The performance arts skills of Alachua County Poet Laureate E. Stanly Richardson were on full display at the inaugural Lagos International Theatre Festival (LIFT) in Lagos, Nigeria.
Held Nov. 15-17, the festival included Richardson, a lifelong resident of Alachua, presenting a full performance of “Satchmo at the Waldorf” on the last day of the festival , as well as “short intros” at the U.S. consulate and the festival’s opening ceremony, Richardson said.
His pathway to the festival began when his friend and fellow poet, Oluwatoyin Kole (Kole Ade Odutola), a native of Nigeria and professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Culture at the University of Florida, submitted his resume to the organizers of the festival, Richardson said.
“I eventually met with the organizers, submitted ‘Satchmo At The Waldorf,’ they liked it and decided to bring me to Nigeria,” said Richardson, adding that it was his first trip to the motherland.
Alachua County Poet Laureate E. Stanly Richardson performed the one-man act of “Satchmo at the Waldorf” at the inaugural Lagos International Theatre Festival (LIFT) in Lagos, Nigeria, earlier this month.
“Satchmo at the Waldorf” was written by the late Terry Teachout, and tells the story of Louis Armstrong, the world’s greatest trumpet player and performer of the 20th century, Richardson said, adding that it is a one-man performance that requires the actor to play three different characters — the late Louis Armstrong, the late Joe Glaser (Armstrong’s white Jewish manager) and the late Miles Davis, a pioneering jazz trumpeter.
“The play is set in Armstrong’s dressing room backstage at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, just after his last performance before his death in 1971,” Richardson said.
Richardson said his experience at the festival was incredible and happened so fast that it is hard for him to put into words.
“Just the fact that I was in Africa is very meaningful to me,” Richardson said. “Being connected to the motherland was a very emotional and spiritual and being there under the circumstance of doing something that I truly love just added to the joy.”
His performance at the festival will forever have a special place in his heart, as do all of his performances in their own special way, Richardson said.
“Not one is least or greater, just as moments, they are all divine and beautiful experiences full of opportunities to learn and grow,” Richardson said.
The performing arts has been a part of his life since childhood when he and his friends performed in talent shows at school. He also was a part of a singing group that was managed by one of his mother’s friends, a teacher named Blanche Hill, Richardson said.
“She’d take us around to the schools and different venues in the area and we’d perform popular songs by groups like the O’Jays, The Spinners, The Stylistics and The Temptations,” Richardson said. “I remember in my hometown of Alachua they put up a big stage on Main Street at Skinner Field to celebrate America’s bicentennial in 1976 and we performed in front of this big crowd.”
As an adult, his passion for the arts increased after he met Carol Velasques, whom he eventually married. In 2010, he performed community theater with one of his daughters in the play “The Chip Woman’s Fortune.”
Refining his talents locally gave him the chance to perform in Africa, an experience he extremely enjoyed, especially meeting Bolante Austen-Peters, a distinguished international cultural entrepreneur and founder of the arts and culture center at the Terra Kulture in Lagos where the festival where Richardson performed was held, Richardson said.
“I enjoyed experiencing different cultures and the beauty and sincere hospitality of the Nigerian people in Lagos, meeting other performers and thespians and creatives from other countries like Zambia and South Africa,” Richardson said. “And of course I enjoyed performing. I really enjoyed the special VIP performance at the American Embassy at the consul general’s home where I had the opportunity to meet the U.S. consul general to Lagos and other distinguished dignitaries and guests and performed a bit of the play.”
Richardson said it means a lot to him to have been invited to be a part of the inaugural Lagos International Theatre Festival.
“When I first received the official invitation, I don’t think that I fully understood the significance of such an undertaking,” Richardson said. “But after arriving in Lagos and attending the first press conference and witnessing the brilliant passion of the festival’s founder, Bolanle Austen-Peters, I then realized the profound importance of having an international platform in Africa to share our stories through theatre.”
A quote from Austen-Peters that resonates with him states that, “ ‘It is through the telling and the sharing of our stories that we learn about each other and it is through this telling and sharing and learning, that the Yoruba man, the Igbo man, the Hausa man, the African American man can learn about each other, understand one another, have empathy and thus become closer and less divided,’ ” Richardson said.
Credit: gainesville
