Nearly nine years ago Don P. Roberts, at the behest of super producer Dallas Austin, served as a technical adviser and executive band consultant for the hit film Drumline. Drumline struck a chord with moviegoers with its intimate view of the drama and cutthroat competition of a marching band at a black university. While working on the film, Roberts had an epiphany.
“I thought when we were doing the movie, ‘wow it would be great if we could do something like this on stage,’ ” says the Florida A&M alumnus.
Roberts, an esteemed former director of one of Atlanta’s best high school bands, the Southwest Dekalb Marching Panthers, certainly had the credentials to launch a stage adaptation of the film, but taking his idea from conception to reality would prove to be a tough prospect. Roberts and his partners tried to get the project green-lighted by industry executives, but they soon realized that was not a viable option. What happened next can only be explained as kismet, pure and simple.
“We got a call from Columbia and thought ‘why is Jermaine Dupri calling us?’ Finally we did what everyone does, and google[d] the company to find out that it was Columbia Artists Management, one of the largest theater production companies in America. I called and spoke to the president of the company and we came to an agreement over several weeks, and the rest … is history,” says Roberts, the creator and music director of the stage play DRUMline Live about how he finally was able to bring his dream to fruition.
DRUMline Live features a 40-member cast of exciting and talented performers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the country, and of course, the percussionists are the heart and soul of the show, but that’s where the similarity to the film ends.
“If you’re coming to see another version of Drumline the movie, that is not what you are going to see in this show. This show is much more than that, it is the energy and feeling of a half-time show at homecoming at an HBCU multiplied times five, and for those who have never experienced a show like this, it will leave you speechless,” asserts Roberts.
–christa e. jackson
“DRUMLine Live,” the show-stopping new attraction created by the music team behind the hit movie “Drumline,” brings the black marching band tradition to the theatrical stage for the very first time. Coming to Atlanta Jan. 12, 2011, at the Cobb Energy Centre at 8 p.m.
