It’s not often that theatre goers have the opportunity to watch actors swing from the branches of real trees in an outdoor setting, but that’s exactly what Rosebud School of the Arts student Lennette Randall is offering in Under The Mango Tree, a personal tribute to the people and stories of her African heritage, full of song, dance and above all, tree-climbing.
In addition to writing Under The Mango Tree, Randall is the play’s producer and stars in a lead role. Under The Mango Tree, is a story about a young student Twyla-Angel (Lennette Randall) who finds a resting place under a big tree. It is a hideout up on a hill that overlooks her school campus. Here she re-enacts African folk tales in desperate need to remind herself of the stories that made her fall in love with theatre.
However, her search for solace and isolation is quickly thwarted by Danny (Conrad Belau), a fellow student, who has already decided that the tree is “his spot”. As they engage in a battle for the tree, Twyla and Danny find themselves unexpectedly sharing with each other, both their stories and their lives.
As Twyla is forced to engage in a relationship (in all its beautiful frustration) she discovers how friendship and faith can intersect, giving her new strength to face her fears.
“Our lives are full of stories. The question to be asked is: Are you telling your stories, are you passing on your life? Under the Mango Tree, exists in the intersection of this truth,” she said.
Randall was inspired to write and produce Under The Mango Tree as her graduating project for Rosebud School of the Arts after the passing of a number of close family members.
“I mourn that I will never again sing over my Grandpa’s shoulder as he plays the piano, or sit in front of my Grandma as she recites poetry, or listen to my aunt tell me a story under a moonlit sky. As they all go, I realize I am forgetting the stories they told me while they were alive.”
Her initial goal was to collect these stories and act them out as tribute, but she soon found that many of them had escaped her memory. “Decades of evenings of storytelling are slipping away from me much like these people and the life with them that I once knew.”
In honour of Randall’s aunt, a school teacher who often used her own salary to pay her students’ tuition, $2 from each ticket sold will go toward paying school tuition and fees for two children in Sierra Leone and The Gambia. Additional donations are welcome. Lennette is thankful for any and all donations. Please contact her directly for more information on this cause.
The production takes place in an outdoor setting in Rosebud, behind the Church near the Labyrinth Tree.
For tickets or more information call (403) 820 5570 or e-mail: africanmangotree@gmail.com
