David Heron - File

Kingston, Jamaica:

Jamaica's flag will be flying high at the world's largest black theatre festival this summer when the 2006 Off Broadway production of David Heron's romantic comedy-drama Love and Marriage and New York City takes to the main stage at the National Black Theatre Festival.

The festival will be held in Winston Salem, North Carolina, from July 30-August 4.

The biennial event will see some 60,000 actors, actress, directors, producers, playwrights, critics and theatre lovers from across the world converging on the tiny southern town for six days of readings, main stage performances, panel discussions and various outdoor activities.

Over 100 productions were considered by the festival's selection committee in the two years since the last festival. Love and Marriage and New York City was one of less than 30 shows chosen to play on the festival's main stage.

The show will have the honour of closing the prestigious event with four performances over two days - Friday, August 3 and Saturday, August 4 - at the Proscenium Theatre, Wake Forest University.

The event is the brainchild of the late American theatre producer Larry Leon Hamlin, who began the festival in 1989 as a means of uniting black theatre companies from around the U.S.A. and ensuring the future of black theatre into the next millennium.

Special significance

The death of Mr. Hamlin last week, after a long illness, now means that this year's event - which has grown to become one of the most prestigious and anticipated of its kind anywhere in the world - will take on special significance.

Dr. Maya Angelou, who served as chairperson for the first edition of the festival, Denzel Washington, Sidney Poitier, Cicely Tyson, Oprah Winfrey, Lou Gossett Jr., Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Harry Belafonte, Diahann Carroll, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Hill Harper and legendary playwright August Wilson are among the luminaries who have either performed at, or attended, the festival in its brief but illustrious history.

Heron will see his name added to this roster when he appears alongside fellow actors Candice McKoy, Nixon Caesar and Janel Scarborough in this latest production of his four-character play, produced last year by Marjorie Moon's Billie Holiday Theatre, and directed by American theatre legend, Woodie King Jr.

Love and Marriage and New York City tells the story of two Jamaican couples living in New York who marry strictly for green card purposes, only to find themselves truly falling in love afterwards. The play had its world premiere in Jamaica in 1999 with a cast that included Heron, Karen Harriott, Douglas Prout and Bertina Macaulay.

The play has emerged as Heron's biggest international success to date, and its appearance at the festival makes him the first Jamaican playwright since Trevor Rhone to have his work showcased there.

"It is an honour and a privilege to be following in the footsteps of Brother Rhone ... He is highly respected by the festival organisers and I hope he will be pleased at the news," Heron said from New York.

'Greater glory for Jamaica'

He went on to say that "for me, as always, the greater glory is for Jamaica ... This is an opportunity that could lead to big things for the play, but even bigger things for Jamaican theatre ... We plan to do our best to be worthy of the honour and to be the best possible cultural ambassadors we can be."

In preparation for the festival, and due to continued high demand, Love and Marriage will return to the Billie Holiday Theatre in New York for a limited run from July 20-26.