Simply Bowie February 2022

Bowie Center for the Performing Arts

“So That All May Enjoy”

Executive Director Christopher Dwyer shares the mission and the joy of Bowie Center for the Performing Arts

Article By Alyson Turner Photography By Ro Moreno

The Bowie Center for the Performing Arts (BCPA) was created to bring arts and entertainment to Bowie. We were able to speak to the Executive Director, Christopher Dwyer, to learn more about the history of the BCPA, the upcoming productions for the year 2022, and the importance to the community. Christopher tells us, “It was joint effort of 4 main organizations to bring this project to life. The plan to create the building began in 2002. These four entities; Bowie Regional Arts Vision Association (BRAVA), Maryland National Capital Park & Planning Commission (MNCPPC), Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS), and the City of Bowie form the Governance Board and it came to life in 2006. The initial investment for building the center were handled by BRAVA, MNCPPC and the City of Bowie. The land was provided by Prince George’s County Public Schools. From the very beginning there was Verna Tisdale of BRAVA along with Mary Nasser, who was really the drivingforce that got this place built. Mary has since passed away, but was really instrumental in getting the center off the ground and running.” Technical Director, Jerrell Benson, agrees, “The group BRAVA and our former outreach person Mary Nasser fought very hard to get the building built. Mary wore several hats and was very well respected in the Bowie community. We needed a place for the arts to be seen and we needed a place for the arts to be recognized in this county so people would have a place to come and enjoy.”

Who They Serve

The Bowie Center for the Performing Arts is not just a theater. It serves the entire community. “Our first obligation is to Prince George’s County Public Schools and to the students. We serve as a location for Bowie High School events and countywide school events. This is a meeting place for a lot of the schools when it comes to education, field trips, performances, and the choral and band assessments. First, and foremost, we serve the students. Secondly, we serve residents of the City of Bowie and residents of Prince George’s County. We also serve as a rental venue for the community with fairly affordable pricing. People will rent the facility like Brencore Entertainment who puts on our Motown and Jazz Revue shows, the Prince George’s Philharmonic or various dance companies may put on their performances here. The people that fill the seats are the residents of Bowie, the parents of the performers and the followers of the organizations that use our venue,” Christopher says, “Our motto is, ‘So that all may enjoy.’ We provide programming that all may enjoy including Motown Revues, national ballet, Nutcracker, and we serve a lot of organizations for dance performances. There are not many venues that seat 756 people in the Bowie area. It is a place for everyone.”

Their Mission

Christopher came on as Executive Director for Bowie Center for the Performing Arts in 2021 and previously served as an art educator at St. Vincent Palotti. “There was a foundation that was set before I got here to serve Prince George’s

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County Schools and the community. I am interested in bringing in national touring artists, touring national theater organizations, and I am interested in producing original education programs. We focus on maintaining the facility and being a meeting place for people that need a venue that can seat at least 750 people. To make us a destination for the residents of Bowie and out towards Laurel, Annapolis, Glendale, and New Carrollton. We want to breach the scope of the people in the surrounding areas so that residents can see a Broadway National Tour, a nationally recognized artist on a comedy circuit, and a music touring circuit without having to go into DC,” Christopher says, “These are some of my goals. We are working with Moses T. Alexander Greene and his production; Pooled: A Gospel Musical Drama, and companies like 4 Times Entertainment bringing in Soul of Broadway and The Company Men. My day is spent negotiating contracts with everybody and brainstorming ideas to get people in the seats, bring in entertainment, and to serve the rental clients. We are bringing Broadway to Bowie.”

Original Productions

“The Seaside Adventures of Zoey Brine” is an original production for children and the community. The writing and musical composition team, Tori Boutin and Maddeline Belknap, have worked as a writing duo for Prince George’s County Shakespeare in the Parks and Adventure Theatre.

Christopher says, “We are lucky to have them on board for “The Seaside Adventures of Zoey Brine”. I have been influenced by Saturday morning cartoons from when I grew up. I was looking for a creative format to bring Children’s Theater to the Bowie Center. Sometimes you need something to do on a Saturday morning for the kids. I was looking to create a destination for parents so they could have a meeting place for each other and the kids could watch a short 30-minute show in the Black Box Theater a with a theme song, closing and opening. They have a character they can relate to. Zoey is young girl who is about 10 years old. Her mother is deployed overseas in the military. Her mother leaves clues and messages that sends Zoey on adventures by the sea. She gets a clue, and while on her journey, she will encounter a problem, [for example] she might meet a bully. Zoey learns how to deal with the issue and talks to people in her community like the street vendor and the park ranger. In the end, the issue manifests itself as a monster [for Zoey to overcome]. “The Seaside Adventures of Zoey Brine” will be running at Bowie Center for the Performing Arts every Saturday in August. Children of all ages will have a new episode to look forward to each week. This is sure to be a family event and a cultural meeting place for all.”

When asked what sets Bowie Center for the Performing Arts apart, Jerell Benson, paints a lovely picture of this community haven. “People see it when they come here, when they book a show or attend a show. We just try to make the experience accommodating for the client and for the patrons. I feel like we provide things that you might not get at other places. It is a personalized touch and we make it feel like everything is about those who visit us. We are deep inside the education aspects of the arts. We have several employees who were students who went through our programs and now work with us. We are very education oriented as well. We are not just booking shows, we have educational programs for children and we provide top notch service for our clients.”

For more information regarding Bowie Center for the Performing Arts, visit BowieCenter.org, call 301.805.6880, or email bcpa15200@gmail.com.

Address: 15200 Annapolis Rd Phone: (301) 805-6880 Bowie, Maryland 15 | February E-mail: 2022bcpa15200@gmail.com

Pooled: A Gospel Musical Drama coming to Bowie Center for the Performing Arts June 10 to June 12.

Photography Jordan Jerrell

The award-winning production, Pooled: A Gospel Musical

Drama, is coming to Bowie this summer. Written and composed by Moses T. Alexander Greene, founder and artistic director of Lī V Mahob Productions whose name comes directly from the Scripture Acts 17:28, “In him we live, move and have our being;”

Pooled has been celebrated by audiences across the board with its poignant message. “We are just grateful for the impact that the production is having on everyone; for all ethnicities across the board. It is told through the black experience, but it resonates with everyone,” Moses tells us, “Pooled is based on a short story in my third book that came out when I lived in Bowie in 2010. I would do readings at book stores and poetry events when I moved to Raleigh. About 3 years later one of the professors at Saint Augustine’s University, a historically Black university where I was teaching, was having an exhibit called “The Black on Black Project.” I was asked to do a performance piece and I immediately said ‘Yes!’. I didn’t know what I would do, but I knew I would perform Pooled. It was a readers theater version and I got together a cast in October 2016. It was standing room only. My own father was there, and it was, maybe, the third time in my life that I had seen him cry.”

Moses said that the moment he was asked to perform for the exhibit he knew he was going to turn Pooled into a play. He says, “Years before that performance I was invited to Nebraska to do a reading and book signing. That was the first time I saw the impact of the short story on an audience. I quickly learned, however, that the work was so emotionally charged that the audience needed moments to breathe — literally moments to exhale. Eventually, I shared one song with Carolyn Colquitt (the show’s music director) who was the minister of music at my church in Raleigh at the time. It was effortless to work with her! The lyrics and melody I had created were more fully composed in our working together.

When asked why he thinks the show has been so successful, Greene said, “I feel that it’s because for some people in the

audience, Pooled is the first time in their lives when they have been given permission to exhale dysfunction and trauma, laugh about it, release it, and then give God praise for keeping them in the midst of it. I think countless people walk away knowing they are not alone. While I’ve chosen to deal with subjects that have often been taboo or behind closed doors specifically in the life of black families, there are many moments in the show when the audience takes it from entertainment to ministry, and. To have people come to the play and (for those moments) see a snapshot of their lives outside the church wall and know that healing from the deepest hurt is available, is a great gift. In fact, I think our audience takes on the spirit of the woman at the well and are our greatest ambassadors. They tell their friends and family ‘Come See This Show!’. One of my favorite quotes from an audience member was “What For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf” (1976) is to Black women, Pooled is to the Black family.”

People embraced the show. The script, the music, and performance have received several local honors in 2019, the internationally renowned National Black Theatre Festival named Pooled “one of the 25 best Black theatre productions in the United States, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa.” In 2020, Moses won the BroadwayWorld (Raleigh) Award for Original Script of the Decade Award and Carolyn Colquitt has been recognized in several local papers for her work with the show.

“I want [everyone] to know that I am coming home,” says Moses. I lived there for close to 12 years and I am coming home with a gift. I want everyone to come open to a theater experience that is life changing. Our motto is ‘Hear Our Stories. Remember Your Own Journey. Let’s Be Healed Together.’ We want people to come and laugh and praise and cry and celebrate. To exhale the trauma in the midst of everything we have been going through, the trauma of the times, the losses that we have faced and the trauma of the pandemic. Come and just breathe. Just be.”

To learn more about Pooled: A Gospel Musical Drama and Lī V Mahob Productions,visit LIVMahob.org. Follow Lī V Mahob on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & TikTok for updates.16 | February 2022

Photography Randy GistPhotography Lionel Garcia

Photography Josh Reiss

Bringing Broadway to Bowie

4 Times Entertainment Presents Soul of Broadway and The Company Men at Bowie Center for the Performing Arts

The nationally recognized acts The Company Men and Soul of

Broadway presented by 4 Times Entertainment will be playing at Bowie Center for the Performing Arts April 29-30. The Company Men, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, has been lauded as America’s favorite mashup group. It is a highenergy pop vocal performance group described as “Motown Meets Boyband” and beloved by all ages. President of 4 Times Entertainment Brian Purcell was one of four original members of the group. “I was originally one of the founding members, myself, and three of my close friends, we were all Broadway performers at one time. Then, we all had families and ended up leaving the industry for a bit, doing your typical 9 to 5 type jobs. That is where the name The Company Men came from. We decided to start singing after hours and that became the name of our first album,” Brian says, “We are from New Jersey and my father grew up on Frankie Valli and Do Wop. It really influenced me. I thought, ‘Let’s create a show where we can throw back to the Rat Pack era. That is how The Company

Men was born,” Brian says, “Myself, my wife, Leah [Seminario Purcell], the other 3 original members and our musical director created the show. The four original members have now all moved on to different paths, but we are all still close friends. We have a roster of performers [including talent from shows such as The Voice and American Idol].”

Soul of Broadway - Impossible Dreams stars Terron Brooks, two-time NAACP Award and Ovation Award nominee. Brooks is known for his famed portrayal of Eddie Kendricks in the NBC’s Emmy Award winning mini-series The Temptations, and on Broadway starring The Lion King as Simba and Seaweed in

Hairspray. Brian tells us, “The show infuses Broadway Classics with R&B. You don’t have to be someone who is a fan of Broadway to love it. You can take the song out of the original

show and feel it in a different way. For Soul of Broadway me, my wife, Leah, and Terron had a partnership to craft the show comprised of songs and defining moments to communicate his experience. We wanted to tell people his story and utilize his story as the everyman. The show is really about the everyman or woman. Having a plan for one’s self and the plan not going as you expected. We wanted to inspire people to understand that while you might be going through something right now, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a fruitful life. The show opens with The Temptations because that is what Terron is known for. Then, we tell the story and flip it on the audience. It becomes less about the career and more about meeting his wife and having his kids. You identify with the star of the show. We all have these moments that impact people in our daily lives. Performers aren’t separate from everyone else. We are here to inspire each other because we are all connected.”

4 Times Entertainment was created as a new path after Broadway. Brian and his wife, Leah, had both performed with Broadway National Tours for many years. Once they moved back to Los Angeles, he knew he wanted to do something new. “I wanted to start producing. I get a different type of excitement doing this. I am the director and producer for both shows. Leah is the choreographer. After so many years of auditioning, and hoping to get the role, you want to have fate in your own hands so we began creating the jobs,” Brian says, “For me the true stars are our performers themselves, they work so hard to reach the audience. This is why we do art to connect and inspire. This launch for Bowie Center for the Performing Arts is coming at a great time because we are all living these emotions right now and sharing in these experiences. We are very excited to be coming to Bowie. It is an honor.”

To learn more or connect with 4 Times Entertainment,visit 4TimesEntertainment.com or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.17 | February 2022