Arts & Events

W. Allen Taylor performed the multi-character solo show he wrote, 'In Search of My Father ... Walkin' Talkin' Bill Hawkins' in Berkeley, 2006, to critical acclaim and a Critics Circle award for best solo show. (My review was published in the Planet, now archived above: January 10, 2006). Now it's coming back—see below ... 

The show's Taylor's own story about trying to find out about his father, the first black radio DJ in Cleveland, who he met only once as an adult, not knowing the relationship. He was only told of Hawkins being his father after Hawkins' death. Taylor's own experience, the rich world of postwar black radio (which not only white radio, TV and music profited from, but which such white comedians as Lord Buckley and Lenny Bruce assiduously imitated)—and some fantasy, in the person of The Kid, a streetwise, sassy alter ego for Taylor. 

Taylor talks, acts out different personae, jives, dances—emotes. 

He can be heard being interviewed on PBS' Lost & Found Sound on his website, walkintalking..com/audio 

Now, Taylor's dusted it off, changed it a little, and is giving it another go, directed by Ellen Sebastian Chang, starting with a pay what you can preview Friday at 8, and a Saturday at 8, Sunday at 3 run through March 4, at the East Bay Cultural Center for Arts, 339-11th Street at Macdonald in downtown Richmond. $10-$15. Secure parking across the street. 221-6353; eastbaycenter.org