'African Origins' at Gibbes

Lauren Riddle (from left), Samantha Pedings and Kelly Jewell in "Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)" to be staged by students and graduates of the College of Charleston's theater department.

You see the women at Broad and Meeting streets, and on U.S. Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant, as they sit weaving and selling intricately coiled baskets.

This ancient custom will be explored through the exhibit "Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art" at the Gibbes Museum of Art from Friday to Nov. 8.

The exhibition was organized by the Museum for African Art in New York in cooperation with the Avery Research Center for African-American History and Culture at the College of Charleston and the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina.

Featuring more than 200 objects, including baskets made in Africa and the American South, along with African sculptures and paintings from the Charleston Renaissance period, the exhibition traces the history of coiled baskets on two continents and how they became an important symbol of African-American identity.

The items on view also address the history of the Carolina rice plantation and highlight the technological innovations brought to American agriculture from Africa.

Noting that the exhibition explains the survival of African-American basketry over 300 years, Gibbes Executive Director Angela D. Mack says, "We are honored to serve as the opening venue for this historic exhibition on behalf of the Museum for African Art."

Elsie McCabe, president of the Museum for African Art, says, "It is thrilling to be able to tell this story through the coiled-basketry traditions that forever link the two continents. This exhibition is about baskets in both places, but because of new scholarship brought to bear on the subject, it is really about much more."

She adds, "It explores many rich cultural patterns both lost and maintained; it shows how people have built and rebuilt their heritage over centuries of oppression and opportunity, and it reveals how a simple but always beautifully crafted tool has come to be appreciated as an object of art."

The exhibit will include five short films showing demonstrations of basketmaking as the weavers tell their stories. Also, a full-color catalog with essays by scholars of African and American history will accompany the works.

For more information, go to www.africanart.org or call 722-2706.

'Goodnight Desdemona'

"Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)," a comic play by Toronto, Canada, resident Ann- Marie MacDonald, will open Thursday as part of the College of Charleston's theater department's Shakespeare Project.

"Although this is not a work by Shakespeare, 'Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)' is a funny and intelligent work that speaks of the balance of comedy and tragedy parallel to Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure,' " says Todd McNerney, chairman of the college's theater department.

"Measure for Measure" is being performed in the college's Simons Center for the Arts' Robinson Theatre, while "Goodnight Desdemona" will run in the Chapel Theatre on campus. "Goodnight Desdemona" premiered at the Nightwood Theatre in Toronto in 1988 and has been presented in more than 70 productions worldwide. It won the Chalmers Canadian Play Award and the Canadian Authors' Association Award.

McNerney notes that MacDonald's play is a humorous look at what would happen if Shakespeare's "Othello" and "Romeo and Juliet" were actually conceived as comedies starring modern-day Ph.D. candidate Constance Ledbelly, who is mysteriously transported into the worlds of the two plays and finds herself helplessly affecting their outcomes. With Ledbelly's arrival, the leading Shakespearean characters change from what the audience expects them to be, creating a farce complete with mistaken identities, silliness, wordplay and cross-dressing by both genders.

The play's director, Wayne Wilson, says, "The unexpected twists and turns with traditional Shakespearean characters and the marriage of the vernacular and Shakespearean language bring unique qualities to this play."

Actors include Samantha Pedings as Constance Ledbelly, Kelly Jewell as Juliet and Lauren Riddle as Desdemona. Set design is by Kyle Mims with sound design by Eric Melville and costumes by Ann Clara Carter. Lighting is by Austin Butler.

"Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)" will be performed at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, continuing Sept. 4-6 and 8-9, and at 3 p.m. Aug. 31 and Sept. 7 at the Chapel Theatre, 172 Calhoun St.

Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for those 60 and older, College of Charleston students, faculty and staff.

Tickets may be purchased at the Chapel Theatre box office or by calling 953-5604. "Talkback" discussions with the cast and crew will be held opening night following the performance.

Reach Dottie Ashley at 937-5704 or dashley@postandcourier.com.