After an exciting fall semester of main stage plays that included She Kills Monsters and Much Ado About Nothing, UP Stages is back with spring semester offerings that will challenge and uplift their audiences.
First up is Flyin’ West by Pearl Cleage, scheduled to run from Thursday, February 14, 2019 to Sunday, February 24, 2019 in the Henry Heymann Theatre.
Pearl Cleage is an Atlanta-based writer of plays, fiction, and non-fiction. Her plays explore unique African American experiences unblinkingly and unapologetically. They are strongly female-centric. Cleage’s plays deal with the big issues of racism, sexism, a woman’s right to choose, and economic inequities, through the lens of individual experiences, tiny moments, and intimate relationships.
First produced in 1992 by The Alliance Theatre of Atlanta, Flyin’ West is set in 1898 in the historic town of Nicodemus, Kansas, one of the first African American towns founded as a result of post-Civil War migration out of the South. In Flyin’ West, we meet a small group of homesteaders and walk with them through the daily challenges of life on the plains.*
UP Stages’ production will feature guest artist Roxie Robinson as the oldest and toughest member of the Nicodemus homesteading community, Miss Leah. Pittsburgh audiences will remember Ms. Robinson from her recent performance as Ma Rainey in Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company’s fall 2018 production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Department of Theater Arts Lecturer and resident costume designer KJ Gilmer will direct the production. Ms. Gilmer is a winner of the African American Council of the Arts Award for Best Costume Designer for August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, produced by Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. She previously directed Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage for UP Stages.
On her choice of Flyn’ West, Ms. Gilmer notes, “I read Ms. Cleage’s novels before I read her plays. Her characters are so warm and alive….This play speaks to the strength and resilience of African American women after the Civil War who had little to no opportunity for upward advancement economically and socially. Settling the west, these brave women built towns, started and ran businesses and farms, which contributed to the dream of home ownership, liberty and profitable self support.”
Ms. Gilmer goes on to explain why Flyn’ West resonates with her. “This a touching play that also addresses the importance of first account storytelling that discuss the ancestry and legacy of slavery coming from those that lived it and those that were born after it.”
Ms. Gilmer’s student design team will include set designer Jessica Fitzpatrick, lighting designer Devyn King, sound designer Nick DePinto, and projection designer Thomas Bednarz.
*(Trigger warning for spousal abuse.)
Sondheim favorite Into the Woods (book by James Lapine, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) will round out the UP Stages main stage season.
A mash-up of multiple fairy tales told with the uniquely ironic wit of Stephen Sondheim, Into the Woods follows the adventures of a Baker and his Wife, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack (and the beanstalk and his cow), Prince Charming, and the other Prince Charming as they all get lost in the woods while seeking their hearts’ desires and come out the other end changed by their experiences. Our heroes have to battle a Witch, a Wolf, a Giant, and, scariest of all, their own conceits, as they seek happiness that isn’t quite a story book ending.
Stage director Niffer Clarke elucidates her take on the show. “To me, the journey is from a me story (i.e. the characters in Act One are focused on “what I want”) to an awareness of interdependence. From uncomplicated idealized untruths and a “happily ever after” core belief to life’s authentic complicated truths. In life, we all head out into the woods, not knowing what we’ll face. It is in those unknowns that we make choices. Those choices have consequences. To me, Into the Woods isn’t a ‘be careful what you wish for’ tale. Wishes, wants and intentions are necessary and crucial to living fully. It’s when we make those choices without being aware of how they affect others (because “No One is Alone”) that we end up with Giants that threaten us.”
Performances of Into the Woods run from Thursday, April 4, 2019 to Sunday, April 14, 2019 in The Charity Randall Theatre.
In addition to UP Stages’ main stage season, the department’s student-led lab series for the spring will include:
LAB 3
“Woyzeck”
Written by Georg Buchner
Translation and Adaptation by Nicholas Rudall
Directed by Christopher Staley
February 6 – 10, 2019
The Richard E. Rauh Studio Theatre
LAB 4
“Antigone”
Written by Sophocles
Play by Jean Anouilh
Adapted by Lewis Galantiere
Directed by Luke Pomrenke
April 10 – 14, 2019
The Richard E. Rauh Studio Theatre
For information about the UP Stages and the University of Pittsburgh Department of Theatre Arts, please visit www.play.pitt.edu.
Helen Meade got her first theater job at age 17. Over the many intervening years she has worked professionally as an actor, singer, director, producer, administrator, production manager, stage manager, lighting designer, technician, fundraiser, and board member. Through it all, one thing has always remained true: Helen loves live theater. Some of her favorite projects include her educational adaptation, Supernatural Shakespeare, for Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Arts Education Department, directing Romeo and Juliet for PSIP, and directing the world premiere of composer Jeremy Beck’s The Biddle Boys and Mrs. Soffel for Tuesday Musical Club.
Categories: Feature