Presented with a focus on trusting and believing that God will turn your life around for the good. With appropriate good humor for all ages and the sentiments of gospel lyric, this play captures the essence of a church service with a different twist.
Morning worship service is about to start, and the pastor sends an urgent message to the leaders of the church. “This morning will be a unique time for testimony. It is my sincere request that each of you will stand tall and testify. Tell your story, give God the glory and DO NOT leave anything out.”
Unexpectedly, the women of the Sunday Morning Praise Team are asked to confront their personal life experiences in public. Standing before the congregation, they must tell what God has done. Their words and dynamic vocal talents lift audiences to their feet as they reveal the trauma and drama present in their lives and its relevance in the lives of others. As they begin to share their stories, they realize ~ “there is healing in the telling.”
“Tell-It, Sing-It, Shout-It” was conceived in 1994 at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Hospital. Playwright Hazel Rosetta Smith was a cancer patient scheduled for kidney surgery. With her faith intact and her confidence steady that God would be with her throughout this vital surgery, she conceived the script and committed to showing her thankfulness in the telling of what she believed God has already done for her.
Thus, came the title of the production, Tell-It, Sing-It, Shout-It. The successful surgery and miraculous healing became the written play that opened onstage nine months later for Gertrude Jeannette’s Hadley Players at the Community Center of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Harlem, with sold out performances March 17 thru April 9, 1995.
From 1995 to 2020, Tell-It, Sing-It, Shout-It has travelled over highways and byways throughout New York State for performances at houses of worship, on theater stages and community spaces.
Through tunnels and over bridges for more than twenty-five years, the play has been produced throughout the State of New Jersey; flown west to Columbus, Ohio; south to Durham, North Carolina; to the legendary Ritz Theatre of New Brunswick, St. Simon Islands of Georgia; the African American Cultural Center of Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Independence Cultural Center of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (An extensive list of performances at churches and other venues is available, upon request.)
The most recent performance was Saturday, March 7, 2020, at Canaan Church of Christ in Harlem. Due to the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, scheduled performances were cancelled by mandated health policy the following week.
