SEASON SIX (2011-2012)

AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’
Sponsored by JW Kathy Gibson Foundation
with support from the First Tennessee Foundation
with additional support from ArtsMemphis and TN. Arts Commission
Written by Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby, Jr.
Directed by Dennis Whitehead
Choreographed by Emma Crystal
Aug. 4th – Aug. 28th, 2011
Talk back w/director & cast Aug. 7 & 18

Venues like The Cotton Club were swingin’ to a new beat during the 1920s and ‘30s in Harlem. This musical pays tribute to Thomas “Fats” Waller and black musicians who were part of the Harlem Renaissance.

THE BLUEST EYE
Sponsored by The KGR Group dba Lenny’s Sub Shop
Based on novel by Toni Morrison
Directed by Ekundayo Bandele
Sept. 8th – Sept. 25th, 2011
Talk back w/director & cast Sept. 11 & 22

This American classic is a story about eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove who wants nothing more than to be loved. Instead, she’s abused. Blaming her dark skin, she prays for blue eyes, sure that love will follow.

JUDAS HANDS
Sponsored by Gene & Carol Katz
Written by Ekundayo Bandele
Directed by Ekundayo Bandele
Oct. 13th – Oct. 30th, 2011
Talk back w/director & cast Oct. 16 & 27

Set in the 1940s South, the drama tells the story of Goldie, a carpenter’s helper who believes his talent at woodwork can save him and his wife Serra from her life as a washerwoman and the lies they’ve convinced themselves are truth. The play examines the war between the truth-knowing mind and the lie-pumping heart.

IF SCROOGE WAS A BROTHER
Sponsored in part by the First Tennessee Foundation
with additional support from ArtsMemphis and TN. Arts Commission Written by Ekundayo Bandele
Directed by Patricia Smith
Dec. 1st – Dec. 24th, 2011
Talk back w/director & cast Dec. 4 & 15

The musical is an urban spin of A Christmas Carol. It tells of sour and stingy Eb Scroo’s ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visitations of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come.

LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR & GRILL
Sponsored in part by the First Tennessee Foundation
with additional support from ArtsMemphis and TN. Arts Commission Written by Lanie Robertson
Directed by Emma Crystal
Jan. 5th – Jan. 22nd, 2012
Talk back w/director & cast Jan. 8 & 19

The time is 1959. The place is a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie Holiday’s last performances, given four months before her death. More than a dozen musical numbers are interlaced with salty, often humorous, reminiscences to project a riveting portrait of the lady and her music.

TWO TRAINS RUNNING
Written by August Wilson
Directed by Ekundayo Bandele
Feb. 2nd – Feb. 26th, 2012
Talk back w/director & cast Feb. 5 & 16

The play takes place in the 1960s, in a Pittsburgh neighborhood. Focus is on the characters who hang out at Memphis Lee’s coffee shop: a local sage, an elderly man who imparts wisdom as learned from a 322 year old sage, an ex con, a numbers runner, a waitress who slashed her legs to keep men away, and a retarded man who was once cheated out of a ham. The play is a microcosm of an era and a community on the brink of change.

ROMEO & JULIET
Sponsored by Church on the River
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Pamela Poletti
Mar. 22nd – Apr. 8th, 2012
Talk back w/director & cast Mar. 25 & Apr. 5

This tragedy tells the story of two “star-cross’d lovers” from feuding families. During a party, Romeo and Juliet fall in love. They meet secretly until Romeo is banished from the city. They must now create a plan to be together again.

THE AMEN CORNER
Written by James Baldwin
Directed by Marcellus Harper
Apr. 19th – May 6th, 2012
Talk back w/director & cast Apr. 22 & May 3

Margaret, pastor of a Harlem church, has led everyone to believe her husband Luke abandoned her with their son. After Luke arrives unexpectedly, events unfold showing that Margaret in fact left Luke in pursuit of a religious life.

DREAMGIRLS
Sponsored by Dorothy O. Kirsch
and Cigna
Music by Henry Krieger
Book by Tom Eyen
Directed by Dennis Whitehead
May 24th – June 17th, 2012
Talk back w/director & cast May 27 & June 7

Three friends — Effie, Deena, and Lorrell, form an R&B act. When the manager changes their style to pop, he makes Deena the lead singer and calls them ‘The Dreams.’ In time the three women realize that life is not all about fame and fortune.