Paying the Price

Thirty yards or so from the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department, a black backdrop stage was lit (February 2002) with the soul fires of local jazz singer Janice Price as she portrayed Josephine Baker’s socially courageous and gut-wrenching life.

Baker,  the daughter of a St. Louis washerwoman, became the highest paid entertainer in Europe in 1927. Josephine Baker was one of the most photographed women in the world who became a French spy at one point in her life. She was a sensual performer who struggled heroically against racism (a New York Times article once called her ‘the Negro wench.’)

For two weekends in February, Baker’s courageous and heart-torn life came alive through Janice Price’s soulful performances at the Artistic Studio on Third Street in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The production was the result of Price’s 22-year interest in Baker’s life that began while Price was a student at Howard University.

Price first played Josephine Baker in 1985 at The Kennedy Center in the play, “Mamarra the Gypsy,” written by a French playwright and friend of Baker’s. Price felt an instant familial bond with Baker.

“I know what it is like to not be loved by either side,” Price said. “Since I was a small child, I have had problems with racism. It runs everywhere, including within races. There is a line in the play: ‘Josie’s too light to be black and too dark to be white.’ Josephine Baker and I both suffered from that prejudice. She felt, as I do, that the same color blood runs through everyone’s skin.”

Price’s play, “Josephine,” is a dramatic, historical musical that includes scenes from Baker’s life that mirror Price’s life. One such scene involves the Ku Klux Klan.

“I was the first black to integrate Walkertown Elementary School when I was 6 years old,” Price said. I woke up one night to find a cross burning in the neighbor’s yard—the Klan had made a mistake and put it in the wrong place. When Josephine cries, ‘Mama, hold me close,’ that is a scene from my own life.”

NATHAN ROSS FREEMAN’S ARTISTIC TOUCH

“Josephine’ is a complete re-write of a play Price wrote in 1984. It was first produced in 1992 at the Broach Theater in Greensboro. In the more recent production, Price worked with Nathan Ross Freeman, the Winston-Salem playwright who founded the Montage Showcase Ensemble. Freeman urged Price to tear into the script o get to the heart of Baker’s life.

“An audience comes to see a play not to hear about past events, but to be inspired by a life,” Freeman said. “I encouraged Janice to find the moments of Josephine’s life instead of the events. That’s how we were able to focus on the internal Josephine, and her bout with self-love.”

“Josephine” was a co-production of Price’s Artistic Studio and the Montage Showcase Ensemble. Original music was written by John Stamey Jr. and performed (via recording) by Ernie Bonner (piano), Matt Kendrick (bass), Eddie Rouse (percussion), and Shelton Beane (drums).

Nicole Muse plays young Josephine and a show girl; Jarrett Fusilier plays a policeman and a show girl, and Shelton L. Grant plays an entertainment producer and a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Tinisha Rouse is stage manager and engineer.

THE RAINBOW MOTHERS

Baker adopted 12 orphans: children from Korea, Canada, Columbia, Finland and other countries. She wanted to prove that children of different ethnicities and religions could love each other. In a line from Price’s play Josephine says, “Noel was our eleventh child. He was found in a mountain of trash outside a restaurant in Paris. Jo [her husband] was furious, but it was Christmas and to me, Noel was a gift from God…. All my children were beautiful…growing together as brothers and sisters.”

As for Janice Price, her children are her students at the Artistic Studio, where she nurtures self-development, creativity, and artistic talent through lessons in singing, acting and dancing.

“I did not write this play as a showcase for my talent,” Price said. “I wrote it to open some eyes and hearts. To actually think you are better than anyone else is so silly. It happens within all races and religions, among people of the same color and same country, because one believes something different from the other.”

Josephine Baker

In World War II, Josephine Baker performed for French troops and smuggled secret messages on her sheet music for the French Resistance. After the war, she was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government for hard work and dedication.

Baker died in 1975 in her sleep, following a stellar performance and a large party given in her honor. The (NAACP) named May 20 Josephine Baker Day in her honor.

For more about Janice Price or the Artistic Studio, call 336-723-7473 or email artisticstudio@aol.com