Product Details

• Actors: Ethel Ayler, Charles Brown, Bebe Drake, Frances Foster, Moses Gunn
• Writers: Leslie Lee
• Format: Classical, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Kultur Video
• VHS Release Date: May 13, 2003
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000094Q1H
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,561 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A COOL BREEZE, January 6, 2008

By 

Guy De Federicis (east of here) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The First Breeze of Summer (Broadway Theatre Archive) (DVD)

One of several Broadway Archive Series DVDs that chronicles televised productions of plays, The First Breeze of Summer, is an exquisite account of a black southern woman's solemn and painful retreating of her past as her family gathers for a birthday celebration during a suffocating heat wave. Civil rights aside, this story concentrates on the emotional plight of womanhood and the wolf that prowls in the back shadows of Christian conviction. A family Gospel singing scene with grandmother and grandson experiencing spiritual revelation is quietly shattering. The cast is superb, with notably, Frances Foster as the proud and saintly grandmother, and Reyno as her adoring and questioning grandson. The play, written by Leslie Lee, ran on Broadway during the 1975 season.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gospel music, inspiration, and the past!, January 17, 2010

By 

(Rizzo) Rizzuto (Denver) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The First Breeze of Summer (Broadway Theatre Archive) (DVD)

First Breeze of Summer is quite the emotional play with powerful performances. We are very luck to have a series of plays from The Broadway Theatre Archive, plays from the 1960-80s. This wonderful production is by the Negro Ensemble Company in approximately 1975. It is semiautobiographical work of playwright Leslie Lee, who wrote numerous plays, some unpublished.

The play is filled with great dialogue, timing, action, music, flashbacks, and most of all, there are some brilliant acting performances.

The setting is the mid 70s, an African-American family, the matriarch Lucretia, known as Gremmar is visiting her son Milton (Moses Gunn), his wife Hattie, and their two sons, Nate and Lou. Nate, an inspiring teen, rebels to work in the family business and wants to be a doctor or scientist. He dreams of escaping the "negro" shell, the shame that comes with it; he is a bookworm. He has strong faith in God, and believes his faith will get him out of the negro lifestyle and image it projects. One person who has not shattered his faith is his grandmother, Lucretia, who he idolizes and then, he discovers the truth.

With flashbacks, we learn the life of Lucretia (Gremmar), the three men she was involved with, never married to them, but gave birth to their children. But through circumstances, you learn how men walked out on her.

Young Nate (Charles Brown) give a brilliant performance with his naivete toward life, but especially the rousing rendition of "testifying" to the Lord. Another wonderful, memorable performance is by Lucretia/Gremmar's love interest, the soon-to-be preacher Harper (Douglas Turner Ward).

The spirituals play a role in their lives and you can hear "Blessed Assurance" "Eye On the Sparrow"; "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms".... This is a splendid production! For another wonderful Theatre Archive production, try Arkady Leokum's Enemies (Broadway Theatre Archive) and Neighbors (Broadway Theatre Archive)....Rizzo