George Faison: Another stage
By Fern Gillespie
The legendary Tony Award-winning choreographer leaves his longtime Harlem firehouse behind and begins a new chapter in North Carolina, inside the former home of his late friend Maya Angelou.
George Faison, 81, the legendary Tony Award-winning choreographer, is entering a new chapter. For more than 25 years, his Faison Firehouse Theatre was a fixture in Harlem’s arts community, serving as both a nonprofit theater company and his elegant home.
It is now the headquarters of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. Its official name is the House of Justice. After decades in a theatrical firehouse in Harlem, where does one go next? For Faison it is North Carolina where he purchased and now lives in the home of his late friend Maya Angelou and is still unpacking.
After becoming a featured dancer and choreographer for Alvin Ailey, Broadway called with two hit shows, in 1972, Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope and in 1974, The Wiz. He choreographed both. The hip version of The Wizard of Oz won him a Tony Award for his choreography, a first for an African American in that category.
He has choreographed and directed more than 30 plays and musicals, including the Broadway musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with music by Leonard Bernstein. He was nominated for a Tony for his Radio City Music Hall production of Porgy and Bess; and Sing, Mahalia, Sing.
In 1989 he conceived and produced the television special Cosby Salutes Ailey for the 30th anniversary of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He won an Emmy Award for his choreography of the HBO special, The Josephine Baker Story. His impact at the Faison Firehouse Theatre inspired another generation of Black dancers and choreographers.
I touched base with George Faison for insights on his life changes.
“I’m a child of the civil rights movement.”
Why did you decide to sell the Faison Firehouse Theatre to Rev. Sharpton’s National Action Network?
The reason is Black on Black. I really mean that. I went through eight years of people trying to buy the property and bring it down and bring me down. To subvert me and tell me that the property wasn’t worth that. Selling it to Al Sharpton at first was financial.
But, we needed a voice. It had to be somebody Black. I think that Al Sharpton is the only voice that we have out there. When he got stabbed in that playground in Brooklyn years ago, he had me. Because he put his life on the line. How many people have done that? Not many. So, he joined that group of heroes.
You are a Washington DC native and attended Howard University. What role did activism play in your work?
From 1968 to 1972 was volatile in our history. Black people were protesting and marching. We were marching for jobs, freedom, and to do the things that we wanted to do for ourselves.
I’m a child of the civil rights movement. I was born in 1945. It’s when the troops came home. We’ve been fighting for our rights ever since. I was at the March on Washington when they announced the death of WEB Du Bois. I realized: ‘What was I going to do that was going to impact the world?’
“I realized: ‘What was I going to do that was going to impact the world?’”
The Wiz is a landmark show that continues to be revived over 50 years later. Do you sometimes reflect on its impact?
I wound up at the right place at all of those times. Who could be that lucky? It was just divine. God just put that in front of me. The Wiz was really the ultimate. To have achieved that while I was still in my 20s!
I’ve only read those reviews within the last five years. I didn’t realize that I had those kinds of reviews. I realized that I should have had an agent back then, but I didn’t.
Why did you choose at age 81 to leave Harlem and relocate to North Carolina to purchase the home of your late friend, poet Maya Angelou?
I’m going to call her house “The Poet’s House.” We are also going to be taking on the rappers and the spoken word artists and everybody else. Maya relied on that. That gave her life.
When I bought my other house, she came by and spent the entire day with me and Tee (his late partner Ted Schnugg). I wanted to purchase her house 13 years ago because we were all inspired by Maya.
I was kind of upset because we did not hear that voice; that calming, still voice. That was necessary and giving guidance. She had another way of guiding and influencing. That advice that she would give would keep us steady.
She was unafraid of facing the unknown. I’m looking at doing events here. To give people the option to enjoy the vibe that this house exudes.
“I’m going to call her house ‘The Poet’s House.’”
