Yolanda Rabun Starring In “No Fear and Blues Long Gone: Nina Simone” At Playmakers
Chapel Hill, NC – Yolanda Rabun stars as the High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone, in a one-woman play with the music, loves, and losses of the legendary North Carolina musician. A world premiere from Triangle playwright Howard L. Craft and directed by longtime PlayMakers Repertory Company member Kathryn Hunter-Williams, “No Fear and Blues Long Gone: Nina Simone” comes to the Playmakers for only 7 performances August 21st – August 25th.
Yolanda Rabun stands at an even five feet tall, but you wouldn’t know it by the size of her voice—rich and resonant in its low alto, with a full & bold high belt, a voice as complex and compelling as the story that shapes it.
“Multi-hyphenate” doesn’t even begin to cover it. Her bio begins: “Wife, mother, award-winning corporate lawyer, motivational speaker, accomplished music entrepreneur, professional AEA actor, and acclaimed recording-performing artist.” And she truly excels at each, not unlike businesswoman, classical pianist, civil rights activist, and legendary singer Nina Simone.
“As I began to learn more about Nina’s life in the business, in the civil rights movement, during her exile,” says Yolanda, “I became even more intrigued at her journey and how similar encounters render lessons learned that I can apply to my own life or how things gone unsaid can give me insight to placing a higher value on my artistry and life decisions.”
Originally from Atlanta, Yolanda moved to Wake County in 1994, where she’s worked as a corporate counsel for the likes of IBM. Nearly immediately, she took to the various Triangle stages, where she has become a beloved regular — including PlayMakers, where she previously took the stage in Violet.
Since 2012 she’s been working with nearly legendary Triangle playwright Howard L. Craft on a one-woman piece about Nina Simone for UNC’s Stone Center. “It was a blast of a time!” she says, “Now we have teamed up again with an updated script and wisely expanded concept we’re calling No Fear & Blues Long Gone.”
But she hasn’t ignored the High Priestess of Soul since then. The project has lived in her own soul, she says, throughout those seven years. In fact, two of the three albums she’s recorded since have included Nina’s music. Add to that a Nina Simone tribute concert with the Durham Symphony Orchestra in 2016 and last year’s performance on the porch of Nina’s childhood home to celebrate its new national treasure status, and you can see why Yolanda is the perfect person to take up Nina’s mantle.
PlayMakers Repertory Company is the professional theatre in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The theatre is located in the Joan H Gillings Center for Dramatic Art at 120 Country Club Rd, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.
For tickets or more information, CLICK HERE.
About Nina Simone
Legendary performer Nina Simone sang a mix of jazz, blues and folk music in the 1950s and ’60s, later enjoying a career resurgence in the ’80s. A staunch Civil Rights activist, she was known for +tunes like “Mississippi Goddam,” “Young, Gifted and Black” and “Four Women.”
Born on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina, Nina Simone studied classical piano at the Juilliard School in New York City but left early when she ran out of money. Performing in night clubs, she turned her interest to jazz, blues and folk music and released her first album in 1957, scoring a Top 20 hit with the track “I Loves You Porgy.” In the ‘60s, Simone expanded her repertory in exemplary fashion while becoming identified as a leading voice of the Civil Rights Movement. She later lived abroad and experienced major mental health and financial issues, though she enjoyed a career resurgence in the 1980s. Simone died in France on April 21, 2003.
Full Nina Simone Bio, CLICK HERE