For the fourth straight year, famed actress–director-choreographer Debbie Allen will bring a touch of Hollywood to Chester, S.C.

Along with her actress sister, Phylicia Rashad, Allen this weekend will host a free, two-day workshop that focuses on performing arts – primarily dance. Allen’s husband, retired NBA star Norm Nixon, will host a free basketball camp.

The sisters will be working with their mother, Chester resident Vivian Ayers, who owns the Brainerd Estates, which sits on the former grounds of the historic Brainerd Institute, which grew out of an 1866 school built to educate freedmen. It was renamed Brainerd Junior College about 1935 with an emphasis on training teacher. It closed in 1939, the year Ayers graduated.

With help from her daughters, Ayers has been working to transform the site into an arts and cultural campus. (The Debbie Allen Open Fields Performing Arts Pavilion will be unveiled this weekend.) The annual event has been dubbed “Workshops in Open Fields.”

Qcitymetro caught up with Allen by phone earlier this week on the set of “Grey’s Anatomy.” She has been cast in the upcoming season to play the role of Catherine Avery – Jackson Avery’s mother.

In a county where unemployment is just over 17 percent, a momentary touch of Hollywood may be just what residents need.

Q. What can you tell us about the weekend lineup?

Allen: I’m going to be there all day Saturday and Sunday. I’ll be there teaching classes all day.... We start early in the morning and go all day until about 4:30 or 5. Then at seven o’clock on Saturday we’re going to have a film festival to talk about the (1997) movie I produced, Amistad, and screen it. And then on Sunday we’re going to have classes again. We start at 1 o’clock and go until around 4:30. And then we’ll have another festival of poetry readings and film, starting at 5:30 on Sunday. So I’m very excited to be there.

Q. How would you define this event?

Allen: It’s called Open Fields for a reason. It’s a free gift to the public from Brainerd and the Debbie Allan Dance Academy. Open Fields really is a metaphor for opening people eyes, minds and their hearts into participating in the arts. There will be arts and crafts; different things will be happening. People come from all over.

Q. How was it started?

Allen: It was the brainchild of my mother, Vivian Ayers, and I’m just thrilled to be a part of it.

Q. You obviously have Chester roots. Were you born there?

Allen: No, I was raised in Texas, but I came to Chester every summer as a child. I have a lot of family there, and my mother is from Chester. I went to Sunday school, and Brainerd used to have a sock-hop; we used to go dance. There were many things to do there. It was quite influential in my development as a child.

Q. Given the economy in Chester, I’m sure what you do there is appreciated.

Allen: I see appreciation for what we do there, and I see great need. My mother is committed to revitalizing the Brainerd grounds to make it actively function so that she can really focus on education for young people, and young men in particular. So we have a lot of good things to look forward to. The wonderful thing is that the community can participate. People realize that they may not have a lot, but they still have much to share when they come together. So there’s power in our unity.

Q. I understand that your husband will hold a basketball camp for children on Saturday (9 a.m. to 12 p.m.) at Chester High School.

Allen: Yes. It’s a family event, and my brother, Hugh Allen, will be there also with his family from Charlotte. We’ll all be there.

IF YOU WANT TO GO:
Dates: Saturday, Sept. 3 and Sunday, Sept. 4
Times: For more information, call 310-280-9145 or vist www.DebbieAllenDanceAcademy.com
Place: The Brainerd Estate is at Loomis and Marquis streets in Chester, S.C.

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