[NEohioPAL] Frank and Wolfes to be inducted on June 28

[Vivian C. Wilson]

Karamu House Inc.
2355 East 89th Street
Cleveland, OH 44106

216-795-7070

 

 

Contact:   Vivian C. Wilson

                  216.795.7070 x 215

                                    

 

KARAMU HOUSE TO INDUCT BENNO D. FRANK AND 

HELMUTH WOLFES INTO HALL OF FAME ON JUNE 28

 

CLEVELAND - June  2, 2008 -  Karamu House will posthumously induct
internationally renown director Benno D. Frank and musical director Helmuth
Wolfes into its Hall of Fame on June 28 at 20/20 in the Flats. 

The collaborations of Frank and Wolfes were widely reported during their
tenure at Karamu. 

In its winter 1958 edition, "Shakespeare Quarterly" highlighted the
directors' involvement in the production of "MacBeth." The acknowledgement
read: "Opened March 19 (four-week run).  Karamu Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio.
Director, Benno D. Frank. Musical direction, Helmuth Wolfes. Set design by
Leonard Dryansky. Choreography by Christine Buster. Premiere of lyric drama
by Ernest Bloch and Edmond Fleg based on the Shakespeare play."

A  newsletter by the Metropolitan Opera National Council of New York in 1963
noted the two men would direct two American premieres at Karamu - Julius
Bittner's "The Devil's Gold" and Joseph Hadyn's "Foolish and Fickle," which
had been discovered three years earlier in the Hungarian State Library in
Budapest.

Frank was born in Mannheim, Germany. His father was a Polish consular
official. When Hitler came to power in Germany, Frank fled to Israel and
became general manager and director of the Palestine Opera Company and head
of drama and opera at the Palestine Conservatory. 

In 1938, Frank came to the United States and became stage director of the
American League for Opera, head of the opera department of New York College
of Music and play director at the World's Fair. He was stage director at the
Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. 

>From 1948 to 1967, Frank was a director of musicals and operas at Karamu. He
also directed musicals at the Play House and Cain Park, led the opera
department of the Cleveland Music School Settlement and directed plays
off-Broadway and in San Francisco. He died in 1980 in Israel.  

"I benefited from the stage directions of Benno Frank," penned Karamu alumni
Robert Guillaume in "Guillaume," his 2002 autobiography. "An Israeli in his
60s, Benno was old school.  

 (Benno) had worked at the Habiba, the national theater of Israel, and had
no interest in psychological subtleties or fashionable notions of Method
acting . Instead, his direction was absolutely utilitarian. Forty years
later, they are directions I still employ," wrote Guillaume, a 2006 Karamu
Hall of Fame inductee. 

Early in Wolfes' career, he was the music director of the Monte Carlo Opera
and conductor of the Berlin State Opera. In 1938, he left Germany to come to
United States as assistant conductor of the City Center Opera in New York.
He conducted on several USO tours and was the chorus director of the New
Orleans Opera House. After 1953, Wolfes worked as a music director of
Karamu. He died in 1971.

 "If These Walls Could Talk" is the theme of this year's Hall of Fame event.
The ceremony will also pay tribute to actors Al Fann, Jean E. Hawkins and R.
Joyce Whitley, playwright Langston Hughes, benefactor and Congresswoman
Stephanie Tubbs Jones and former executive director Ken Snipes. Actor
Katrice Monee Headd will receive the "On the Rise" award, an honor reserved
for the next generation of Karamu stars.

James Pickens of television's "Grey's Anatomy" and entertainer Kym Whitley
will co-host the induction ceremony at 20/20 in the Flats. Pickens and
Whitley also hail from Cleveland and are Karamu alums.

Prior to the ceremony, Fann, Hawkins, Headd, Pickens and Kym Whitley will
field audience questions during "Inside the Performer's Dressing Room."
NewsNet 5 anchor Danita Harris Pratt will moderate the free event at Karamu.
A dinner and the inductions will follow at 6 p.m.

Tickets are available by calling Vivian C. Wilson at 216.795.7070, ext. 215,
or by visiting Karamu's Web site at www.karamu.com. 

Karamu holds the honor as the country's oldest multicultural theater and can
trace its humble origins to 1915. The name Karamu is Swahili for "a place of
joyful gathering." Nestled in an urban community, the center offers
additional services, including an early childhood development center,
after-school programs, cultural and arts education outreach and senior
citizen activities.

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Karamu House has been an important part of the Cleveland community for
nearly a century. From a unique vantage-point within the African-American
community, Karamu has fostered true interracial understanding and
cooperation, an awareness of cultural diversity and an appreciation for the
rich African-American cultural heritage.

 

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