Ongoing                                    Touring Production

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NATIVE

as Richard Wright

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Native by Ian Finley is a relevant and powerful production based on the true story of the collaboration between Pulitzer Prize winner, Paul Green, and the prodigy author of Native Son, Richard Wright. Produced by EbzB Productions, Native features David zum Brunnen as Paul Green and J. Mardrice as Richard Wright. Serena Ebhardt directs.

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Native details the metamorphic debate between Paul Green and Richard Wright. The authors were originally brought together by the Mercury Theatre to adapt Wright’s novel, Native Son for the stage. Green, a white southern professor, and Wright, a self-educated African-American with communist sympathies,  forge a deep respect for each other as they discuss systemic discrimination of African-Americans.  They start their collaboration in Chapel Hill, NC like a “house on fire.”  

Then in 1941, with World War II on the horizon, the two authors meet again in New York for rewrites.  Orson Welles’ Broadway production is already in rehearsal.  Differences over a single page of the script create an impasse between Green and Wright.  A life-changing dialogue about who has the right to tell the story of race, politics and social class ensues.  In spite of their common goal to affect social change, the scintillating revelations dissolve the friendship of the two influential social justice authors.