DATE/TIME:
Saturday, December 7, 2024 at 7:00 PM
Sunday, December 8, 2024 at 2:30 PM
PRESENTED BY:
Athens Area Paine College Club and Collaborators
ADMISSION:
$30 (Advance)
$35 (At door)
Groups 10+ please call the Morton Theatre Box Office at 706-613-3770.
DESCRIPTION:
Set in a boarding house in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1911, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, examines the experiences of freed African Americans during the early stages of the Great Migration to the North as they navigate their search for identity while facing racism and discrimination. The Tony Award-nominated play is the second in the 10-part series collectively called The Pittsburgh Cycle (or The Century Cycle). Directed by N.L. Starr, this local performance is produced by the Etheridge Arts Ensemble and New African Grove Theatre Company of Atlanta, in collaboration with the Athens Area Paine College Alumni Club, WXAG, Athens Downtown Development Authority, Economic Justice Coalition and other community partners. First performed by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Conn., the play premiered on Broadway on March 27, 1988.
Referred to as the “theater's poet of Black America,” Wilson is best known for The Pittsburgh Cycle (or The Century Cycle), which documents the rich history and cultural experiences of the African American community in the 20th century. Plays in the series include “Fences” (1987) and “The Piano Lesson” (1990), both of which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as “Ma Rainey's Black Bottom” (1984) and “Two Trains Running” (1990). Wilson was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2006. Starr has acted in and directed a number of plays at the Morton Theatre over three decades, including Wilson’s “Two Trains Running,” “Fences,” “The Piano Lesson” and “Jitney,” as well as Lorraine Hansberry‘s “A Raisin in the Sun” and Pearl Cleage's “Flyin‘ West.”
Net proceeds from the event will benefit Paine College, a Historically Black College (HBCU) in Augusta, Ga. The college’s principal founder in 1882 was Lucius Henry Holsey who spent much of his youth in Athens—the enslaved “property” of a University of Georgia professor.
After facing challenging times like many HBCUs, thanks to U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Paine College recently received $2.2 million from the National Park Service to help preserve historic buildings on campus.
CONNECT:
Facebook: Athens’ Area Paine College Club
CONTACT:
Fred Smith
EMAIL:
fsmithathens@gmail.com.
