“Change Gonna Come”
STAGE PRODUCTIONS
Blues for an Alabama Sky by Pearl Cleage
directed by William (Bill) Earl Ray
Previews: September 27 & 28
September 29 – October 22, 2023
Black Nativity by Langston Hughes
directed by Jerry Foster
Previews: November 22 & 23
November 24 – December 10, 2023
Yohen by Philip Kan Gotanda
Co production with Portland Playhouse
directed by Dmae Roberts
Previews: March 27 & 28 – move in date – March 18th
March 29 – April 21, 2024
All stage performances at:
Brunish Theatre
4th Floor, 1111 S.W. Broadway Ave.
Portland, OR 97205
PLAY READING MONDAYS
All Play Reading performances held at:
16 NE Killingsworth Street, Portland Oregon 97211
FIRST READING:
Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous, by Pearl Cleage
October 2, 2023 • 7:00 PM
A lifetime ago, actress Anna Campbell and manager Betty Samson ignited a major theatrical controversy with a performance of monologues from August Wilson’s Fences that came to be known forever as Naked Wilson. After decades of self-imposed exile in Amsterdam to escape the critics, they receive an invitation to perform the show at a women’s theater festival promising to be “angry, raucous and shamelessly gorgeous.”
Uncertain of what kind of reception she will get, and unmoved by Betty’s reassurances, Anna’s insecurity grows when she meets Pete Watson, the ambitious young performer who has been chosen to replace Anna in the role but whose theatrical experience is so far limited to the adult entertainment industry. Searching for common ground, Anna and Pete must confront their ideas about themselves and each other as they reconcile two vastly different worldviews.
With humor and grace, Pearl Cleage finds a meeting place where both women can not find each other, but make peace with a few lingering ghosts just in time for opening night
OCTOBER READING:
Actually, by Anna Ziegler
October 16, 2023 • 7:00 PM
Amber and Tom, finding their way as freshmen at Princeton, spend a night together that alters the course of their lives. They agree on the drinking, they agree on the attraction, but consent is foggy, and if unspoken, can it be called consent? With lyricism wit, Actually investigates gender and race politics, our crippling desire to fit in and the three sides to every story.
NOVEMBER READING:
Bee-Luther-Hatchee, by Thomas Gibbons
November 27, 2023 • 7:00 PM
Shelita Burns, an African-American editor, publishes Bee Luther-Hatchee, the autobiography of a reclusive 72-year-old Black woman named Libby Price. Shelita has never met Libby, and when the book wins a prestigious award, she decides deliver it to her in person. To her profound shock, the actual author of the book is a white man named Sean Leonard. Furious and resentful, Shelita accuses Sean of perpetrating a hoax, while he defends the book as a truthful work of imagination. Their confrontation, played out on the edge of the racial divide, builds to a jarring act of violence.
DECEMBER READING:
Paradise Blue, by Dominique Morisseau
December 4, 2023 • 7:00 PM
Blue, a gifted trumpeter, contemplates selling his once vibrant Jazz club in Detroit’s Blackbottom neighborhood to shake free the demons of his past and better his life. But where does that leave his devoted Pumpkin, who had dreams of her own? And what does it mean for the club’s resident bebop band?
When a mysterious woman with a walk that drives men mad comes to town with her own plans, everyone’s world is turned upside down. This dynamic and musically infused drama shines light on the challenges of building a better future on the foundation of what our predecessors have left us.
MARCH READING:
Office Hour, by Julia Cho
March 25, 2024 • 7:00 PM
Gina was warned that one of her students would be a problem. Eighteen years old and strikingly odd, Dennis writes violently obscene work clearly intended to unsettle those around him. Determined to know whether he’s a real threat, Gina compels Dennis to attend her office hours. But as the clock ticks down, Gina realizes that “good” versus “bad” is nothing more than a convenient illusion, and that the isolated young student in her office has learned one thing above all else: For the powerless, the ability to terrify others is powerful indeed.
APRIL READING:
American Son, by Christopher Demos-Brown
April 15, 2024 • 7:00 PM
An estranged bi-racial couple must confront their feelings about race and bias after their son is detained by the local police following a traffic stop incident. Their disparate histories and backgrounds inform their assumptions as they try to find out what happened to their son.
MAY READING:
The Meeting, by Jeff Stetson
May 13, 2024 • 7:00 PM
Fascinating and dramatically, this eloquent play depicts the supposed meeting to two of the most important men of modern times: Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Differing in their philosophies, but alike in their mutual respect, the two men debate their varying approaches to the same grave social problems, both prepared to die for their beliefs but neither aware of how soon their assassins’ bullets would await them.
All Play Reading performances held at:
16 NE Killingsworth Street
Portland Oregon 97211