Knock Me a Kiss walks away with nine AUDELCO Awards including Best Dramatic Play. Awardees include André De Shields, Marie Thomas, Charles Smith and Chuck Smith.

On Monday, November 14, 2011, Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre and Legacy Creative Arts Co.’s production of Charles Smith’s Knock Me a Kiss was the toast of the 39th Annual AUDELCO “VIV” Awards, given in recognition of Black Excellence in Theatre, at Harlem Stages within Aaron Davis Hall, located at the Marion Anderson Theatre, on 133th Street and Convent Avenue in New York City.

In addition to top honors for Best Dramatic Play, Knock Me a Kiss won 9 of the 13 categories for which was it was nominated: Charles Smith (Playwright), Chuck Smith (Director-Dramatic), André De Shields (Lead Actor), Marie Thomas (Supporting Actress), Shirley Prendergast (Lighting), Ali Turns (Costumes), Anthony Davidson (Set Design), Bill Toles (Sound Design).

Knock Me a Kiss is a fictional account inspired by the actual events surrounding the 1928 marriage of W.E.B. Du Bois’ (Andre De Shields) daughter Yolande (Erin Cherry) to one of Harlem’s great poets, Countee Cullen (Sean Phillips). The marriage marked the height of the Harlem Renaissance and was viewed as the perfect union of Negro talent and beauty. It united the daughter of America’s foremost Black intellectual, cofounder of the NAACP and publisher of Crisis Magazine, with a young poet whose work was considered to be one of the flagships for the New Negro movement. The marriage is a triumph of pomp and pageantry but failed to be a union of man and woman.

Black Theatre Radio interviewed the producer Woodie King Jr., along with members of the cast during the AUDELCO Award ceremony. To view excerpts from this interview, follow the video link. 

Charles Smith for Playwriting
André De Shields for Lead Actor
Erin Cherry for Lead Actress
Chuck Smith for Director of a Dramatic Production
Gillian Glasco for Supporting Actress
Marie Thomas for Supporting Actress
Sean Phillips for Supporting Actor
Morocco Omari for Supporting Actor
Shirley Prendergast for Lighting
Anthony Davidson for Set Design
Ali Turns for Costume Design
Bill Toles for Sound Design
New Federal Theatre and Legacy Creative Arts Co. for Dramatic Production of the Year

Out of the 40 plays and musicals and countless readings and workshops of other new plays, Perry Tannenbaum wrote in Back Stage, “Among the best was Knock Me a Kiss.”

Tannenbaum also wrote, “the denouement of Charles Smith’s play (was) arguably the most significant moment of the entire festival.”

Referring to the canon of Black American Theatre, Tannenbaum wrote, “Knock Me a Kiss has a fighting chance of becoming part of that black theater canon.”

It was a great production and a brilliant cast. By the morning after the first performance, tickets for the rest of the run had sold out.

Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre and Chuck Smith’s Legacy Creative Arts are currently working to bring Knock me a Kiss back to New York in the spring of 2012. Stay tuned for details.

Many of this plays use various historical contexts to explore contemporary issues of race, identity, and politics in America. His work spans a gamut from contemporary investigations of historic icons such as Denmark Vesey, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Dubois, and Alexandre Dumas, to examinations of race and politics in a more current setting such as the impact of the end of segregation on Chicago’s Southside.