Rehearsals for Amazing Grace Is Yellow Are Underway in Paris

PARIS - Sept. 14, 2019 - PRLog -- Amazing Grace Is Yellow is the latest of an increasing number of projects and programs in the U.S. and France being organized to honor and extend the legacy of painter Beauford Delaney (1901-1979), a Knoxville, Tennessee native who spent the last 26 years of his life in Paris, France.  It is a play that will bring Delaney's life to the stage in three acts that follow him from Knoxville to Paris.

Playwright Silver Wainhouse and Monique Y. Wells, president of the French non-profit association Les Amis de Beauford Delaney, are organizing this tribute to Delaney's legacy.  In preparation for a full stage production, they have scheduled a reading performance of Wainhouse's play at Columbia Global Centers | Paris at Reid Hall for October 16, 2019.

Wainhouse asked award-winning writer Jake Lamar, a long-term Paris expat, to review the script and offer constructive criticism.  Lamar's response was as follows:

"Congratulations on a beautiful and deeply moving work! I really have no critique to offer. I just can't wait to see actors bring this to life!"

Lamar was instrumental in helping Wainhouse and Wells identify performers to portray roles in the play.

The cast consists of professional actors and actresses who are active in stage and screen productions in France.  Most are native Francophones with an excellent command of English.  All were excited to learn about Delaney's life and work and expressed bewilderment that they had never heard of him prior to becoming a part of the project.

The main characters in the play are Beauford Delaney; his mother, Delia Delaney; and his dear friend and mentee, James Baldwin.  Eleven additional characters, real and fictional, round out the cast.  For the reading, six performers will read multiple roles.

Patrick Rameau, who studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, has been selected to portray Delaney.  Though he has acted in many films, his first love is theater.  Rameau teaches as well as performs and is in the process of opening his own acting school in the Paris area.

Wainhouse and Les Amis de Beauford Delaney are currently seeking donations to cover the payment of actor fees, the venues for the rehearsals and the reading, and production fees.  To give to support this project, click on the following link:

https://lesamisdebeauforddelaney.blogspot.com/p/give-to-s...