Sweet Mama Stringbean
by Beth Turner
"Sweet
Mama Stringbean" is based on the life of Ethel Waters, the legendary
star of stage, film and television. Aging and severely overweight,
Ethel Waters is faced with a waning career and the prospect of an
impoverished old age when a dream of a childhood spiritual awakening
opens her to a new future with the Billy Graham Crusade.
Beth
Turner is the author of four New York produced plays and the founding
publisher of "Black Masks," a twenty-three year old publication on the
Black performing arts. She was an assistant professor of Drama and an
administrator in the Department of Drama at NYU’s Tisch School of
the Arts for thirteen years. Currently she is working on her Ph.D. in
the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of
Georgia.
