Black Boy: A One Man Play starring Tarantino Smith
Kings Bay Library Presents Literature to Life stage presentation of
Black Boy by Richard Wright
Performed by Tarantino Smith
Adapted and Directed by Wynn Handman
Based on the novel Black Boy by Richard Wright, © 1945
When: Saturday, March 8, 2025, 2 pm
ages: Teen and Adults
Where: Kings Bay Library, Community Room
ACTOR BIO
Tarantino Smith, Actor: Hailing from North Carolina, Tarantino moved to New York City on a full scholarship to study acting, singing, dancing, and vocal production & speech at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy - a private conservatory in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He finished conservatory early by landing the lead of Sundiata in a national tour of The Lion King of Mali. While on tour, his passion for classical theatre continued to grow, and upon returning to NYC he started training with The Pearl Theatre Company where he studied classics such as Chekhov, Ibsen, Shaw, and Shakespeare. To further his experience, he also worked with legendary acting teacher Wynn Handman on a historic drama piece (based on letters written, or rather orated, by ex-slaves) and on two one-man shows: Ralph Ellisons' Invisible Man and Richard Wrights' memoir Black Boy - all adapted verbatim from the novels. In Black Boy, Tarantino tells the story of a black boy growing up in the Jim Crow South, transitioning through a "tour de force" of 20 different characters. Though his passion for his craft was developed and continues to develop on the stage, he has also appeared in a few independent films such as The Life (2002), Battle, New York Day 2 (2011), Robot Revolution (2015), and Carbon Copy (2017).
QUOTE
“If this country can't find its way down a Human path, if it can't inform conduct with a deep sense of life...then all of us, Black as well as White, are heading down the same drain.”
LINK TO YOUTUBE CLIP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pImSwCm31Eo
LINK TO LTL TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UnCJIkPPNo
For booking inquiries about this or any other of Literature to Life’s arts and literacy programs, please contact Lisa Beth Vettoso at Literature to Life: lisa.v@literaturetolife.org. Visit us online at www.literaturetolife.org or @lit2life
ABOUT LITERATURE TO LIFE (LTL)
LITERATURE TO LIFE (LTL) is a performance-based literacy program that presents professionally staged verbatim adaptations of American literary classics. LTL’s mission is to perform great books that inspire young people to read and become authors of their own lives. LTL was founded more than three decades ago as the educational program of the American Place Theatre. Now an independent organization, this mighty collective of artists and educators brings the voices of diverse authors to thousands of students and audiences nationwide, giving them the tools to become the empowered “voices worth hearing” of our future.
Website: www.literaturetolife.org
Social: @lit2life (Instagram and Facebook)
This program is generously supported by a grant from Assembly Member Helene Weinstein.
