Contact Us
American Players Theatre
5950 Golf Course Road
P.O. Box 819
Spring Green, WI 53588
(Map)
Box Office: 608-588-2361
Administration: 608-588-7401
Fax: 608-588-7085
American Players Theatre
5950 Golf Course Road
P.O. Box 819
Spring Green, WI 53588
(Map)
Box Office: 608-588-2361
Administration: 608-588-7401
Fax: 608-588-7085
The Power and Poetry of the Blues
Ma Rainey sings with the voice of the rural, Black south; her flashy persona and ravaging blues a conduit and a salve for the joy and pain of generations. But the musical winds are ever-shifting, and brash trumpeter, Levee, burns for a more progressive sound – whatever the cost may be. Another great American Classic from August Wilson – a poet whose superpower is revealing the beauty in the everyday, peeling back the veneer to reveal a human condition that binds us all together. A powerhouse play with powerhouse performances ringing out from the Hill Theatre. Do not miss it. Running June 21 - September 7.
Featuring Greta Oglesby, Nathan Barlow, Bryant Louis Bentley, Sydney Lolita Cusic, David Daniel, Chiké Johnson, Brian Mani, Lester Purry
Contains adult themes & language.
Summary
August Wilson returns to the Hill for a second play in The American Century Cycle. It’s Chicago in the roaring 20s, and blues legend Ma Rainey is at the apex of the industry, her gritty style and bawdy blues disrupting the broadly popular music of the day; her music a gift and catharsis to generations of enslaved and newly freed Black Americans. As Ma and her entourage are delayed on the way to cut her new album, her band – trumpeter Levee, bassist Slow Drag, pianist Toledo and trombonist Cutler - gets to talking about their pasts and futures. Levee is an ambitious and talented young man, with a fraught history and a progressive new sound that may not mesh with Ma’s version of the Blues. As the band bides time, Levee’s frustration grows, leading to conflicts with Ma and unsteady deals with the white producers that may threaten everything.
Casting subject to change.
August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.