Blues for an Alabama Sky

By PEARL CLEAGE
Directed by CANDIS C. JONES

JULY 18–AUGUST 5

Boyd-Quinson Stage
30 Union Street, Pittsfield, MA

Angel and her chosen family of artists and activists contend with sacrifice, luck and dreaming during the Harlem Renaissance.

FREE ARTISTIC EVENTS

Aftershows

FREE Discussion with purchase of a ticket for that night’s performance.

Stick around after the show for a discussion of the play, its themes and its relation to our community; featuring select cast and creative team. Purchase your tickets by clicking the desired date below.

Blues for an Alabama Sky — July 26 at 7:00pm | August 2 at 7:00pm

Deeper Looks

FREE DISCUSSION — “Historical Harlem on Stage”

Join us for a moderated discussion with Dr. Gretchen Long, Professor of History at Williams College and Blues for an Alabama Sky actor Tsilala Brock exploring the cultural transition from the height of the Harlem Renaissance to the Great Depression and how it impacted the Black community. Gain cultural context about the period and a deeper understanding of how the themes of this story resonate almost 100 years after it’s set.

Blues for an Alabama Sky — July 22 at 11am, Boyd-Quinson Stage

Beyond the Play: A Reading List Inspired by Blues for an Alabama Sky

Recommended by and on display at

The Bookstore

11 Housatonic Street, Lenox, MA | 413.637.3390 | bookstoreinlenox.com

HOURS: 10am–6pm Monday–Saturday; 10am–4pm Sunday

The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader ed. by David Levering Lewis

A collection of some of the most important writers of the time, including poetry and prose from Sterling Brown, Countee Cullen, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson and many others.

When Harlem Was In Vogue by David Levering Lewis

This historical look at Harlem in the 1920s explores the excitement of a time full of great art and great hope for Black Americans in New York and beyond.

Selected Poems by Langston Hughes

Revered by the characters in Blues…, poet Langston Hughes explores the Black experience in America through his poetry. This collection contains some of his most powerful work.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

One of the most well-known pieces of literature, this Southern love story, led by a strong Black female protagonist, showcases Hurston’s insightful talent and voice that led an era.

Zora and Langston by Yuval Taylor

Two bright lights in the Harlem Renaissance, writers Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were good friends and collaborators, until tensions arose and their relationship changed forever. Unpack their volatile dynamic in this deep dive of their complex relationship.

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson

This fictional story centers on a young biracial man, referred to only as the “Ex-Colored Man,” living in post Reconstruction era America. An insightful exploration of race, told through the lens of the main character’s connection to both his Black heritage and his white privilege.

God’s Trombones by James Weldon Johnson

Written by one the Harlem Renaissance legends, Weldon Johnson takes inspirational sermons of African American preachers and reimagines them as poetry, using the musicality and heightened language of the spirituals to inform his writing.

CAST & CREATIVE

CAST

Brandon Alvión (Guy Jacobs) BSC Debut. Select theater: A Soldier’s Play, The Color Purple (National Tour), The Mountaintop (Hope Rep), Chicken & Biscuits (Virginia Rep), The Little Prince (Flint Rep). Film: Groom Lake (2019). MFA in Acting (Wayne State Univ). Rep: Hell’s Kitchen Agency. @iactwright

Tsilala Brock (Angel Allen) BSC Debut. Last spring Tsilala originated the role of Dudley Malone in the world premiere production of Suffs at The Public. Other theater: The Book of Mormon (2nd National Tour), Parable of the Sower (The Public), Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Swing (Cincinnati Playhouse/St. Louis Repertory). Film and television: Mysteries of Laura, Happyish, Broad City. Cheers to Saks and KMR. For Mommy and Aunt Merle. Carnegie Mellon Grad. @TsilalaBrock

DeLeon Dallas (Leland Cunnigham) BSC Debut. Theater: To The Yellow House (La Jolla Playhouse). Film and television: The Inheritance, New Amsterdam, Power Book III: Raising Kanan and The Blacklist. MFA in Acting, UC San Diego. @deleonddallas

Ryan George (Dr. Sam Thomas) BSC Debut. Theater: The Liar (Arvada Center), The Brothers Size (Gablestage), The Play That Goes Wrong (Repertory Theater of St. Louis), Midwives (George Street Playhouse), The Royale, The Tempest (Hippodrome Theater). Film and television: Law & Order: SVU. BFA in Theater Performance (University of Florida). Iamryangeorge.com

Jasminn Johnson (Delia Patterson) BSC Debut. Theater: Ain’t No Mo (Broadway), Freedom Rider (Crossroads Theater), King Lear (New York Classical Theater), Blues for an Alabama Sky (Keen Company), Twelfth Night (Shakespeare on The Sound). Film and television: The Equalizer and The Politician. She is a proud graduate of The Juilliard School where she also directs and teaches. Endless gratitude to her family, friends, students and mentors.

CREATIVE TEAM

PEARL CLEAGE (Playwright) is an Atlanta-based writer whose plays include Pointing at the Moon, What I Learned in Paris, Flyin’ West, Blues for an Alabama Sky and Bourbon at the Border, commissioned and directed by Kenny Leon at the Alliance Theatre. She is also the author of A Song for Coretta, written in 2007 during Cleage’s time as Cosby Professor in Women’s Studies at Spelman College. Her play, The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years, was commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and premiered in 2010, in a joint production by the ASF and Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, directed by Susan Booth. Her plays have also been performed at Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Huntington Theatre, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Long Wharf Theatre, Just US Theatre, True Colors Theatre, Bushfire Theatre, the Intiman Theatre, St. Louis Black Repertory Company and Seven Stages. She is also an accomplished performance artist, often working in collaboration with her husband, writer Zaron W. Burnett, Jr. They have performed at the National Black Arts Festival, the National Black Theatre Festival and colleges and universities across the country. Cleage and Burnett also collaborated with performance artists Idris Ackamoor and Rhodessa Jones on the script for The Love Project, which premiered at the National Black Theatre Festival in 2008, and is currently touring the country. Cleage is also an accomplished novelist. Her novels include What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, a New York Times bestseller and an Oprah Book Club selection, I Wish I Had a Red Dress, Some Things I Never Thought I’d Do, Babylon Sisters, Baby Brother’s Blues, Seen It All and Done the Rest and Till You Hear from Me. She is also the author of Mad at Miles: A Blackwoman’s Guide to Truth, a groundbreaking work of race and gender, and “We Speak Your Names,” a praise poem commissioned by Oprah Winfrey for her 2005 celebration of legendary African American women and written in collaboration with Zaron Burnett. Cleage has also written for magazines, including Essence, Vibe, Rap Pages and Ms. In addition to her work as the founding editor of Catalyst magazine, a literary journal, she was a regular columnist for the Atlanta Tribune for ten years, winning many awards for her thought-provoking columns. She has also written for TheDefendersOnLine.com. Cleage has been awarded grants in support of her work from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulton County Arts Council, the Georgia Council on the Arts, the Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs and the Coca-Cola Foundation. Her work has earned her many awards and honors, including an NAACP Image Award for fiction in 2008. Pearl Cleage is represented by Ron Gwiazda at Abrams Artists Agency in New York City. Her website is PearlCleage.net. She also maintains a Facebook fan page.

CANDIS C. JONES (Director) BSC Debut. Theater: Clyde’s (Studio Theater), shadow/land, cullud wattah (The Public), Unf*kwithable (Old Globe), School Girls… (Cincinnati Playhouse), My Name is Beatrice (Atlantic Theater MixFest), Detroit ‘67 (D.C. Signature), The Black Radical Imagination (Williamstown), 53% Of (Alliance Theater), B*tch (Page73), Everybody (NYU), House of the Negro Insane (Bay Area Playwrights Festival), Pipeline (Detroit Public Theater), Nike (A.C.T.), The Wolves (American Academy), Brother Rabbit (New Black Fest), Name Calling (Kennedy Center), Morning in America (Primary Stages), TEMBO! (Zanzibar International Film Fest). 2016 Lilly Award winner, WP Theater Lab member 2018–2020, Drama League Alum, Duke Ellington School of the Arts Alum. BFA in Directing, NYU Tisch School of Drama.

Sydney Lynne (Scenic Designer) BSC Debut. Theater: Good People (Maltz Jupiter Theater), How to Catch Creation (Geva Theater Center), Dino! (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), cullud wattah (Victory Gardens Theater), What To Send Up When It Goes Down (Lookingglass Theater + Congo Square Theater). BFA Northwestern University (Theatrical Design). @sydneylynnedesign / Sydneylynnedesign.com

Danielle Preston (Costume Designer) BSC Debut. Theater: Passing Strange (Signature Theatre), Clyde’s, P.Y.G. The Misedumacation of Dorian Belle (Studio Theatre); A Nice Indian Boy, The Joy That Carries You (Olney Theatre Center); One Jewish Boy, Roz & Ray, The Christians (Theater J); Locomotion (Children’s Theatre Company), Schoolgirls; Or the African Mean Girls Play, The Realness (Hangar Theatre Company); B.R.O.K.E.N. Code B.I.R.D. Switching (Berkshire Theatre Group), The Till Trilogy (Mosaic Theater Company), Where Words Once Were (Lincoln Center). MFA in Costume Design (North Carolina School of the Arts)
@danielleprestondesign www.daniellepreston.com

Adam Honoré (Lighting Designer) BSC Debut. Broadway: Purlie Victorious, Ain’t No Mo’, Chicken & Biscuits. Select Off Broadway: Black Odyssey, A Man of No Importance, Carmen Jones (Classic Stage Company); Flex (Lincoln Center), This Land Was Made (Vineyard), Patience (Second Stage), Ain’t No Mo’ (The Public). Nominations: Drama Desk, Elliot Norton, Henry Hewes, Helen Hayes.
@itsadamhonore

Fabian Obispo (Sound Designer) BSC: ABCD, American Underground, The Chinese Lady (Berkie Award). Off Broadway: Out of Time, Sea Wall/A Life, Oedipus El Rey, Teenage Dick, The Chinese Lady (Lucille Lortel Nomination). Regional: Angels in America, Agamemnon and His Daughters (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes nomination), Black Starline (Goodman Theatre), Black No More (Guthrie Theater), Bina’s Six Apples (Alliance Theater), Tiger Style! (South Coast Repertory), The Life of Galileo (Cleveland Play House), Julius Caesar (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Ah, Wilderness! (Cincinnati Playhouse), A Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare Theatre Company). Film and television: Vancouver (Original Score), 20 Years of Asian American Playwriting (Original Music, PBS Documentary).

Earon Chew Nealey (Hair, Wig & Makeup Designer) BSC Debut. Broadway: Fat Ham (Assistant Designer), Macbeth, Chicken & Biscuits, Sweat. The Public: shadow/land, The Harder They Come, Baldwin & Buckley…, Fat Ham, cullud wattah, Mojada. Other design: Dames at Sea, Kinky Boots, The Last Supper, Twelfth Night, On Killing, Little Girl Blue, …Meet Vera Stark, Matilda, On Sugarland, Nina Simone: Four Women, Little Women, Cadillac Crew. @earonnealey

Hope Villanueva (Production Stage Manager) BSC Debut. Theater: Who’s Your Baghdaddy? (Off Broadway); Rock of Ages, My Fair Lady, Ringling Bros. Bellobration (National Tours); The Day You Begin (Kennedy Center TYA); Rock of Ages Hollywood (The Bourbon Room); WILD: A Musical Becoming (ART); BLKS (Woolly Mammoth);Twist Your Dickens (Second City/Kennedy Center); Hand to God, Choir Boy (Studio Theatre); Our Town, A Nice Indian Boy (Olney Theatre Center); Little Shop of Horrors (Idaho Shakespeare); The Vagrant Trilogy, Paper Dolls, Queens Girl in Africa (Mosaic Theatre).

Merit Glover he/him (Assistant Stage Manager) BSC: 10×10 2023. Theater: Stones In His Pockets, It Came From Outer Space, Tiger Style!, Marie & Rosetta (TheatreSquared); Primating, Marie & Rosetta, Million Dollar Quartet (Arkansas Repertory Theater); Sojourner, A Little Princess (Quintessence Theatre Group); Charlotte’s Web (Flat Rock Playhouse). BA Case Western Reserve University (Theatre Arts & Spanish).

McCorkle Casting: Pat McCorkle, CSA; Rebecca Weiss, CSA (Casting) Casting actors for Barrington Stage for 21 years. Pat McCorkle is pleased to be an Associate Artist at BSC. Broadway: Over 50 productions including On the Town, Amazing Grace, End of the Rainbow, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, She Loves Me, A Few Good Men. Off Broadway highlights: Clever Little Lies; Sheer Madness; Tribes; Our Town (Barrow Street); Freud’s Last Session; Toxic Avenger; Almost, Maine; Driving Miss Daisy. Feature film: Premium Rush, Ghost Town, The Thomas Crown Affair, Die Hard with a Vengeance, School Ties, etc. Television: Twisted, St. George, Sesame Street, Hack, Californication, Max Bickford, Chappelle’s Show, Strangers with Candy, Barbershop, etc. mccorklecasting.com

CHARLIE SIEDENBURG (Berkshires Press Representative), Associate Artist (19^th Season), joined the BSC family in 2005 and has represented over 150 BSC productions. His work has led to features in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Associated Press and American Theatre Magazine. His many PR credits include the Metropolitan Opera (Live in HD), Paper Mill Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Goodspeed Musicals, Long Wharf Theatre, Surflight Theatre and Two River Theater Company. He serves as Press Rep for Wagner College Theatre, The Minty Awards, Ghostlight Productions and Forestburgh Playhouse. Charlie is a 1995 Theatre/Arts Administration graduate of Wagner College on Staten Island, where he currently teaches Theatre Appreciation. In 2021, he received a Berkshire Theatre Critics Association Special Award for Exceptional Support of Arts Journalism in the Berkshires.

THE PRESS ROOM (National Press Representatives) Broadway: Hamilton, The Book of Mormon, Prima Facie. Off Broadway: Blue Man Group, Death Drop, The Fears. Upcoming: Female Troubles, Personality: The Lloyd Price Musical, A Wonderful World. Recent credits: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, Paradise Square, The Waverly Gallery, Three Tall Women, Farinelli and the King. Clients include: The Acting Company, Drama Book Shop, Hershey Felder, Hunter Theater Project, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, New York Classical Theatre, Ogunquit Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Rosie’s Theater Kids, Shakespeare’s Globe, Theatre Row, Vineyard Theatre, The Wooster Group.