This excerpted piece highlights some of the joy and sorrow surrounding two-time Oscar nominee Ethel Waters’ life. She was one of America’s first black female superstars.

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ROSE WEAVER (Actor/Writer/Singer) has 35 years under her hat as a professional actress including guest starring roles on TV (The Brotherhood, The Young & the Restless, In the Heat of the Night), in films (including The Accused, Poetic Justice, Go Tell It on the Mountain), theatre (Trinity Rep, Mark Taper, The Globe). At Trinity she played roles such as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grille, The Witch in Into the Woods, and Bernice in The Piano Lesson. She has worked with film directors Jonathan Kaplan, Stan Lathan, John Singleton, Philip Noyce, and Linda Otto. Weaver has a BA in English from Wheaton College, an MFA in creative writing from Brown University, and a Doctor of Fine Arts (honorary) from Marymount Manhattan College. Published Works: Well Water Blues, NuMuse - New Plays from Brown University, 2001; "Chips on My Shoulder" and "Momma's Little Helper" in Monologues for Women by Women (Heinemann & Co, 1994); Monologue "Through the Mirror," Iowa Literacy Resources Center, 1998; Another Christmas Miracle, a film on video directed by Mark Gentile, director of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Her plays include: Menopause Mama (Workshops, Perishable Theatre); Silhouette of a Silhouette (Brown University New Plays Festival; The Providence Black Repertory Company, First Look); Skips in the Record (Brown University Thesis Play) which she is currently using in collaboration with the Los Angeles Alzheimer’s Association to teach about the disease in churches and community centers. Her academic teaching CV includes teaching acting courses at Wheaton College, Rhode Island College, and Moses Brown School as the proxy for the chairs during their sabbaticals. Awards include the Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts, YWCA Outstanding Woman of The Year Award in Arts Education, The Lucille Lortel Playwriting Fellowship, and crowned Miss Foxboro, the first black beauty queen in the state of Massachusetts. Rose is the eldest of six children and was born in front of a fireplace in the backwoods of Georgia with her great grandmother as midwife.

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