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Come join us for an evening of heritage, hope, fellowship. Witness a memorable dramatic presentation by FAMU Essential Theater; enjoy live music by the Leon Anderson Group, featuring vocalist Avis Berry, and dine on the delicacies of Heavenly Catering.
The Gala pays tribute to individuals who by a tangible act or creation have been trailblazers, going before, preparing the way for others. This year, we posthumously will honor Professors Randolph and Irene Edmonds.
The Edmonds came to FAMU in 1947; chaired the Department of Speech and Drama, and brought the organized Negro theatre experience to Tallahassee by establishing the FAMU Playmakers Guild and Little Children’s Theatre. They also helped to extend the program of dramatic arts into HBCUs, schools, and communities throughout the country.
Gala proceeds benefit the John G. Riley Scholarship Fund. Show your support by purchasing a ticket ($100 single; $175 per couple; five-seat half table $500; 10-seat full table $1,000). Call Althemese Barnes at 681.7881 or Claudia Anderson at 933.0878 to purchase tickets.
Background Information: Randolph Edmonds, a dramatist, play writer, professor and organizer was born in Lawrenceville, Virginia. He obtained the Bachelors and Master of Arts Degrees from Oberlin College and Columbia University, respectively. He studied Drama at Yale University, in Ireland and Great Britain. Professor Edmonds was head of the Department of Speech and Drama at Florida A&M University and founded both the Intercollegiate Drama Association and National Association of Drama and Speech Arts, the two leading drama organizations among Negro schools and colleges. He and his wife, Irene, were more instrumental than any single individuals in extending the program of dramatic arts into Negro universities, colleges, schools and communities of the country. Through their work at Florida A&M University, they brought drama to the campus and, through the Irene Edmonds Little Children’s Theatre, to youth across the state of Florida.
Irene Colbert Edmonds, Assistant Director and Speech Coach at Florida A&M University, was born in Florence, South Carolina. She received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in psychology and English from Syracuse University and a Masters Degree from The John Hopkins University. She later spent six months in Paris, France, studying. She organized the Children’s theatre at Dillard University in Louisiana, which was so successful that parents put the names of their children on the roll at birth! She wrote several plays that were distributed nationally.
In July 1947, the Edmonds moved to Tallahassee, Florida where their dramatic successes continued, including organizing the FAMU Playmakers Guild and Little Children’s Theatre.
Mrs. Edmond’s great grandfather, Henry Highland Garnet, a noted abolitionist and orator of the Civil War period, was the first minister to Liberia appointed by the President of the United States. Her grandmother, Mary Garnet Barboza, established a school in Browerville, Liberia. Mrs. Edmond’s mother, Jeannette, spent the summers of her childhood in Liberia and winters in England. Her father, the distinguished Presbyterian minister, Dr. John T. Colbert, was greatly interested in the Prime Minister of Ghana, the Honorable Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the Prime Minister of Easter Nigeria, and predicted a great future for these young African students. These predictions were more than fulfilled.
In 1958, the Edmonds were notified by Robert C. Schnitzel of the American National Theatre and Academy that the FAMU Playmakers’ Guild had been selected to tour Africa on the President’s Special International Program for Cultural Presentations. With an entourage of twelve, the students presented Media to enthusiastic audiences on the once dark continent of Africa. On the tour, FAMU Playmaker Guild students presented “Medea” and three One-Act Plays by famous American playwrights. Students participating were: John Black, Company Manager; Berthine Walden, Medea; Roger Baker, Jason; Gwendolyn Benyard, Nurse; Williams Larkins, Creon; Barbara Edwards, Third Woman of Corinth, Understudy for Medea; Juanita Jackson, Second Woman of Corinth; Dorothy Taylor, First Woman of Corinth; Raymond Aranha, Aegeus; John L. Alexander, Stage Manager and Tutor in “Medea”
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