"Paradise Blue" at Penumbra Theatre

In 2015, Penumbra Theatre produced Dominique Morisseau's Detroit '67, the first of her three-play series known as The Detroit Project, set in her hometown. Now almost ten years later, they're bringing us the second play in the series, Paradise Blue. In between they've produced a few other plays by Morrisseau, and we've seen the final Detroit play Skeleton Crew at Yellow Tree and the Guthrie (directed by Austene Van who was in Detroit '67). So if you're an avid #TCTheater goer, this is your long-awaited chance to complete this trilogy. But don't worry if you haven't seen any of the others; the three plays are stand-alone, set in different decades and featuring different characters and storylines. But what they have in common is the beautifully real and relevant way they explore Black culture in Detroit specifically, and in America as a whole. From the 1967 Detroit Riot, to the closing of an auto plant in the late aughts recession, and in this play - a jazz club in the late '40s. A fantastic cast and stunning design bring this powerful story to vivid life on Penumbra's stage, continuing through March 9.

"Wine in the Wilderness" at Penumbra Theatre

Last weekend, I saw four plays written by women. The first three were by living playwrights (Grace McLean's musical In the Green, Lauren Gunderson's Silent Sky, and Keiko Green's world premiere Hells Canyon), and the fourth was by Alice Childress, one of the most prolific Black female playwrights of the 20th Century, who had her Broadway play debut just a few years ago - Trouble in Mind (which the Guthrie produced a few years earlier). Her plays seem to be having a resurgence in recent years, and it's about time. In 2017 Penumbra Theatre Company produced the gorgeous and devastating Wedding Band, and now they're presenting Wine in the Wilderness, about an artist painting Black women in 1960s Harlem. It's a thoughtful and thought-provoking exploration of the intersection of race and gender, as always beautifully done by Penumbra.

"What I Learned in Paris" at Penumbra Theatre

A few months ago, the Guthrie produced a Pearl Cleage play called Blues for an Alabama Sky, a lovely and ultimately tragic story about a group of friends living in 1930s Harlem. Now Penumbra is bringing us her play What I Learned in Paris, about a group of friends living in Atlanta in the '70s. This story is a little lighter, but not without depth. It begins on the night that Maynard Jackson was elected mayor of Atlanta, the first Black mayor in any major Southern city. Our group is filled with hope at the new world this event signals, but also aware that inequality still exists, in the areas of race and gender both. Director Lou Bellamy calls it an "insightful and often provocative romantic comedy," and this co-production with Portland Playhouse is fun to watch, while still exploring important issues that are still relevant nearly 50 years after this historic election. See What I Learned in Paris at Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul's historic Rondo neighborhood now through May 14.

"Thurgood" at Penumbra Theatre Company

Friends, if you want to be reminded of the promise of America, and have a little hope restored that this promise will one day be fulfilled, go see Thurgood at Penumbra Theatre. And you're in luck - after selling out the initial planned run (at limited capacity), they've it extended through April 10. This solo play is such an inspiring look at the icon and the human that was lawyer, activist, and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and what an important role he played in the continued fight for Civil Rights. Though it seems like we've taken a few steps back in that regard lately, with new voter suppression laws and increased hate crimes and violence against Black Americans, and other communities of color, this play reminds us what is possible. And with the recent nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, who would be the first Black female Justice, it couldn't be more timely.

"Pipeline" at Penumbra Theatre

Penumbra Theatre has produced several works by Dominique Morisseau* (including Detroit '67 and Sunset Baby), and is now bringing us one of her newest plays - Pipeline. They're all really powerful plays about the African American experience, and Pipeline deals with racial inequality in our schools, which is a very real problem here in Minnesota. The title refers to the idea that some schools, with their heavy security and overly strict rules, are preparing students of color not for college or careers or life, but for prison (see also Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas). The playwright explores these issues through a specific story of one family, one student trying to navigate the world as a young black man, a world that in many ways was set up to fail him. The result is a really powerful and sobering, sometimes funny, and very human 90 minutes of theater. And it goes without saying that Penumbra's production is all-around excellent.

"The Brothers Paranormal" by Theater Mu and Penumbra Theatre

For the first time in their long and celebrated histories, #TCTheater's African American and Asian American theaters (Penumbra and Mu) are joining forces in the regional premiere of the new play The Brothers Paranormal. In it, an African American couple hires two Thai brothers to investigate some mysterious happenings around their house. The result is a totally captivating thriller that also deals with some pretty serious issues surrounding culture and mental health. It's a play that's both wildly entertaining, and speaks to our world today in a meaningful and thought-provoking way. And as usual with these two theaters, the production is top notch, with an excellent cast and spot on design. Don't miss this historic and fantastic #TCTheater collaboration!

"Black Nativity" at Penumbra Theatre

There truly is no better place to experience the "joyful noise" of the holiday* season than at Penumbra Theatre's annual production of Black Nativity. Despite it being a 30+ year #TCTheater holiday institution, this is only my second time seeing the show. If you've never seen it before, you need to add it to your holiday theater rotation to experience the pure joy radiating from the stage. And if you have seen it before, you know just how heart-warming and life-affirming it is. This 80-minute theater/ music/ dance/ poetry experience continues through December 23, so there's plenty of time to get to St. Paul.

"The Wiz" at the Children's Theatre, a co-production with Penumbra Theatre

"Combining CTC's critical literacy work and Penumbra's racial justice work allows us to forge something together that neither could do alone." These words in the playbill of The Wiz, the first collaboration between these two acclaimed #TCTheater companies, brought tears to my eyes before the show even started. Especially after wading through a sea of children of all shapes, sizes, colors, and creeds. In an increasingly divided world, Penumbra (one of the longest-running and most acclaimed African American theater companies in the nation) and Children's Theatre (ditto for children's theater) give me hope, as individual companies and especially in this collaboration in which an all-black cast tells a story of a young black woman who discovers her own power through the help of friends. They give me hope that maybe we can overcome our seemingly insurmountable differences and join together in song and awesome dance to solve our problems. It's possible, right? Can't you feel a brand new day? Indeed I can.

"Wedding Band" at Penumbra Theatre

I love a good tragic love story, and it doesn't get much more tragic than an interracial couple in 1918 South Carolina. But Penumbra's gorgeous production of the 1966 play Wedding Band by Alice Childress (whose Trouble in Mind was seen at the Guthrie last year) is not just a beautiful, complicated, and ultimately tragic love story. It's also (not unlike Trouble in Mind) a still timely work that speaks to the issues of race, racism, and privilege in ways that feel entirely relevant. With a super talented cast directed by Penumbra's founder Lou Bellamy (who recently passed the Artistic Director baton to his daughter Sarah) and gorgeous design, Wedding Band is a show not to be missed, and my favorite of my five-show weekend.

"Penumbra Theatre at 40: Art, Race and a Nation on Stage" Exhibit at the Minnesota History Center

Penumbra Theatre is celebrating its 40th anniversary with an exhibit at the Minnesota History Center entitled "Penumbra Theatre at 40: Art, Race and a Nation on Stage." I toured the exhibit last weekend with my fellow Twin Cities Theater Bloggers from Artfully Engaging, Compendium, Life in Revue, and One Girl Two Cities, and we had a great time. This comprehensive exhibit tells about the history of Penumbra, its beginnings 40 years ago, its close relationship to one of the most important African American playwrights August Wilson, and its growth to become one of the top African American theaters in the country. On display are posters, playbills, costumes, set pieces, and props, as well as photos of past, present, and departed company members. It's an incredible collection of artifacts important to history, theater, Minnesota, and the African American experience.

"Jitney" at Penumbra Theatre

Jitney is the first play in the so-called "Century Cycle" that August Wilson wrote, but, set in the '70s, it's the 8th in the series chronologically. Each of the ten plays speaks to the African American experience (which I've learned at Penumbra Theatre is really the American experience) in one decade in the 20th Century. This is only the third Century play I've seen, after Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (set in the '20s) and Two Trains Running (the '60s) in 2011. I seem to recall that Penumbra planned to produce one of these plays every year, or maybe every other, but plans were derailed during their financial setback of 2012. I'm happy that they've returned to August Wilson's work during this, their 40th anniversary season. Penumbra has a long history with August Wilson, having produced his first professional play and more of his plays that any other theater. We are privileged to have Penumbra in our community, and I hope that they continue to do the Century plays until I've seen them all. August Wilson wrote such rich characters and specific experiences that speak to the universal truths of friends and family, love and heartbreak. And Penumbra's troupe of actors is experienced and quite brilliant in bringing these stories to life, as they do in Jitney.

"Sunset Baby" at Penumbra Theatre

A year ago Penumbra Theatre presented Dominique Morisseau's play Detroit '67, set during the riots that occurred in that time and place, about a family trying to make a life for themselves amidst the revolution. Her play Sunset Baby follows the next generation, a present day story about a woman born of parents active in the Black Power Movement, and how the sacrifices her parents made affected and continue to affect her. It's a powerful, weighty play, with more layers than I can hope to unwrap in one viewing and a few hundred words. It's brilliantly acted by this three-person cast, and brilliantly directed by Penumbra's Founder and Co-Artistic Director Lou Bellamy, so you should just go see it, be immersed in this very specific and well-defined world created by the playwright and fully brought to life by the cast and creative team, and attempt to unwrap the layers for yourself.

"The Dutchman / The Owl Answers" at Penumbra Theatre

In one of those strange theater-going coincidences, the night after I saw two one-act plays at the Guthrie, I attended opening night of Penumbra's presentation of two one-act plays. Both paired plays by different playwrights linked by a common theme. But unlike the theater comedies The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound, The Dutchman and The Owl Answers are dense and meaty dramas dealing with heavy issues. They might not make you laugh (except, occasionally, uncomfortably), but they will definitely make you think. Written in the '60s as part of the Black Arts Movement, these plays take an unforgiving look at the racism, sexism, and classism of the day, that still have implications in today's world. A stellar ensemble cast and top-notch production design tie the two very different plays together and highlight the playwrights' messages. Though they are not easy to watch and I can't say I understood everything that was going on, I certainly came away with much to chew on, and a greater understanding of our shared history. Which is pretty much a given at Penumbra Theatre.

"Black Nativity" at Penumbra Theatre

Friends, it's been a rough week. With devastating news here at home (the Children's Theatre lawsuit) and around the country (yet another senseless and horrific mass shooting, this time in San Bernadino, CA), on top of all the other painful things we've been dealing with lately, it's almost more than anyone can take. It was under this cloud that I saw Penumbra Theatre's annual production of Black Nativity for the first time. Yes, even though this is their 28th year, I've never seen Black Nativity before. I'm not sure how that happened, but this was the perfect time to first experience this truly joyful celebration. The story, the music, the dancing, the feeling of joy and faith and togetherness in that room, was a balm to my soul and did much to restore my faith in humanity. Maybe in times like this, the first and best response is to "be the light," and let that light lead us into appropriate action to heal the wounds of society and prevent things like what happened this week from happening again (and again and again) in the future.

"By the Way, Meet Vera Stark" at Penumbra Theatre

In By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, now playing at Penumbra Theatre as part of their "Womansong" season, the title character is a black actress in 1930s Hollywood who gets her big break playing a loyal slave in an antebellum Southern melodrama (think Mammy in Gone with the Wind, for which Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to be nominated for and win an Academy Award). She imbues the stereotypical role with as much humanity and depth as possible, and so begins a long and successful career, until she mysteriously disappears from the spotlight. Much like Hattie, who famously said she'd rather play a maid than be one, Vera is a controversial figure because on the one hand her characters perpetuate the stereotypes seen in movies, but on the other hand she makes her characters as real as possible and has built a successful career for herself and opened doors for black actors in Hollywood. The play examines these issues in a funny, entertaining, innovative way, jumping across time and using video of Vera's first movie.

The first act of the play takes place in 1933, where we meet Hollywood starlet Gloria Mitchell and her former Vaudeville partner Vera, who works as her maid while trying to break into pictures (doesn't everyone who lives in Hollywood want to be in pictures?). Gloria is up for a role in The Belle of New Orleans, and Vera is desperate to be cast in it as well. Gloria is too preoccupied with her own life to help her friend, so Vera takes matters into her own hands when the studio head and director come to Gloria's apartment, playing into their stereotypes and getting cast. The second act jumps forward in time 70 years to a seminar about the legacy of Vera Stark in which the panel discusses her life and work while watching clips from the movie (pre-recorded video) and a 1973 talk show appearance (live reenactment) that reunites Gloria and Vera.

Norah Long as Gloria as Marie and Crystal Fox as Vera
as Tilly, in the classic "tightening the corset" scene in
The Belle of New Orleans (photo by Allen Weeks)

The play verges on camp at times as it spoofs old Hollywood and TV talk shows, which is great fun, but still manages to make the characters, especially Vera and her friend Lottie, real and grounded people. This cast is divine, they all play their role(s) to the hilt under the direction of Lou Bellamy. Crystal Fox's Vera is smart and determined, someone it's easy to root for as she goes after her dreams, and then becomes a larger than life version of herself after 40 years in movies. Norah Long is perfection as she plays several different sides of Gloria - the image of a Hollywood starlet that the studio wants her to be, the real person who swears and drinks, the selfish and thoughtless friend, and Gloria's dying Southern belle character in the movie. Greta Oglesby steals every scene she's in as Vera's friend Lottie, especially when she sings her mournful slave song to win a part. Jamila Anderson is fun as Anna Mae, who's trying to pass as Brazilian to win a man and a part, and the modern day tough-talking poet on the panel. This play really is about these four women, but the men are great too - Kevin D. West as Leroy, who befriends Vera and helps her in her quest, Peter Moore as the studio head and the Donahue-like talk show host, and Paul De Cordova as the eccentric director and a trippy '70s British rocker.

The production elements on this play are as divine as the cast. Mathew LeFebvre's gorgeous costumes span the range from glamorous '30s Hollywood, to real working women in that era, to the fabulously colorful '70s, and modern day specific types. C. Lance Brockman's versatile set easily transforms from Gloria's luscious apartment to Vera's working class apartment to a studio back lot with just a change of furniture and the flipping of panels in the walls. A really fun feature of this play is that we actually get to see the movie that's talked about so much. A quite lengthy clip of The Belle of New Orleans is played on a big screen in which the four women play roles in this deliciously melodramatic movie.

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark is a really fun, entertaining, funny, beautiful to look at play on the surface, but on a deeper level says some important, thought-provoking, and relevant things about black actors in Hollywood, then and now. And it's quite timely, coming a few weeks after the announcement of this year's Oscar nominations, which included not only the snub of the film Selma, but the first all-white group of nominated actors since 1998. Hollywood, and we its audience, still have much to learn from Vera Stark (playing through March 1).


This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.

"The Mountaintop" by Penumbra Theatre at the Guthrie Theater

Last Sunday I saw Abe Lincoln and Uncle Tom in the White House in the Guthrie Studio Theater, an imagined conversation between the two men, one real and one imagined, on the night before the historic signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. This Sunday I attended Penumbra's production of The Mountaintop in the Proscenium Theater, another imagined conversation between a real and imagined person on the eve of another important event in the history of Civil Rights. This time that conversation is between Martin Luther King, Jr. and a mysterious woman. It shows us a different side of this great and iconic man, one that's much more human. I found it to be funny, tragic, inspiring, and really beautiful.

As the audience is still filing into the rich red of the Guthrie Proscenium, Martin Luther King, Jr., in the form of the magnificent James T. Alfred, paces around his onstage hotel room, as we get a glimpse into the private time of this very public man. After several minutes, the lights go down and the play begins. Martin calls room service for coffee, which is delivered by the spunky hotel employee Camae (the delightful Erika LaVonn) on her first day on the job. The two embark on a frank and informal conversation, about Civil Rights as well as more mundane topics like cigarettes and style choices. It's soon revealed that Camae is not exactly who she says she is, and the play veers into the fantastical world of the imagination, although still grounded in reality. This play shows us that great leaders are not perfect. They have fears, flaws, and stinky feet, just like the rest of us. But yet they persevere and try to improve the world we live in, despite the personal costs.

This two-person cast, directed by Lou Bellamy, is absolutely captivating. James T. Alfred brings so much humanity and vulnerability to MLK, and he also portrays the commanding dignity of the preacher. Erika LaVonn is a true delight - charming, funny, spirited, and lively. The two of them create a wonderful space in which this inspiring story unfolds.

The Mountaintop judiciously employs some pretty fantastic technical elements of sets, sound, lighting, and video: the perfectly replicated 1960s hotel room, the weather effects of rain, snow, and lighting, Camae's special powers, the stars of the cosmos, and highlights of the last 45 years of history displayed in images on the back of the stage. Without these elements, the play would still be effective, but they make the message even more impactful. (Scenic design by Vicki Smith, lighting design by Don Darnutzer, and sound and video design by Martin Gwinup.)

One theme of the play is that Civil Rights and justice for all is a relay race, and Martin Luther King, Jr. ran just one leg of the race, albeit a pivotal one. This play makes me feel like all of us can and should take up the baton passed to us by MLK and continue his work and the work of so many others. Go see The Mountaintop, playing through April 19 at the Guthrie Theater, for an inspiring new look into the life of this legendary leader.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!*

*Martin Luther King's final speech.

"The Amen Corner" by Penumbra Theatre at the Guthrie

The Amen Corner is another quality production by Penumbra Theatre in conjunction with the Guthrie, featuring great acting, interesting content about our history, and some fabulous gospel music. However, I found it to be a little long at more than three hours including intermission. I'm not used to staying upright and alert until 10:45 pm, so I had a hard time staying awake through the performance. That doesn't necessarily reflect on the quality of the production, but I'm sure I would have gotten more out of it if I had seen a matinee.

Here's what I did get out of it: The Amen Corner tells the story of a female pastor of a church in Harlem in the 1950s. Sister Margaret is also a single mother of an almost-grown son, and everyone assumes that her husband abandoned her. When he shows up on their doorstep, it's revealed that Sister Margaret is the one who left, as a reaction to a personal tragedy, and wanting a better life for herself and her son than she felt they could have with her drunken husband. The so-called elders of the church, who were her biggest supporters, suddenly turn on her at this revelation that she supposedly neglected her family in favor of the church. They use the opportunity to vote her out of the church and appoint a new pastor, a power-hungry Sister Moore. I found them to be judgmental, hypocritical, self-righteous people who did not practice what they preached. I wanted them to forgive Sister Margaret for this little lie, because in all other respects she's a wonderful church leader. But that was not to be, and Sister Margaret had to pay the price for being human.

Some highlights of the show include:

• The fabulous Greta Oglesby as Sister Margaret, singing and preaching and pouring her heart out with her broken family
• Jazz trumpeter Hannibal Lokumbe as the wayward husband who disrupts the family's life in an effort to reconnect with them at the end of his life
• Eric Berryman as the son caught in the middle between his parents, and trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life after being brought up for one thing, and discovering that's not where his heart lies
• Austene Van as Sister Moore, with her subtle barbs at Sister Margaret building up to a complete takeover of the church
• Lots of incredible gospel music (Musical Director Sanford Moore) featuring members of the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church
• A really effective and ingenious set by Vicki Smith, with the church on the upper level and the family apartment below and to the front of the stage, so that you could see the action going on (or not) in both places, with scenes of the city behind and around it

This is a really well-done production featuring several great Penumbra company members and directed by Penumbra Artistic Director Lou Bellamy, one that's definitely worth seeing. I might suggest a matinee if, like me, you're not use to late nights (I should be with as much theater as I see, I guess I'm getting too used to the one-act 90-minute show). The Amen Corner is playing now through June 17 in the Guthrie's Thrust theater. And I'm looking forward to the announcement of Penumbra's next season, to find out which play in August Wilson's ten-play cycle I'll be seeing next!

"I Wish You Love" at Penumbra Theatre

It's not often that you get a second chance to see a production you missed.  Every year at the Ivey Awards I'm presented with several wonderful productions and performances that I didn't see.  I always wish they'd bring back the productions so I could have another chance to see them, and this year my wish came true!  Dennis Spears won an Ivey for his performance as Nat King Cole in I Wish You Love by Penumbra Theatre earlier this year, and after touring with the show in Washington DC and Connecticut, they brought it home to their St. Paul theater for another run (now through Dec. 18).  I'm so glad I had the opportunity to see it.  Not just for Dennis' award-worthy performance, but also because it's another quality, thought-provoking, moving production by Penumbra.  I was lucky enough to attend on a day when there was a post-show discussion led by Education Director Sarah Bellamy, which was, as always, enlightening and illuminating about the topics surrounding the show (if you ever get a chance to go to a talk-back at Penumbra, take it).  The more I see of Penumbra, the more I love them.  Like me, they believe that theater is more than just entertainment.  Theater has the power to start conversations and change the way we view the world.

I Wish You Love is a Penumbra original; written by Dominic Taylor, head of Penumbra's new play development program, and directed by Artistic Director Lou Bellamy, it premiered at Penumbra earlier this year.  The play is a fictionalized account of Nat King Cole's 1957-1958 TV variety show, the first hosted by an African American.  The sponsors were skittish, and Cole ended up putting his own money into the show to keep it on the air.  The play branches off from that and shows us the racism behind the scenes of the show; the network and sponsors didn't want any of the black band members to appear on camera, and Nat received death threats.  The network insisted he go on a national tour to prove his national popularity, ending in his birthplace of Alabama (he grew up in Chicago).  This was during the height of the Civil Rights movement and the violence surrounding it.  Nat and his band were caught up in the violence, which brought a whole new reality to what they were seeing on the news every night.

The scenes in the play cover rehearsals, breaks, and the TV show itself.  Video images are beautifully and effectively woven into the live action on the stage.  When the show goes live, a camera in the back of the theater videotapes what's going on onstage, which is simultaneously broadcast on several black and white TVs hanging over the stage.  It feels like we're at a live taping of "The Nat King Cole Show," complete with "Applause" signs and vintage commercials that come on during the breaks.  We also get news reports of the growing violence in the South and see real news footage projected onto the screens.  It's quite a contrast between the smooth, pretty music in the TV studio and people being beaten on the streets in the news footage.

I'm not that familiar with Nat's music (other than his Christmas album and his posthumous duet with his daughter Natalie), but I've been watching some videos of him on youtube, and Dennis Spears seems to have captured his mannerisms, his voice, and his spirit.  You see two Nat King Coles in I Wish You Love - the smiling public face, and the behind the scenes real man who is frustrated with the sponsors and the network.  As soon as the countdown to live TV begins (five, four, three, two....), Nat puts on his million dollar smile and speaks to the camera, and to his audience watching at home.  And then he sings in that familiar velvet voice (musical direction by Sanford Moore).  As soon as the cameras are turned off, reality sets in and he lights up a cigarette (Nat died of lung cancer at the age of 45) as he interacts with his band or the producer.  Nat's band members (inspired by his real life trio) are played by the always great Kevin D. West as the bass player and long-time friend of Nat's, and newcomer to the Twin Cities theater scene Eric Berryman as the young guitar player Nat takes under his wing.  We learn more about Nat and his life and goals through the stories, jokes, and pain he shares with his friends.  The show's producer, who does the best he can for Nat within the restrictions placed upon him, is played by Michael Tezla (my co-star from A Serious Man).

In what turned out to be a fascinating and completely unplanned but somehow serendipitous pairing of theater, I saw the Chanhassen's production of Hairspray the same weekend that I saw I Wish You Love.  Both shows are set in a similar time period and deal with segregation.  Both explore the use of TV and music to help break down the barriers between the races, but in very different ways.  Hairspray is a fairly simplified version of events, in which everyone ends up happily and peacefully dancing together, and it's a white girl who leads the way.  I Wish You Love is a much more realistic view (we see several violent images that are hard to look at) of the struggles of African Americans that continue to this day.  There is no happy ending for Nat King Cole, just continued struggle, and progress mixed with setbacks.  Both shows deal with an important and unpleasant part of our history that really wasn't all that long ago.  I found that they complemented each other nicely, one a "fairy tale," and one a very real tale of one man trying to make a difference just by his very presence in American living rooms across the country through the power of television.

"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" by Penumbra Theatre at the Guthrie

August Wilson wrote ten plays about the African-American experience, each covering one decade in the 20th century.  He lived in St. Paul for over ten years and worked closely with Penumbra Theatre, which has produced more of his plays than any other theater in the world, including several world premieres.  They're currently doing Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at the Guthrie, directed by Penumbra Artistic Director Lou Bellamy.  Set in Chicago in the 1920s, Ma Rainey is a fictional account of a recording session of the real life blues singer of the same name.  But it's really about so much more than that.  The way Wilson weaves in themes of racism and history and unspeakable horror along with an entertaining and humorous story is just remarkable.  After the show there was a discussion let by Penumbra Education Director Sarah Bellamy and two experts on race relations, Herbert A. Perkins and Elona Street-Stewart.  The discussion was much more profound and insightful than anything I could say!

Everyone in this cast is amazing in their roles.  Ma Rainey is played by Jevetta Steele of the fabulous local singing family The Steeles.  Ma is what some might call a "diva."  But really, she's a woman who knows what she wants and knows that her power is limited.  Before her voice is recorded, while there's something that she has that the studio owner and her manager still want, she is able to exert some power over her situation.  But as soon as the recording is done and she's signed the release, they don't need her anymore and she's nothing to them.  The four-member band is comprised of Cutler (James Craven), the leader who speaks in rapid-fire words that reminded me of Tommy Lee Jones; Toledo (Abdul Salaam El Razzac), the wise and book-reading piano player; Slow Drag (William John Hall, Jr.), the easy-going bass player; and Levee (James T. Alfred) a young man who has dreams and ambitions of his own.  He wants to play his own arrangements and improvisations, which does not go over well with Ma.  Much of the play is these four men talking and joking with each other.  Their characters are so specific and interesting that it's a pleasure to listen to them go on about nothing, but also difficult at times when we catch glimpses of the pain that's behind it all.

The recording session hits a few rough patches.  Ma wants her stuttering nephew Sylvester (Ahanti Young) to record an intro to one of the songs, and it's just heart-breaking to listen to him struggle with the words until he gets it right.  Ma's glamorous girl Dussie Mae (Lerea Carter) flirts with Levee, spurring Ma on to jealousy.  All the while the studio owner Sturdyvant (played by Michael Tezla, my costar from A Serious Man), watches from the office above while Ma's manager Irvin (Phil Kilbourne) acts as a go-between, making sure everyone is happy and gets what they want.  Eventually the songs are recorded satisfactorally and Ma and her entourage leave the studio.  The band is left behind to pack up their things.  Levee gives Sturdyvant some songs that he wrote, hoping to record them with his own band.  Instead, Sturdyvant gives him five dollars for each song and sends him on his way.  Levee is devastated, and takes his anger and disappointment out on one of the other band members in a tragic ending to the play.  It's an ending that's been bubbling up throughout the course of the play, almost as if it were inevitable.  Which doesn't make it any less shocking.

There's so much that needs to be said about this play, and I don't even know where to begin.  I guess I'll close by saying: if you have the chance to see an August Wilson play, take it.  Obviously I don't know a whole lot about what it means to be a person of color in this country.  But I feel like after watching an August Wilson play, I understand a little bit more of our shared history.  I'm making it a goal to see all ten plays in the cycle at some point in my lifetime.  One down, nine to go.