Broadway star Ben Vereen is Thelma McAndless professor; will help bring play about Tuskegee Airmen to life

History and acting helped Ben Vereen get noticed in 1977 when he portrayed Chicken George in the epic miniseries "Roots." Some 28 years later, the nationally-known Broadway star is using the same tools to teach Eastern Michigan University students while working on a show about African-American aviators and the Tuskegee Airmen who, in the 1940s, became America's first black military airmen.

The play, with the working title "Soaring on Black Wings," is scheduled to premiere at EMU May 5. Performances will run through May 8 at the Quirk Theatre. Times and prices will be announced.

VEREEN VISIT: Tony Award-winner Ben Vereen is Eastern Michigan University's M. Thelma McAndless Distinguished Professor in Humanities. He will help the EMU Theatre bring the world- premiere play, "Soaring on Black Wings" to campus. The play will chronicle real-life stories of the Tuskegee Airmen.

The collaboration is part of Vereen's duties as the M. Thelma McAndless Distinguished Professor in Humanities.

The McAndless chair, established in 1985, rotates among departments within the College of Arts and Sciences and is offered to an individual with a national or international reputation in various arts and humanities who can bring a new perspective, knowledge and experience to students.

Vereen said he looks forward to helping pass his expertise in theatre on to another generation. He previously has worked with college students in Arizona.

"I feel very blessed to be asked to work with Eastern Michigan University and its students, and this play is going to be brilliant," said Vereen. "The arts are very important to me. They are the core of our culture. No civilization is without the arts. Even in the Bible, God created. He didn't manufacture."

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