An Effort to Continue African Continuum

Jennifer Nelson talks about rehearsals as an almost-otherworldly experience. When she and her actors are cloistered in a theater preparing for opening night, the play is the thing -- but so is an encompassing alternate reality.

"It allows you to step away from your personal issues, and the challenges of day-to-day life," she says. "It's like the rest of the world goes away. . . . We're able to live in the world of the play, so it's kind of transporting."

That compelling focus is always good -- but maybe never more valuable than now, as director Nelson and her cast try to put on a show while their theater company struggles to stay solvent and devise a plan for its future.

The African Continuum Theatre Company, founded 13 years ago and guided by Nelson for much of its existence, was forced to cancel most of its season this spring because of financial difficulties. But it chose to stage one play, "Intimate Apparel," in the midst of the turmoil.

The evocative turn-of-the-century drama by Lynn Nottage sets its gaze on the world of a black seamstress who, at 35, is searching for a love to rescue her from the impending fate of an old maid.

"It's very poetic and poetically deals with personal issues and also issues of class and race and ethnic difference -- and how those things affect the personal," Nelson explains.

Those issues, as much as any, are what the African Continuum Theatre was founded to explore. As the city's only dedicated, professional African American theater company, it has produced, over the years, plays by August Wilson, James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry.

Nelson served as artistic director for more than a decade but announced plans to step down last August to become a freelance director and teacher. When the company's financial troubles (caused largely by rising rents) became apparent, Nelson's replacement quit before ever arriving, and the board decided to cancel most of the season as the company attempted to regroup.

And regrouping, not disintegrating, is the intention. "What's going on here is not unusual, it's just that it's very public," says Imani Drayton-Hill, interim executive director. "But the visibility has helped us to really galvanize a core of people saying, 'We definitely want African Continuum Theatre to be here,' and stepping up." The board is searching for a permanent executive director, Drayton-Hill says, before starting the search for its next artistic director.

"I'm glad they're getting a show done. I'm glad the whole season wasn't canceled," says Deidra LaWan Starnes, who plays the lead in "Intimate Apparel" and has appeared in several African Continuum shows. "I think it would be a mistake to let [the company] go."

Nelson, who had been working with theater companies in Baltimore and South Carolina, agreed to return to African Continuum to direct "Intimate Apparel," which she had helped choose for the season. It's the Washington premiere of the play, which proved hugely popular after its off-Broadway debut in 2004 and helped nudge Nottage into the ranks of America's most promising contemporary playwrights.

"It's been a difficult transition season, but it looks like we're going to make it," Nelson says. The problems, though not irrelevant, are background noises she's happy to shut off now, as she turns once again to the thing she loved at the beginning and loves most today: the work of "producing a beautiful play."

Intimate Apparel Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. 202-399-7993. Through May 18. $20-$35. Intimate Apparel Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. 202-399-7993. Through May 18. $20-$35.