Darnell Players Team Up With Knoxville Actors For '51 Shades of Gray'

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The Darnell Players of the Harriett G. Darnell Senior Multipurpose Facility, in collaboration with Knoxville-based Silver Stage Players will present an original collaborative dramatic work, “51 Shades of Gray.”

The Silver Stage members will travel to Atlanta to perform three times with the Darnell Players at local senior facilities. Performances will be held at the following times and locations:

10 a.m. Friday, July 31:

• Dorothy C. Benson Senior Multipurpose Complex, 6500 Vernon Woods Dr. NE, Sandy Springs

3 p.m. Friday, July 31:

• Harriett G. Darnell Senior Multipurpose Facility, 677 Fairburn Rd. NW, Atlanta

6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1:

• Harriett G. Darnell Senior Multipurpose Facility, 677 Fairburn Rd. NW, Atlanta,

The Saturday evening performance is open to the public and tickets are on sale. A reception with light refreshments will follow the Saturday performance.

Brenda Porter is director of the Darnell Players and Charlie and Jeanette Stevens are directors for the Silver Stage Company. This will be the second time the senior drama groups have collaborated.

In the summer of 2013, eight members of the Darnell group traveled to Knoxville with their director, Brenda Porter and assistant director, Rob Jerome Jones, to do three performances of “The Soundtrack of Our Lives.” This piece included monologues written and performed by actors from each group.

Collaborating over the miles between Atlanta seniors and Knoxville seniors required the directors to meet mid-distance to develop a strategy and begin planning.

Once a concept was chosen, each director had the tasks of guiding the actors in developing, learning and performing prior to the two groups coming together to blend the work into a cohesive production. Technology allowed the directors to communicate frequently as the work progressed over a period of six months.

The two groups formed the alliance at the Senior Theatre Festival in Baltimore, Maryland in 2008. Directors of The Silver Stage Players, Jeannette and Charlie Stevens, were so impressed with “Jump Back Honey, Jump Back-The Life and Works of Paul Laurence Dunbar,” written and performed by the Darnell Players that they suggested the two groups collaborate. The proposed alliance was the first time in the history of Senior Theatre that a project of this nature was undertaken.

For ticket information, contact The Harriett G. Darnell Senior Multipurpose Facility at (404) 613-8580 or members of the Darnell Players: Brenda Porter at (404) 281-5790 or bporterporter@yahoo.com; Jennie Jones at (404) 308-6108 or (queenmotherjj@bellsouth.net; and Cheryl Ealey at (404) 695-3019 or cherylwealey@bellsouth.net.

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