ABOUT US
Platanos and Collard Greens, written by David Lamb and directed by Summer Hill Seven, tells the story of two college students, Freeman, an African-American man and Angelita, a Latino woman, both forced to confront and overcome cultural and racial prejudices while defending their bond from the biases held by family and friends.
Platanos is a thought-provoking romantic comedy that tactfully addresses stereotypes, prejudices and urban myths that exist between African Americans and Latinos, within the context of Hip-Hop, humor, and satire. The play impels the audience to evaluate pervasive stereotypes. Platanos humorously displays these common, yet outrageous, viewpoints while deftly shooting them down and poetically exposing them as misrepresentations of reality. The audience while laughing out loud, is likely to question conventional attitudes held about themselves and others.
HISTORY OF THE PRODUCTION
Platanos and Collard Greens has enchanted audiences of over 35,000 both Off Broadway in New York City and at over 75 colleges and universities in more than 10 major cities and 17 states around the country.
Platanos and Collard Greens debuted to sold-out audiences in New York City on June 27, 2003 at the Producers Club, a 99 seat theater where it played throughout that summer and early fall.
In the fall of 2003 Platanos began its first national collegiate tour, opening October 8th 2003 to a standing room only audience at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, one of the nation’s largest college campuses.
In February 2004, while continuing its national collegiate tour, Platanos reopened in New York City, and within three months moved to a theater twice as large as its original home, where it was again met with sold out audiences.
The second year of the college tour was fulfilled with a 50% increase in demand over the initial year.
Meanwhile in NYC, Platanos continued to increase its theater size to meet the demands of the NYC audience. During its last run the box office had to turn away ticket buyers, because once again the show was sold out!
Don’t miss the next page of this story. Tickets are now on sale for the Spring 2006 reopening of Platanos and the third year of the college tour is well underway with stops scheduled in Oklahoma, Florida, Boston, Washington DC, and Wisconsin to name a few.
David Lamb (Producer and Playwright)
David was born in Queens, New York and grew-up in Astoria Housing Projects (where Hip Hop music really began). David is a graduate of Hunter College, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and New York University School of Law.
After graduating from law school, David began working as a public finance attorney at a Wall Street firm. While practicing law, David’s unique entrepreneurial spirit drove him to form a publishing company through which he published his first novel, “Do Platanos Go Wit Collard Greens?”. This novel was widely hailed first for achieving critical and commercial success as a self-published work, and second for exploring the oft-ignored subject of relations between African-Americans and Latinos. In fact, the novel became the linchpin in a study-guide used by NYC's Alternative High School system.
David has been invited to speak to and has enchanted crowds at more than 100 colleges and universities across the country.
David has built on his publishing success by scripting and producing two plays, Platanos and Collard Greens and From Auction Block to Hip Hop, both of which have achieved critical success in the New York City theater market and nationally in the college market.
Jamillah Lamb,
Producer
Since founding Between The Lines Productions, Jamillah has steered the company to constant growth and increasing prominence. Jamillah graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in Economics and from Harvard University with a Masters in Public Policy, where her Masters Thesis was nominated for an Outstanding Award.
Jamillah left an accomplished 10-year career as a Commercial Real Estate Banker to found her own company. While a Vice President at Citigroup, she managed a loan portfolio of well over $300MM that was built by forging strong relationships with premier real estate developers in New York City. Prior to Citigroup, Jamillah was a Senior Loan Officer responsible for managing similar portfolios for lending institutions in California and Philadelphia.
Jamillah was widely known not just as a lender but as a problem solver. She often found a way to structure financing for difficult projects that involved multiple relationships and layers of financing.
Her tenacity and ability to adapt to change earned her both respect and admiration. She was often called upon to lecture at industry conferences and to conduct training sessions. She is now focused on employing that same tenacity and spirit to bring the productions of Between The Lines Productions, Inc. to communities across the country.
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