year's offering by Theatre Associates.

A Night of Spirituals: The Homecoming, which opens today at City Hall for a three-night run, focuses on the problems of maintaining an inner-city community church that is surrounded by poverty and violence.

Marvin Trimm will take on the leading role of Pastor Bridges, a young renegade pastor who is determined to save the church for future generations. His idea of staging a Night of Spirituals as part of his plan to unite church members, clean up the neighbourhood and stave off the church's creditors, provides the perfect excuse for the cast to burst into song.

The play has been written by Miss Leslee Christopher Stevens, who also takes the leading role of Chelsea Ebanks, star singer of the choir whose failed aspirations for a professional singing career had led her to prostitution, before a change of heart had brought her back to her childhood church.

Miss Stevens, who began studying voice with Joy Blackett, joined the Up With People group in 1980, when she travelled throughout the US and Mexico. She is now a pupil of the co-music director, Mr. Daniel Hill -- as are most of the leading members of the cast.

These include Lucy Douglas in the role of the mother, Patrice Hill, and Michael Clarke. Other cast members include Nathan Taxton, Donald Galloway Gates and Clarence Smith in the role of the First Elder of the church.

Co-music director of the play is musician Mr. Ronald Lightbourne, who has also authored two plays that were subsequently performed by the BMDS.

The play is directed by Mrs. Shirley Christopher who will also take a leading role as the church matriarch, Miss Mable. Producer of the play is Mr. Edrice C. Wilson.

Mr. Hill says that the majority of the numbers will be traditional negro spirituals, sung without instrumental backing: "Most spirituals go back to slave days when they were sung in the cotton fields, so there certainly wouldn't have been a band and most of the music will be a capella singing.'' Daniel Hill, who is currently pursuing a correspondence course from Rutgers University to obtain his doctorate, studied voice and piano at the Estman School of Music and Thayer Conservatory in Massachusetts, Oakwood College in Georgia, and obtained his Masters in Education from Rutgers.

On his return to Bermuda, Mr. Hill spent about 17 years teaching in the Island's schools, including Sandys Secondary, St. George's Secondary and Warwick Academy, where he taught for six years.

Although he has concentrated on teaching, Mr. Hill has a fine tenor voice and while he was at Oakwood, he took the leading roles in their productions of Handel's The Messiah and Mascagni's Le Cavaleria Rusticana.

He is also an accomplished pianist who studied under the late Geoffrey Tankard and went on to perform in recitals and with leading orchestras at various universities across the US.

Mr. Hill, who has been married for 18 years and has six children, now teaches voice, piano and guitar on a private basis and is also director of the Allen Temple AME Choir.

A Night of Spirituals: A Homecoming opens tonight at 8 p.m. at City Hall and runs through Saturday evening.

Tickets are $15, reservations Tel. 295-0571, or may be obtained at the door.

DANIEL HILL -- Co-musical director.