Production History
SEASON THREE (2008-2009)
MAHALIA
Back By Popular Demand
Written by: Tom Stolz
August 21 – September 7
Equal parts gospel musical, biography, and revival meeting, Mahalia creates a spirited look at Mahalia Jackson, “The Queen of Gospel Music,” and is guaranteed to lift you out of your seats with such songs as “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” “How I Got Over,” and “Move On Up a Little Higher. ” In Hattiloo’s first season, this production brought down the house with praise and foot-stomping.
FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA
Written by Endesha Ida Mae Holland
September 18 – October 5
This production takes us on the journey through the life of Phelia – a girl born into the depths of poverty in the heart of the segregated South. Phelia finds her painful childhood and reckless adolescence transformed by opportunity and courage as the Civil Rights movement sweeps through the Delta.
ANNIE
Written By Thomas Meehan
Music By Charles Strouse
Lyrics By Martin Charnin
October 23 – November 2
Due to the cruel orphanage matron, Miss Hannigan, Annie, a spunky orphan, decides to run away and find her parents. After being captured and returned, billionaire Oliver Warbucks decides to invite an orphan over to his house for Christmas and Annie is chosen. The two quickly hit it off and he agrees to help Annie find her parents. This play includes the songs ‘Tomorrow,’ ‘I Think I’m Going to Like it here,’ and many others.
FENCES
Written by August Wilson
November 20 – December 7
Fences presents a slice-of-life in a black tenement in Pittsburgh. Set in the late 1950s through 1965, the main character, Troy Maxson, struggles for fairness in society, which seems to offer none. In his struggle he builds barriers between himself and his family. Troy also wrestles with the idea of death and claims that he sees death as nothing but a fastball, something he can handle.
IF SCROOGE WAS A BROTHER
Written by Ekundayo Bandele
December 18 – January 4, 2009
It’s Christmas Eve and Eb Scroo is seeking to snuff out the season’s cheer by demanding that all debts owed him be satisfied before nightfall. Facing imprisonment or a Christmas without presents and a feast, the residents are desperate. In this urban spin of Dicken’s Christmas Carol the ghosts and characters are icons of Black culture and the songs stem from the traditions of gospel, R&B, and even reggae.
* Audience’s Pick *
THE COLORED MUSEUM
Written by George C. Wolfe
January 29 – Febebuary 15
The Colored Museum satirizes the Black experience in America in the 1980’s. Although the play is controversial, its comedy is found through satirical, exaggerated images of black life. The Colored Museum accentuates the extreme stereotypes of Blacks by splitting the show up into eleven vignettes, or museum exhibits.
A TEMPEST
Written by Aime Cesaire
March 12 – 22
A Tempest was written as a postcolonial response to The Tempest by William Shakespeare. The story is the same: a big storm, an angry Duke who’s been usurped by his brother, all the devoted courtesans, and, of course, the natives. This play deals mostly with the natives, Ariel and Caliban. It is Cesaire’s comment on the colonization of the “New World. ”
* Faith-Based Contest Winner *
BACK TO THE WATER AGAIN
Written by Joyce McMillian
April 2 – 19
The winner of Hattiloo’s first Faith-Based playwriting contest, this tender and often comical play introduces you to four siblings who all grew up as PKs (preacher’s kids). Linked by unconditional love, they journey through the hardships that rise from prison life [on both sides of the walls] and struggle to observe the faith that their minister-father and prayerful mother instilled in them.
DON’T BOTHER ME, I CAN’T COPE
Written by Micki Grant
May 7 – 24
The all-singing, all-dancing show celebrates the Black American experience with a series of pseudo-inspirational tunes focusing on such topics as rat-infested tenements and slumlords, the joy and strife of ghetto life, student protests, black power, and feminism. The music is a mixture of gospel, calypso, and soft rock.
