This is a video of a discussion I helped put together with members of the cast and musicians of The Tony Award® Winning Broadway Musical AIN’T TOO PROUD. It was produced in partnership with The Hansberry Project with support from CNR Studio, Allied Global Marketing, Broadway at the Paramount & The Seattle Theatre Group.
It was moderated by Valerie Curtis-Newton, Artistic Director, The Hansberry Project.
AIN’T TOO PROUD is a part of the upcoming Premera Blue Cross Broadway at The Paramount season. Learn more at STGPresents.org/Broadway.
About the moderator: The Head of Directing & Playwriting at the University of Washington’s School of Drama, Valerie also serves as the Artistic Director for The Hansberry Project, an African American theatre lab. She has worked with theatres across the country including The Guthrie Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Children’s Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, New York Theatre Workshop, among others. She has been awarded the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Grant for Directors, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation’s Gielgud Directing Fellowship, Theatre Puget Sound’s Gregory Fall Award for Sustained Achievement, Seattle Times’ 13 Most Influential Citizens of the last decade, the Seattle Stranger Genius Award in Performance and the Crosscut Courage Award for Culture.
E. CLAYTON CORNELIOUS (Richard Street) is a Pittsburgh native who is a 20-year Broadway veteran. Cornelious is ecstatic to be a part of this wonderful new journey. Broadway: The Caterpillar in Wonderland, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, The Scottsboro Boys, A Chorus Line, The Music Man, Kat and the Kings, and The Lion King. National tours: Kinky Boots, Sister Act, Jersey Boys, Dirty Dancing, Hairspray, The Lion King, A Chorus Line, The Goodbye Girl, and The Wiz. His West End credits include Sammy Davis Jr. in The Rat Pack—Live from Las Vegas. TV/film: “One Life to Live” and Meet Dave with Eddie Murphy. He is a proud member of BIV (Broadway Inspirational Voices) and a graduate of Point Park University. He recently received the, “Legacy Robe” for his role in the Broadway hit, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations. TV/Film: One Life to Live & Meet Dave with Eddie Murphy. In Addition to all of his theatre credits, he is a 3-year Broadway Investor/Producer. Investments: Caroline or Change Revival, MJ: The Musical, and both Broadway/Tour productions of Hadestown and Ain’t Too Proud. Producer: When It Happens to You, Little Did I Know, and Chicken & Biscuits.
SAINT AUBYN (Dennis Edwards, Fight Captain) is an artist who strives to entertain his audience with hopes that they leave each and every performance feeling fulfilled. Some of his accomplishments are performing with one of his mentors, Gregory Hines, in the Showtime movie Bojangles and sharing the stage with the incomparable Ms. Patti LaBelle and Sam Smith. He was involved in the Smokey Joe’s Café 20th anniversary tour and had a featured role in the 2013 film Admissions. He also played the role of Jimmy Early in the production of Dreamgirls at The Gallery Players in Brooklyn, New York, in 2013. This resulted in his nomination for the 2013 AUDELCO Outstanding Performance in a Musical Award and the 2013 New York Innovative Theatre Outstanding Actor in a Featured Role Award. More recently he was involved in the Broadway musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.
CHRISTIAN THOMPSON (Smokey Robinson) is so proud of this ATP family! Recent credits include Dez in Skeleton Crew (Marin Theatre/ TheatreWorks), Smokey Robinson/ Damon Harris in the World premiere of Ain’t Too Proud — The Life and Times of The Temptations (Berkeley Rep), Benny and U/S Roger with the 20TH Anniversary Tour of Rent(national and Tokyo), original De’Andre in Blood at the Root (NBT & world tour), and Tap Brother 2 in the inaugural cast of After Midnight(Norwegian Escape). Received his BFA in musical theatre from Penn State.
TAYLOR SYMONE JACKSON (Johnnie Mae, Mary Wilson). Her regional credits include Ain’t Too Proud (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), The Wiz(Oregon Shakespeare Festival), and Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery(Spelman College). Her New York credits include Becoming David(Playwrights Horizons) and Viva Las Vegas (AMDA). Her TV credits include “My Parents, My Sister & Me”; “The Game”; and “Born to Dance”. She is also trained in various styles of dance from the Atlanta Ballet and acting at The Freeman Studio. She is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, and now lives in New York.
KENNY SEYMOUR (Music Director/Conductor/Keyboard 1/Arranger). Kenny’s Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include the Tony Award winner for Best Musical Memphis (music director/conductor), Carnegie Hall’s A Time Like This: Music for Change (music supervisor/director/arranger/ orchestrator), Amazing Grace: An Epic Musical (orchestrator), Half Time: A New Musical (dance music arranger/electronic music producer), Marley: A World Premiere Musical (music supervisor/arranger/orchestrator), Tallest Tree in the Forest (music director/arranger/incidental music), Scary Musical (orchestrator), Big Maybelle: Soul of the Blues (music supervisor/orchestrator), and The Wiz at La Jolla Playhouse (dance music arranger). His film and TV credits include “Yemoja: Rise of the Orisha” (composer), “Oya: Rise of the Suporishas” (composer), “Talking with the Taxman About Poetry” (composer, 2013 Global Music Award for Best Original Score), and music arranger/orchestrator for shows on Fox, BET, and NBC including the Inaugural Ball for President Barack Obama. Kenny has performed around the world, from the legendary Apollo Theater and Carnegie Hall to the Montreux Jazz Festival. Education: music & art, Manhattan School of Music and Berklee College of Music.
Stephen Gabriel (founding partner and President of Worklight Productions) A firm dedicated to creating and producing live entertainment. Current touring productions: Jesus Christ Superstar, Rent 20th anniversary tour, Something Rotten!, R+H Cinderella, White Christmas, and Bandstand. Broadway: Ain’t Too Proud, Jagged Little Pill. Developing Clue, a new stage play based on the Paramount movie. Produced Julie Andrews, The Gift of Music at The Hollywood Bowl and London’s O2 Arena. Other recent touring productions include the Tony Award-winners American Idiot, In the Heights, and Avenue Q, Motown, and Mamma Mia!. WLP is led by founding partner and President Stephen Gabriel and Vice President Nancy Gabriel.
Clayton Craddock is an independent thinker, father of two beautiful children in New York City. He is the drummer of the hit broadway musical Ain’t Too Proud. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University’s School of Business and is a 29 year veteran of the fast-paced New York City music scene. He has played drums in several hit broadway and off-broadway musicals, including “Tick, tick…BOOM!, Altar Boyz, Memphis The Musical, and Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar and Grill. Also, Clayton has worked on: Footloose, Motown, The Color Purple, Rent, Little Shop of Horrors, Spongebob Squarepants, The Musical, Evita, Cats, and Avenue Q.