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by Lynn Nottage
ITC PRESENTS DRAMA BY RECENT
PULITZER WINNER
The Illinois Theatre Center of Park Forest will honor
Black History Month with their presentation of CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF
JOY, by 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage. The
production runs January 29 through February 14.
CRUMBS
FROM THE TABLE OF JOY is set in Brooklyn in 1950, where Godfrey Crumb,
recently widowed, has moved from Florida with his two teenaged
daughters. Godfrey is deeply religious - a follower of the influential
evangelist, Father Divine. His daughters are more impressed by their
activist Aunt Lily, who introduces them to civil rights, the women's
movement, and other "progressive" issues. The family becomes further
fractured when Godfrey marries a white woman - a recent immigrant from
Germany. Through it all, they struggle to maintain peace in the family.
The New
York Post described this unique theatre piece this way: "Imagine a
pairing between Tennessee Williams and Lorraine Hansberry - a glass
menagerie in the sun... a small window into the past - and this almost
voyeuristic view is worth attention."
Playwright Lynn Nottage was born in Brooklyn in
1964. She attended New York City's High School of Music and Art. She is
a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama. Her plays
include CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY (1995), LAS MENINAS (2002),
INTIMATE APPAREL (2003), FABULATION, OR THE RE-EDUCATION OF UNDINE
(2004), and RUINED (2008). She is the recipient of numerous awards
including the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for RUINED.
Making their ITC debuts are Ethan Henry as Godfrey,
with Vallea E. Woodbury and Kona N. Burks as his daughters. ITC veteran
Makeba Pace is Aunt Lily, and Amanda-Claire Lowe is Gerte. The
production is directed by Etel Billig.
CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY runs from Friday,
January 29 through Sunday, February 14. Performances are Wed. through
Fri. evenings at 8 PM, and Sundays at 2:30 & 7:30 PM. Tickets are
priced at $21 on Fri. & Sat., $19 at all other times. The Illinois
Theatre Center is located in Downtown Park Forest at 371 Artists Walk
(off Indianwood Blvd., adjacent to Village Hall). For tickets, call
708-481-3510.
Jan. 29 to Feb. 14, 2010 |
