpetuate the importance of Black theater to the growth and development of American culture.”

Leach said association members “have ongoing conversations throughout the year, and it was very helpful during COVID to share concerns and issues we were all dealing with.”

Leach said most of the theaters she has been in touch with have weathered Covid with the help of federal funding, like the Paycheck Protection Program and the Shuttered Venue Grants. “Being in Florida, we could be outdoors more. Many just closed for the time period and kept what essential staff they could.”

‘The Soul Crooners featuring Sistas in the Name of Soul’

Created and directed by Nate Jacobs. Presented by the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, 7:30 p.m. July 30, 1012 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota. 941-366-1505; westcoastblacktheatre.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota’s Westcoast Black Theatre brings soul to national festival