Chattanooga Pulse

Written by Janis Hashe
Thursday, 11 September 2008 16:51
“Why A Sistah Can’t Get No Love?!” finds the laughs in the seven-year itch

Writer/director Thomas W. Jones II is forthright about his newest piece, Why A Sistah Can’t Get No Love?!, opening at the Encore Theatre September 13.

“This play kind of wrote itself out of 30 years of bad relationships,” he says, laughing. “It’s a comedy about infidelity. A couple, who have been together seven years, decide to seek therapy, and it calls into question why men do what they do, and why women do what they do.”

Jones has directed, written and performed in more than 200 plays worldwide. His work has received 39 Washington D.C. Helen Hayes Award nominations, winning 12 awards, including “best director” for Home and Bessie’s Blues, which he also wrote. He has also received three New York Audelco Award nominations, a Dramalogue Award, “best actor of the year” in Minneapolis, the San Diego Critics Award and the NAACP Phoenix Award. He was the founder and producing director of Jomandi Productions in Atlanta for more than 20 years and is the current producing artistic director of VIA Theatrical.

Here in Chattanooga, where his Bessie’s Blues was seen last year, he again collaborates with Destiny Theatre Company, whose founder, Karl D’wayne Gardner, appears in “Why A Sistah.” The script was workshopped in Atlanta, and had a “sneak preview” at Barking Legs earlier this year, but the run at the Encore will be its first fully staged production.