This Memorial Day weekend all kinds of celebrity film and television faces were popping up in the ATL. Pleasantly surprised, I received an invite headlining the names Thomas Q Jones, LeToya Luckett, Brely Evans and Jasmine Burke. However, instead of it being an invite to one of the weekend parties, it was an invite to cover media for a new straight to DVD stage play titled Addicted to You, written and directed by Patricia Cuffie Jones; executive producer: TYMEDIA PRODUCTIONS.
The stage play took place at the theater on Spelman College’s campus in front of a live studio audience as it was also being filmed for DVD. It was interesting to see the set design transition through the many time periods represented in the play. Scenes moved through the 60s and 70s, featuring the yellow crushed velvet sofa with, the velvet pictures in the wooden frames, the beaded drapes, the floor model television with the smaller 24-inch screen on the top.
The narrative of the story was derived from a journal a single, pregnant mom wrote while torn with the pain of giving up her unborn child for adoption. The estranged mother wrote the journal for the daughter in 1969, fast forwarding the story line to 2016 when the daughter completed the journal (after she received it in her possession as an adult). She learned all the reasons her mom gave her away and all the thoughts and hopes and dreams her mom had for her in this diary. Meanwhile, she became “addicted to love” and didn’t even know it.
This was the first stage play for Thomas Q. Jones, former NFL Jet running back turned actor best known for his role as “the cutty buddy” in the BET series “Being Mary Jane.” We got a chance to catch up with Jones, Brely Evans and LeToya Luckett on the red carpet. Check out how Thomas compared being in the stage play and acting in real time to being on the football field and playing in real time. Both scenarios don’t give way for do-overs.
Special thanks to the production company, District Film Group and the producers Chuck West, Brett Dismuke, Keith Neal and Brynee Baylor.
Check out the exclusive photo gallery and exclusive video interview after the break.
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