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The Francis Marion
University Theatre's 2016-17 season will begin with Blues for an Alabama Sky.
THE
STORY: It is the summer of 1930 in Harlem, New York. The creative
euphoria of the Harlem Renaissance has given way to the harsher
realities of the Great Depression. Young Reverend Adam Clayton Powell,
Jr., is feeding the hungry and preaching an activist gospel at
Abyssinian Baptist Church. Black Nationalist visionary Marcus Garvey
has been discredited and deported. Birth control pioneer Margaret
Sanger is opening a new family planning clinic on 126th Street, and the
doctors at Harlem Hospital are scrambling to care for a population
whose most deadly disease is poverty. The play brings together a rich
cast of characters who reflect the conflicting currents of the time
through their overlapping personalities and politics. Set in the Harlem
apartment of Guy, a popular costume designer, and his friend, Angel, a
recently fired Cotton Club back-up singer, the cast also includes Sam,
a hard-working, jazz-loving doctor at Harlem Hospital; Delia, an
equally dedicated member of the staff at the Sanger clinic; and Leland,
a recent transplant from Tuskegee, who sees in Angel a memory of lost
love and a reminder of those "Alabama skies where the stars are so
thick it's bright as day." Invoking the image of African-American
expatriate extraordinaire, Josephine Baker as both muse and myth,
Cleage's characters struggle, as Guy says, "to look beyond 125th
Street" for the fulfillment of their dreams.
CAST
Delia
Sam
Angel
Guy
Leland |
Jazsmin Smith
Malcolm Parker
Arlene Upshur
Eric Squirewell, Jr.
Lahim Ballard
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RESERVATIONS: Due
to recent weather and the closing of the University, we will not be
taking reservations in our normal manner. The box office will open at
6:30 pm each evening and you may pick up a ticket for an assigned seat
at that time. There is no cost for tickets.
The Francis Marion University Theatre's 2016-2017's winter production will be Blue Bird, a new play by Liza Lentini, directed by professor L. Dawn Larsen. The spring production will be Always a Bridesmaid
by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, directed by professor A. Glen Gourley.
For additional
information contact Director of Theatre
professor Glen
Gourley in FAC 224,
661-1538, agourley@fmarion.edu.
Interested in
working "behind the scenes"? Contact Mr.
Granath in FAC 222, 661-1536, dgranath@fmarion.edu.
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