Eileen J. Morris is a director, actress and educator. She worked closely with the founder George W. Hawkins from 1982 until his death in 1990. From 1990 to 1999 she served as The Ensemble’s artistic director and from 1999 to 2006 worked as managing director at the University of Pittsburgh — Kuntu Repertory Theatre under Dr. Vernell A. Lillie. Her directing credits include: American Menu, Crumbs From the Table of Joy, The Dance on Widow’s Row, Blue (received the African American Council on the Arts Onyx Award for Best Director 2004), Get Ready, Dancing on Moonlight with Pittsburgh’s New Horizons Theater; August in February 2005,2004, 2003; Jonathan, Fences (received the African American Council on the Arts Onyx Award for Best Director 2005), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom ( received honorable mention from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette for Best Play) Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (received one of the Best Director mentions from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette) and other plays at the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre; A Love Song for Mumia, Murderer on the Hill District, Liftin’, Flyin’ West, with Kuntu Repertory Theatre and A Black History Celebration featuring Irma P. Hall with Pittsburgh’s City Theatre. Eileen has worked on a number of industrial and training films, feature films and commercials. She enjoys all aspects of the art –because art is and breathes life.

As we begin our 31st season, we want to carry on our commitment of exploring issues relevant to the African American community by providing our audiences with plays that exemplify the best in black theatre. Last season, our goal was to present plays in the spirit of Sankofa: looking back in order to move forward. We had a tremendously successful season, with critically acclaimed productions that paid homage to The Ensemble Theatre’s illustrious past. We are excited and invigorated about this year because we are taking the logical next step to our season of Sankofa. It is well known that there is an innate passion in every human being, and in theater goers in particular. Our goal this year is to explore works that seek to ignite that passion, stir your soul and illuminate current issues relevant to African American families and African American culture. For the first time, we are taking an interdisciplinary approach to addressing these issues, thereby taking our audiences on a nourishing journey that embraces the idea of community spirit. We are collaborating with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in an effort to add breadth and depth to our understanding of the relevance of African American Art. Seeking a unified connection to the virtual influence, style and ideologies of what the art dictates for each individual, each play’s graphic design will feature an image by an African American artist from the Museum's collection. Through providing our audiences with multiple ways to experience African American visual and theatre arts, we encourage the community to expose themselves to multiple forms of artistic expression. The incorporation of visual art into our season celebrates the skill, intelligence, ingenuity, imagination, spirit and the heart that form an important thread in Black America, inspiring and shaping a culture of hope.

The season will open with Blue, by Charles Randolph Wright where we will visit one of the most prominent black families in Kent, South Carolina, the Clark's. We will learn about the many facets of their personalities, how they tackle issues and keep secrets through the narrative of melodies emanating from a worn blues record, and the recurring ghostly figure lurking out of a family member's past. At the holiday season we will be introduced to the Twelve Ways of Christmas, by Carlton Leake — As a people, we know how our passion has been ignited through jazz, rhythm & blues and gospel. From this piece, our audiences experience a new sound of Christmas in their ears and the age old spirit of love and giving in their hearts. With vivid memories of a creative genius, we present a production that was the 'first in a series' but produced last. In August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean we meet Aunt Esther, Wilson's 287 year old matriarch living in Pittsburgh's Hill District. She sets main character Citizen Barlow, who himself has been searching for a new life, on a spiritual journey — his mystical find will stir the audience's emotions, evoke curiosity, and will invite an introspective look at their own lives. In Phillip Hayes Dean's "Sty of the Blind Pig, we once again ignite the audience's passion by exploring issues familiar to our community. Our heroine is unmarried, past 30, and living with her mother when not only is she confronted by the incessant ticking of her biological clock, but she welcomes a stranger into their home who claims to be searching for someone from his past. Witness what happens between Alberta and the strange musician, and how their relationship informs and shapes the actions and reactions of others. In Mark Southers' Ashes to Africa, we get entangled in the touching and humorous intricacies of family dynamics through exploring the way a family handles the last dying request of one of its matriarchs. We close our igniting season, and swing to the beat as we explore black musicians of the early 1900's. In the rousing Broadway hit, Ain't Misbehavin, by Fats Waller, the audience is not disappointed with the promise of electrifying energy which permeates the theater with all the lustiness that was his life.

As we illustrate the hopes, rhythms, energy and aspirations of our art, we encourage you to engulf and ignite the passion in you. So, come on Experience The Ensemble Theatre.

In Arts Way,
Eileen J. Morris
Artistic Director