Missed "Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail"
at the Three Rivers Arts Festival?

Were you turned away at the door
due to the sold out audience?

Were you sitting in the light booth or on the side of the theater and would like a better view?

This Weekend. . . GET ARRESTED AGAIN!!
(Tickets Now on Sale!) 

Kelly-Strayhorn Theater
5941 Penn Ave (East Liberty)
(We have excellent air conditioning! ;-)
 
Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail!
a spoken word, musical comedy (unfortunately) based on a true story

"a smorgasbord in satiric defense of a neighborhood with a healthy sense of humor and lots of pride"
                                                                                   --- Chris Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
 

Starring:
Taylor Akins, Sonya Carter, Ashley Coney, Kimberly C. Ellis, Crystal Glover, Rachel Harr, Melisha Hutchins, Richard Hutchins, Kendal Lee, Kevin O'Connor, Jennifer Schaupp, Ezra Smith, Thomas Smith, Genevieve Weiss, Phyllis Wellons, Shawne Wellons, Lake Whitehead, Portia Witten and more!

 
ProArts Tickets:
Just $5 for All Youth 18 & Under
Just $15 for Adults in advance / $20 at door
412-394-3353
www.proartstickets.org (purchase 24 hrs a day, $1 cheaper)

Whole family appropriate!
Bring the kids!
See Local Celebrities Get Arrested!
(Deans, Cops, Media Personalities, Sports Figures, Local Activists and Entertainers!
Be Surprised When They End Up on Stage Under Arrest!)

Final Showtimes:

Find Your Citiparks Community Center:
http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/parks/html/community_centers.html

Find Your Senior Community Center:
http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/parks/html/seniorinterests.html

Events Listing:
http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/parks/html/citiparks_events.html

We are doing this on your honor. Please let persons who would not otherwise be able to afford to come to the theater or who don't know Dr. Goddess and Citiparks is inviting them to take advantage of this opportunity. I remember when I first went to see "The Wiz" in Downtown Pittsburgh and the magic experience that was for me. But I went because a friend's parent paid for me to go. I could not afford the high-priced ticket but that musical changed my life. Please give someone else this opportunity. 

Folks, this weekend is going to be off the heazy. We strongly recommend that you reserve your ticket with ProArts, so the show you want to attend does not sell out and you're turned away at the door like last time!

Saturday Night 8pm - Soul Pitt / Young Professionals Night - Calling all Poets! Calling all Poets! - Nathan James is back from his stint on HBO's "The Wire" and is getting arrested! (Call ProArts Tickets (412-394-3353) or come on down and say "The Soul Pitt" or "I Love Poetry" and get the group rate of $12 per ticket)

SHOWTIMES:
Friday, July 13, 8pm
Saturday, July 14, 3pm & 8pm
Sunday, July 15, 4pm

ACORN
Africana Studies Department, University of Pittsburgh
African American Chamber of Commerce
BrothaAsh Productions
B-PEP
Center for Black Family Excellence
Citiparks
City of Pittsburgh Police Bureau
Community Empowerment, Inc
Duquesne University / Law School
Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church
Hill Consensus Group
Hill House Association
Homer S. Brown Law Association
Homewood Brushton Athletic Association
Malik Enterprises
Millions More Movement
Monumental Baptist Church
Mt. Ararat Church
NAACP
New Covenant Baptist Church
One Hood
Raise Your Hand! No Games Movement
Sixth Mount Zion Church
The Soul Pitt
Thomas Merton Center
Urban League Young Professionals
Urban League Charter School
Urban Youth Action
Wesley AME Zion Church
Wesley Center AME Church

The BUZZ:
What the Critics Are Saying:

"a smorgasbord in satiric defense of a neighborhood with a healthy sense of humor and lots of pride"

"In the play, Dr. Goddess is an incarnation of the Hill -- imposing, angry, funny and smart."

"Some have the bite of George Wolfe's famous satire, "Colored Museum." I loved the "Evita" and "Dreamgirls" parodies."

"Ellis' Hill -- storied, abused, indomitable, scruffy, hopeful, a bundle of dichotomies and much loved by many who call it home -- has a central place to play in Pittsburgh's sense of itself, because of its location and cultural legacy but also because, in a city of neighborhoods, this one tests the city's sense of fairness and history."

--- Chris Rawson, Theater Critic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
(see full review below)
 
What the Folks are Saying!:

"Kimberly, I want to congratulate you on a really clever, excellently directed and well written show.  Maybe you do your best work when you are pressed for time!  My daughters had a lot of questions, and learned a lot about the history of the Hill District from the production, and from our discussion of the issues.  The play encourages discussion and reflection. . . . I Loved the piece about the mother that moved her kids to the suburbs and needed dolls to communicate .  It raised questions that a lot of middle class parents face; schools high in academic quality, but low in areas like building self esteem and racial awareness. I've been trying to find my "Wylie Avenue Days" video to show them the Hill in its heyday.  They've been to the Hill many times, but on the way home from the play, we drove through with a different purpose."--- J

"Dear Dr. Goddess, I attended the Sunday show of Dr. Goddess Goes To Jail after receiving your direct mail card (very effective).  I planned to attend sooner, but you know how it is when you have so much going on.  So your mail card was just the extra prompting I needed to feel more conviction to make time. (Again, it was not for a lack of interest just my schedule being bananas)  The Divine intervention was right on-time for me to attend this wonderful performance that had I missed---I really would have missed something special! 

As you may recall from my email response to the 1st Dr. Goddess [A One-Woman Show], I was completely captivated and have to admit that I felt it would be difficult to duplicate the same sensation.  Well, Dr. Goddess, even with the extended and mixed cast, I have to say that "NOTHING was compromised" in the performance.  The additions brought diversity and refreshing additions.  All of the actors were of your same caliber of excellence (great singing, acting and dancing---I told [your brother, Paul], that it rivals if not surpasses most of what I've witnessed at other "big" theater productions in town); and once again your writing and enactment of real and thought provoking issues made for an evening to cherish. 

I was fortunate to get a poster of "Dr. Goddess!: A One Woman Show" after the run and have it hung up on my wall in the bedroom as inspiration that "I Am a Promise."  (Life can get "crazy-hard" at times and I look at your poster as a reminder that God has a promise for our lives and it can't just be all of the "mess." Smile.) Your "Goes To Jail" sequel truly shed insight on the trial of your triumph in the activism regarding the casino madness. I am a good friend of Paul and when the news of your victory hit the media, I asked him to please let you know that I celebrate with you.  It is ridiculously unfortunate that so many of the people who were to be in your corner were stricken with "neutrality" but as I told Paul later that evening that seems to be the way "folk" change when the rubber really hits the road.  So I thank God he equipped you with the fortitude and blessings seen and unseen to be able to not only show victorious, but capture it in such an entertaining way. 

When watching you and enjoying the performance, I prayed during intermission that God continues to bless you beyond your expectations.  Kim, you are a jewel to our community with every essential gift in place to bless our country (full of ill-willed urban renewal and profit seekers). Please never forget that you make so many people proud, convicted (as we should be) and inspired. Thank you for sharing your gift.  Keep it comin' and God bless you!" --- SB


OTHER PRESS
NEWSPAPER:
 
New Pittsburgh Courier
"Dr. Goddess Prescriptions for Protest Performance Art":
http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/articlelive/articles/37870/1/Dr-Goddess-prescriptions-for-protest-performance-art/Page1.html
 
"Three Rivers Arts Festival Still Fresh After 48 Years":
http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/articlelive/articles/37873/1/Three-Rivers-Arts-Festival-still-fresh-after-48-years/Page1.html
 
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Festival's Theater Focuses on News-making Events":
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_510181.html
 
Pittsburgh City Paper
"Three Rivers Arts Festival Selected Highlights"
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A31173
 
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Art of the Arts Festival"
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/pp/07151/790116.stm
 
 
TELEVISION:
The Lynn Hayes-Freeland Show

(Part One Dr. Goddess, Rachel Harr, Andy Zibritosky)
http://kdka.com/video/?id=28484@kdka.dayport.com

(Part Two "Big Tom" Smith, Richard Hutchins, Portia Witten)
http://kdka.com/video/?id=28485@kdka.dayport.com

(Part Three Excerpts Lake Whitehead, Taylor Akins, Kendal Lee, Zaire Martin, Ashley Coney, "the H-I-double-L")
http://kdka.com/video/?id=28486@kdka.dayport.com

(Part Four Excerpt Dr. Goddess, Rich Hutchins, Crystal Glover, "Neutrality")
http://kdka.com/video/?id=28486@kdka.dayport.com
 

STAGE REVIEW!:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/pp/07158/792060.stm
Stage Reviews: In 'American Humbug' and 'Dr. Goddess,'
political satire flows through 4th River

Thursday, June 07, 2007
By Christopher Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Three Rivers Arts Festival has always included some theater, but this year's edition features it, with its ambitious 4th River Project.

The first weekend saw three theater openings. "To Suffer in Silence" played for the weekend only, but the other two, both lively new political satires, one local, one national, continue through this weekend ("Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail") and next ("American Humbug").

'DR. GODDESS GOES TO JAIL'

Let us now praise community theater -- not a theater of local entertainment using local talent, which that usually means, but one that arises from a community to express and celebrate its essential frustrations and hopes.

That's how I'd categorize "Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail," written, produced and directed by and starring Kimberly Ellis, a k a Dr. Goddess. Her protest comedy with music is an evocation of the lively satiric spirit of the Hill District, energized by last fall's protests against the proposed casino.

But it doesn't just draw on community energy, it also makes community its theme. Ellis' Hill -- storied, abused, indomitable, scruffy, hopeful, a bundle of dichotomies and much loved by many who call it home -- has a central place to play in Pittsburgh's sense of itself, because of its location and cultural legacy but also because, in a city of neighborhoods, this one tests the city's sense of fairness and history.

In the play, Dr. Goddess is an incarnation of the Hill -- imposing, angry, funny and smart. How close she may be to Ellis herself is secondary. What's important is that Ellis imbues the character, through both writing and performance, with passion but also a self-deprecating humor that keeps her from seeming too good to be true.

She surrounds Dr. Goddess with a cast of a dozen, most notably a trio of girls (Taylor Akins, Lake Whitehead and Kendal Lee) who become the narrators and connecting spirits. The story starts with them watching Dr. Goddess arrested for seemingly lying down in front of a bulldozer to stop some Hill development scheme. She, they and others go to jail and then to trial, which is interspersed with skits of every kind.

These are mostly satiric and often musical. Some have the bite of George Wolfe's famous satire, "Colored Museum." I loved the "Evita" and "Dreamgirls" parodies. There's a clever skit where a black suburban mother confronts the fact that her kids talk like Valley Girls, an ad for whiteface cream and a telling parallel between crack and gambling (both equal "economic development"!). There's trenchant commentary on how Pittsburgh disguises reality by renaming neighborhoods, an attack on the cowardice of neutrality and a funny song about "If My Neighborhood Were a Sports Team."

The large, willing supporting cast is led by Rich Hutchins,
Portia Witten, Rachel Harr and the three girls.

Some skits are too long, though, and some misfire. And although the crew works hard, the scene changes -- many unnecessary, bringing one chair off and another on, or bringing on a table which could have been there already -- are interminable. What the show needs is a director to speed that up, to trim some scenes and eliminate a few others.

Perhaps Ellis will be able to do that before her planned run at the Kelly-Strayhorn this summer. Right now, "Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail" is a work in progress, a smorgasbord in satiric defense of a neighborhood with a healthy sense of humor and lots of pride, well expressed by Ellis' song about the Hill, "Raise Your Hand!"

At Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, 542 Penn Ave.; Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m.; $5; 412-281-8723.

(Christopher Rawson can be reached at crawson@post-gazette.com
or 412-263-1666.)
 

Don't Miss Your Chance to See
A Smash Hit of the
Three Rivers Arts Festival!
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