On June 21, 2021, it was announced that the Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York (BTTUNY) will be a Resident Community Company at Capital Repertory Theatre (theREP) (251 N. Pearl Street).
“For eleven years of programming, [BTTUNY] (formerly named Soul Rebel Performance Troupe) has had no permanent performance space, which necessitated an ongoing search for venue availability for every show the company produced. With dedicated headquarters in Capital Repertory Theatre for their upcoming productions, Founding Artistic Director Jean-Remy Monnay states, ‘…it is very exciting to know that BTTUNY has a secure home base for all of our shows this season and into the future. To know that we can plan a full season of work because we don’t have to worry about ‘where’ the next production will take place, is just so wonderful. With this residency, BTTUNY can grow. Our programming can grow, and so can our audience base.'”
This is way cool. My wife and I have spent a fair amount of time in the “new” CapRep building. For the past few Octobers, it has hosted the Readers Theatre fundraiser for Wizard’s Wardrobe, an afterschool tutoring service in Albany’s South End .
Support
“In addition to providing space on both of their new stages (the Lauren and Harold Iselin Studio and the theatre’s Main Stage) – Capital Repertory Theatre (and the Proctors Collaborative) will provide some support to BTTUNY such as ticketing, marketing, and development support, and some production support as outlined in the agreement between BTTUNY and the Proctors Collaborative. However, BTTUNY remains its own company. All programming and decisions for BTTUNY remain in the hands of Monnay and his board of directors.”
Part of that ticketing support this year included offering season ticket holders of Cap Rep and Proctor’s Theatre in Schenectady – this year, we took both! – complementary Try Me tickets. The Proctors Collaborative, including the Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs, uses this method to promote programs that might not have as much visibility. BTW, I’ve never been to UPH and need to rectify that.
On the list of Try Me tickets was a BTTUNY production of Berta, Berta. What’s that? From playwright Angelina’ Cheri’s website: “After committing an unforgivable crime, Leroy is granted one final wish: a chance to make amends with his long-lost lover Berta. Their reunion swells from a quarrelsome conjuring of the past to an impassioned plot to escape their impending fate.
Song
“The play is inspired by the prison chain gang song ‘Berta, Berta’, which originated on Parchman Farm, Mississippi State Penitentiary. It is a fictional origin story.”
The CapRep /BTTUNY description is slightly different. To my mind, it’s more accurate: “Set in 1920s Mississippi, ‘Berta, Berta’ tells the story of Leroy, a Black man sent to jail for following a White woman down the street to help her–a supposed crime that never existed. Prison changes him, and upon getting out, he finds himself to be a true criminal. Before giving himself back up to the police, however, he is determined to make amends with his long-lost girlfriend, Berta. The play highlights themes of doomed love, tragic misunderstandings, a flawed and biased prison system and magical realism.”
Review
The review in the Berkshire Eagle by J. Peter Bergman is spot on. “On director Michael A. Lake’s three-room set, Sadrina Renee and Alvin Kershaw play their story with grace and passion and their very professional abilities. You can’t help falling in love with these troubled people as they live through their traumas and their needs…
“This is a play like no other I have seen, and I have seen a lot of plays in my lifetime. There is rarely a moment when the two players are still, and those are all utterly romantic. Lake has kept Berta as active as a person could be at two in the morning. Leroy, on the other hand, facing disgrace and arrest, is as calm a human being as possible, an amazing feat of control. The way in which he responds to her would make him as fidgety as Berta, but instead, his calm is sometimes chilling.”
The play’s short run ended in October, but BTTUNY will be performing more programs this season. Valley Song by Athol Fugard will be at Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, NY, about an hour from Albany, on November 15-17 and 22-24.
They will perform Once On This Island on CapRep’s main stage from February 6 to 16, 2025. I saw this show at Proctors in 2020, just before the pandemic.
The final BTTUNY performance of the 2024-25 season will be Eclipsed by Danai Gurira from May 29 to June 8 in TheRep’s Iselin Studio. Based on the quality of Berta, Berta, I imagine these will be fine performances.